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Green Choices: Produce Buyer's Guide

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Local label: What does that mean?

At the farmers’ market, or the supermarket, what do those labels mean?

By Kimberly Lord Stewart, EatingWell March/April 2008

The greenest choice for produce? Grow your own or buy organic produce from local farmers. It’s good for your local economy, not to mention fresher and better tasting. Much of the fresh produce you’ll find in a typical grocery store has been picked before it is ripe, then shipped a long distance which gives it less time to develop a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals. Even if they seem ripe these vegetables will never have the same nutritive value as if they had been allowed to fully ripen on the vine. In addition, during the long haul from farm to fork, fresh fruits and vegetables are exposed to lots of heat and light, which degrade some nutrients, especially delicate ones like vitamin C and the B vitamin thiamin.

And then there are pesticides to consider. According to the USDA’s pesticide data program, imported fruits and vegetables often have higher residual pesticide levels than domestically grown produce. So the best thing to do when vegetables are in season is to buy them fresh and ripe, and as close to home as possible. If you can’t do that, consider choosing foods with the following labels:

Local

• Health benefits: Locally grown foods are often picked when they are riper (since they take less time to travel to market) and can be richer in nutrients because of this. 
  
• Eco-benefits: Buying locally can conserve fuel that would be used to transport food long distances. According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State (www.leopold.iastate.edu), if Iowans purchased only 10 percent more of their food from within their home states, it would result in as much as a 7.9 million pound reduction in carbon emissions annually. However, research out of the UK and New Zealand suggests that, in some cases, imported foods may be kinder to the environment because they originate in countries that use simpler farming methods (think: ox cart versus a tractor) or more fuel-efficient transportation systems.
• Is it regulated? No.
• Keep in mind: “Local” doesn’t necessarily mean a farm is small, organic or sustainable.

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More produce labels

• Certified Organic
• Biodynamic

Learn more

• Organic—or Not?
• Green Choices Buyer's Guide for Meat and Poultry

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