Why Buy Food Locally?

Recently, a fish farm that supply national supermarkets was fined and fish recalled when it was discovered that the fish were being fed recalled dog food. So what is not good enough for your dog to eat ends up becoming the building blocks that create you?! Terrific.

90% of the products in supermarkets come in some kind of container and in order to preserve the way they look for longer and so that you will buy them, they are loaded with preservatives (chemicals that kill bacteria). The other 10% of edible foods, fish, meat and dairy can also be put through some very unnatural steps to keep them looking fresh! For example Tesco gets to choose the colour of their ‘fresh’ salmon fillets before they are dyed!!

Imported foods have to be transported and in the process of getting them from field, farm, or some far and distant ocean to your plate, your food is exposed to a chemical mix that includes fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides (to kill the bugs that might compete for the food), hormones (to fatten animals faster or make them produce more milk), and antibiotics (to prevent animals with weak immune systems from getting infected). It goes through invisible processes like radiation (X-raying to eliminate bacteria, which also kills nutrients), pasteurization (extreme heat to kill pathogens—along with helpful enzymes), hydrogenation (altering fats and oils to make them shelf stable, a condition that harms your own cells when you eat them), and even cosmetic procedures like waxing (to make the fruits look nicer in the supermarket).

As a test that I do at home, buy two chickens, one free range and one of those cheap ready done ones from the supermarket. Now when you take the meat from them look at how easily the bones break on the ready cooked one. This is because they very rarely get to stand up, never mind walk, run or fly and so their bone density is very low. Also look at how weak the tendons are on them, the meat falls off the bone whereas with free range birds it os difficult to get the meat from the bones.