One of the most top-of-mind ways to be healthy is clean eating. Tons of fad diets tout the clean food movement, but it\’s more than just personal health, working on your figure or fighting cancer. It also has a huge effect on our environment and our local economies. The most obvious effect perhaps is the intense carbon expense of long food routes (ie: buying out of season food from South America) but also large food infrastructure and something as simple as pumping more of your local economy out of your community. We\’ve seen this amplified in recent years with the steady rise of Amazon and their entrance into the grocery space.
When I see BUY Fresh BUY Local I think of the power of capital as a catalyst. People forget that businesses no longer try to make you buy what they make but now they make what you want to buy… and you prove that you want to buy by voting with your dollars. In recent years, Americans have overwhelmingly exclaimed that they want lots of food and they want it as cheaply and as conveniently as they can get it. The industry has delivered! Some of it\’s effects we\’ve seen, ma and pop grocers going out of business, empty strip malls, sharply declining base salaries in smaller communities and a lack of entry-level jobs for young people.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_EpYT4linc]
All of that being said, there are some places that, while they aren\’t perfect, people are at least still talking about the option of buying from local farmers not because it\’s a novelty where they can roam the farmers market and maybe buy a frap, but rather because it\’s a good alternative that gives their family great food, serves the local economy of generational food producers, and makes them feel great.
In 2008, I had the pleasure of working on this film featuring just such a community. I hope you enjoy!