Larm: Being a locavore is worth the extra effort

A locavore is a person whose diet focuses on foods grown and produced nearby, usually within 100 miles. There are various issues that relate to the advantages of being a locavore, but for now, I’ll focus on the significantly higher nutritional values of local produce.

Commercial growers mass produce fruits and vegetables in large quantities for supermarkets. They choose among a few varieties that can give high yield (how many pounds or bushels per acre they can produce), fast growth rate and ability to be shipped long distances. These traits benefit fruit and vegetable distribution nationally and even internationally, but nutritional quality isn’t a top concern.

Commercial varieties differ in appearance, taste, vitamin and mineral content and amounts of phytochemicals, which are the health-protecting components of plants such as antioxidants. Local gardeners and farmers producing for farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture groups more often choose varieties with nutritional quality and great taste rather than durability. Heirloom varieties with nontreated seed are frequently grown locally, but not commercially.

Besides the local farmer or gardener choosing more and better varieties of fruits and vegetables, they frequently use different production methods than commercial growers. Methods that improve the soil, such as using cover crops and composted manure, create plants with higher nutritional value. The roots of plants grown with organic methods are healthier and grow deeper, allowing more nutrients to be picked up. Another benefit of compost and organic fertilizers is their tendency to release the nutrients at a slower pace over a longer period of time than instant fertilizers. This enhances nutrient uptake by the plants.

If you are buying produce from a farmers’ market, make sure it is a producers’ market. You can get to know the producer and his/her methods of production. The board of the market regularly schedules visits to the farms and knows the vendors grew the produce, and didn’t buy it from someone to resell.

Ripeness is a consideration for some fruits and vegetables. Commercially grown produce is picked before fully ripe because of shipment time and shelf life at the grocery store. Studies have documented that Vitamin C content of tomatoes is higher when the tomatoes are picked ripe from the plant. Tomatoes have the ability to turn red if picked early and the Vitamin C content will even increase a little after being picked early, but tomatoes picked ripe have a significantly higher Vitamin C content. In the U.S., tomatoes make up almost one-fourth of the vegetables consumed. Buy local and improve your health.

You may not realize it, but harvesting, processing, and packaging vegetables affects their nutritional quality. Careless handling and bruising causes nutrient loss. Commercial farms often use mechanical harvesting methods for mass production. Crop injury — especially to apples, tomatoes and berries — is common. Bruising accelerates nutrient loss. Plant tissues are also damaged when produce is precut for packaging. Enzymes change, water is lost, chemical make-up is altered and nutrients are lost.

Packaging with films and coatings, if done at the correct time, can help nutrient loss because it delays ripening and deterioration, but commercial growers aren’t always concerned about the right time and appropriate conditions. Because of the huge quantity they are packaging, only part of the crop is packaged at the correct time. And then in the loading, days-long shipping, unloading, stocking and days in the store, more nutrients are lost. Even if the correct temperature, humidity and sanitation are maintained, more bruising occurs as the produce is shipped at high speeds on bumpy roads, is unpacked in a hurry and piled in store coolers.

Local produce from a producers’ market has often been harvested within the previous 24 hours, has been handled by fewer people (less damage and potential contamination), has much more flavor, frequently has more nutritional diversity because of more varieties, and contains and retains significantly more nutrients.

Eating locally isn’t as easy to do all year in Missouri as it is in California. It means trying to vary your diet as to what is in season. Even if you aren’t totally a locavore, you’re improving your nutrition by consuming seasonal foods and storing at least some for the winter months.