Yes. While not all “local” farmers use organic or sustainable methods, many do. This is in part because local farmers tend to be smaller farmers, and smaller farmers tend to use methods that more easily allow for higher environmental standards. For example, “organic systems have been shown to require 60% less fossil fuel per unit of food produced,” compared to conventional farms, according to the book Bringing The Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Todd Merrifield, and Steven Gorelick. “It is primarily on the smaller, less mechanized, and more biodiverse farms that major energy savings are possible: large-scale organic monocultures generally involve the use of almost as much energy as conventional farms.”
By knowing your food producer, you can buy from farmers who go the extra mile to protect the environment, such as by avoiding pesticides and herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and hormones, and genetically-modified organisms. Also, local food can help reduce waste, as farmers don’t need to use as much packaging to prepare their goods for long-distance shipment.
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