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Support your community by buying local: Charlie Jackson''s how-to guide for finding the freshest down-home fruits and veggies.

Article Excerpt
Why buy local? Many New Life Journal readers understand that buying the healthiest and most sustainable food is the best thing they can do for their families. When you think of produce, the best choice is organically grown, right? Well, the answer may not be so black and white.

North Carolina's organic foods industry's in-state sales of organic products have grown in recent years to over five million dollars. Unfortunately, 85 percent of organic products sold in North Carolina come from out-of-state, mostly from 3,000 miles away in California. This means that the largest part of your organic food dollar goes to supporting the transportation and energy industries and only a very small percent to the farmer. And food loses nutritional value very quickly. Most food sits an average of six days before reaching the consumer but it only takes five days for green leafy vegetables to lose as much as 50% of their nutrients. So, although organic food from further away might seem cheaper than local, the consumer pays the price in less nutritious food, loss of local agriculture, environmental costs that come from shipping (50% of the trucks on our interstate system are carrying food!), and the disconnect from food and farming.

Some questions you might want to ask about that produce on your grocer's shelf are: where were those organic potatoes grown? were they shipped for...