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FRANKFORT, Ky. — Janet Eaton has an analogy for Kentuckians who are not buying locally grown produce, which is currently ripe and readily available at Kentucky Proud retailers and farmers’ markets around the state.
“It’s like going to Greece and eating American fast food – you’re missing the point,” said Eaton, a marketing specialist for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “Food is a sharing of culture.”
A cornucopia of Kentucky culture is currently overflowing with summertime staples such as tomatoes, strawberries, sweet corn, apples and squash.
“The quality of the soil here is why the horses are here,” said Mac Stone, Director of the KDA’s Division of Value-Added Plant Production and a farmer himself, “and why we can grow such beautiful produce.”
“Everyone loves the taste of fresh tomatoes, beans and corn,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “You can get these and other locally grown fruits and vegetables at groceries and farmers’ markets all over Kentucky. Just look for the Kentucky Proud logo.”
Kentucky Proud farmers’ markets offer some unique varieties of fruit, such as pawpaws, and vegetables, like okra and kohlrabi, a type of cabbage. There are also regional favorites, like greasy beans in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
“When you buy local, you find varieties that you can’t find anywhere else,” Eaton said. “Taste sells, and you cannot get this stuff in a lot of grocery stores because some of it is not transportable.”
It’s also a chance to treat your tongue to tastes not experienced in decades. Eaton said she’s noticed a recent trend at farmers’ markets of customers searching for varieties of vegetables that they ate in their childhood. Those varieties are called heirlooms because they have been passed down from generation to generation because they taste good. These old varieties contain genetic material from hundreds or even thousands of years of human selection.
Kentucky Proud produce is fresher because it is transported a few hundred miles at the most. That’s a far cry from the 1,500 to 2,500 miles, on average, that most of our food travels, according to the Worldwatch Institute. Because most fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. are shipped from California, Florida and Washington, they can spend as many as 7-14 days in transit.
“Locally grown fruits and vegetables are picked fresh and grown for flavor, not grown to ship,” Eaton said, adding they are usually sold within 24 hours of being harvested. “Our tomatoes come right off the vine. They haven’t made a trip across the country. Your neighbors pick them to sell them to you.”
Buying locally grown produce benefits the environment since the food doesn’t have to be transported as far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and waste from packaging, such as boxes.
Not only does local produce taste better, it’s better for you. The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture points out that fruits and vegetables begin to lose nutrients as soon as they are picked.
“Also, because you control the cooking, you control how nutritious it will be,” Eaton said. “The fresher you eat it, even raw, the better it is for you. Anything processed is put under such heat, the vitamins can be cooked out of it.”
Food safety is also important to some consumers, especially with the possible threat of bioterrorism.“Locally grown food doesn’t travel through a bunch of hands,” Eaton said. “It’s grown right here. Probably the only person that has touched it before you buy it is the person who picked it.”
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