What?

The nearer to our homes food is produced, the less dragging-around it needs. This reduces the evaporation of CO₂, as well as eating fresher and tastier produce.

A supermarket offers the opposite of this idea. Almost anything it sells comes in through massive supply chains and central distribution sites. Prices are arbitrarily kept low by using cheap sources instead of a source that may provide better quality and nicer tastes, that works with more environmental sense or that pays a fair fee to its workers.

It is often better to buy from small firms, when looking for food and other everyday products. Price is only one aspect of a purchase. And ease? It is often a lot more fun to buy your food from the source itself!

Why?

Large distribution centers drive truckloads of food and other products back and forth. Although this is a concentrated effort, it still produces a lot more CO₂ to help warm up our cosy little planet. At the same time, a farmer nearby you may grow potent potatoes or lovely lettuces. There is no need to make the detour through a distribution centre if you buy their crops directly from them.

Furthermore, you may run into some novelty crops that cannot be sold en masse and thus do not occur in supermarkets -- organic famrs often have specialties to offer. Be sure to give them a try!

Frozen or canned food wastes a lot more energy than fresh food, of course. In addition, a part of the nutrition contained is lost in the process of packaging. Especially vitamin C will cease to exist while being processed. Nothing can beat fresh produce. So don't just buy locally, but also but seasonally. It saves energy and that may even lead to lower prices.

How?

A very practical way of getting nearby food is on a farmer's market. There are market stands which obtain their crops from auctions, so also from a central distribution system, but there are also smaller markets with mainly local farmers. In that sense, England is paving the road ahead that most countries still have to follow. A farmer's market helps to reduce the amount of CO₂ wasted on your food, and since that is a big portion of our personal CO₂-production, that is actually a very good idea.

Local farmers with a broad range sometimes offer weekly vegetable packets, especially organic farms will often do that. The contents of such packages vary with the seasons, and the whole idea is usually to help you eat local food in the right season.

Finally, you could consider putting plants in your garden that you can eat yourself. This does not have to mean your garden becomes ugly, just that you can harvest from it from time to time. There is nothing as local and seasonal as food from your own garden!

Where?

Finding places for local food are best looked up locally. Ask around where friends and neighbours get their local food, and perhaps ask your local grocery store or reform shop about vegetable packages. Ask you butcher where he gets his meat.

Be sure to know the seasons, so you know which products in the stores have been kept for a long period, and which products are the most seasonal and thus healthy.