The Best Sustainable Practice To Implement Into Your Life: Shop At Farmers Markets

There are many quick and easy sustainable things you can start to implement into your everyday life. There are also many more complex things you can do too. But if you could only do one thing for a year when it comes to sustainability this is what I believe will give you the most sustainable bang for your buck, so to speak.

Shop at your local farmers market (or CSA/farm stand). Over the past few months I have been doing a deep dive into all things sustainable. Learning numerous tips and tricks for living more eco consciously. What I have gleamed from all my readings and research is that supporting your local farmers market provides an impressive array of sustainable intersections while being somewhat accessible to a large swath of Americans.

A small disclaimer to begin though. Not all communities have an easily accessible farmers market and not everyone can afford to shop at such markets. Farmers markets can be more expensive than some grocery store chains. While the prices at farmers markets are more likely to reflect the actual cost of the food, keeping yourself and your family fed within your budget is important. Remember to do what is needed for you and your loved ones.

Why Farmers Markets Are So Sustainable  

1.     Less Single Use Plastic

Have you ever noticed that when you go to the farmers market your lettuce isn’t wrapped in plastic cling wrap or placed in plastic containers? The sheer volume of single use plastics that are used in grocery stores is alarming. But when you shop at a farmers market the amount of single use plastic that is used is dramatically reduced.

2.     More Reusable Packaging

Sometimes your tomatoes will come in a plastic container even at the farmers market but I have yet to have a vendor at the farmers market not accept their plastic container, or any of their containers for that matter back. At my local farmers market for example, after I finish a dozen eggs I can bring the container back and the farmer gladly accepts it because they can fill it with more eggs for next week’s market. The local jam and jelly vendor not only will accept they glass containers back but will give us a $2 credit at their booth for each container, because it saves them money too. And the local vegetable vendor accepts all their plastic tomato containers back because they can reuse them too. This ultimately stops new containers, jars, and packaging from being made because what we have is still very much reusable. 

3.     High Probability of Bringing Your Own Bag

The one place in our community I see reusable bags being used most often are at the weekly farmers market. There is a higher probability of someone using a reusable grocery bag and in turn not using a single use plastic or paper bag, ultimately reducing waste.

4.     Less Fossil Fuel Use

Instead of getting your lettuce say at the grocery store that has had it shipped all the way across the country, you can get your lettuce from the local farmer 20 miles up the road. The transportation fossil fuel emissions is unbelievably smaller this way. As our food supply has become globalized the sheer distance food will travel is baffling especially when there are local options. Cutting back on fossil fuel use is very much aligned with sustainability.

5.     Less Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Used

The majority of food grown in the United States is on gigantic farms owned by even bigger corporations. To grow so much food in an “efficient” manner lots of pesticides and other toxic chemicals are used to keep away a slew of pests. One of the problems with this method of farming is that these pesticides and chemicals are toxic to us humans as well. They leach into the water supply contaminating our drinking water and they run off into streams and rivers which harm marine life and kill fish.

Smaller farms are far less likely to use pesticides and chemicals on their crops because they know this and actually care about the planet and their community. Plus smaller farms are more likely to plant a variety of crops which can lead to naturally needing less pesticides and chemicals.

6.     More Sustainable Farming Practices Implemented

Local farms that show up to your farmers markets are considered small farms nowadays. The vegetables that arrive at the grocery store on the other hand come from massive corporate farms. Smaller farmers are more likely to take care of their land and not use harmful chemicals such as pesticides and industrial fertilizers which contaminate the land and waterways. They are also more likely to practice crop rotation which helps keep the soil healthy vs eroding it as seen on large corporate farms. Smaller farms are also more likely to practice composting and sustainable animal waste practices.

7.     Providing Jobs Within Your Community

Local farms are also likely to employ people within the community. It takes many hands to sow, tend, weed, harvest, and bring vegetables and fruit to a farmers market. That labor is usually sourced from right within your community. This helps bring jobs and keep jobs local. It also means you likely know exactly who is planting and harvesting the food on your plate.

8.     Keeping Money In Your Local Community

By shopping at your local farmers market you are helping keep money within your local community. Supporting local directly supports local farmers and makers who then in turn are more likely to also support local. If you shop at a large chain grocery store your money likely isn’t staying in your community, it is headed out to whoever at the top owns that large chain grocery store and their worldwide suppliers. Keeping money in your local community helps your community prosper.

9.     Healthier for Humans

When people are healthy, they are able to invest in themselves and their communities. It is in our best interests to keep our population healthy. One way farmers markets help keep our communities healthy is by providing healthy food that tastes good because it is fresh off the vine (or plant).

Industrially produced foods are usually grown with industrial fertilizers and often have far less nutritional value than the same varieties grown in organic soils. Industrial farming has led to such a decline in various nutrients that you would have to eat three apples today to get the same amount of iron as a single apple in 1940. Smaller farms are far more likely to not use industrial fertilizers and implement practices known to increase nutrients in produce.

A less often sited health benefit of farmers market is their ability to provide less isolation. You probably have heard that there is a loneliness epidemic happening in the US. While obviously a farmers market isn’t going to solve this multifaceted problem, but farmers markets are less isolating than grocery shopping. Think about the last time you went to the grocery store. You likely probably only talked to one or two people, potentially none if you used self-checkout. Now think about going to the farmers market. You will have a conversation with each vendor you shop at, providing needed human interaction.

10.  Better Meat Practices

If you are already vegan or vegetarian this is less likely to apply to you, but for those of us who are meat eaters this matters greatly. By now you have likely seen and/or heard about meat processing facilities across the county that are massive slaughterhouses packing live stock in as tightly as possible to get more money. You may have heard how cows especially are now fed a corn diet, because it is cheap, even though cows are unable to process that much corn meaning their food is literally killing them. There are a lot of gruesome stories that we often have the privilege of not thinking about too long because we live nowhere near a slaughterhouse. Out of sight, out of mind.

The sheer volume of animals raised for meat is staggering and unfortunately animals create bodily waste. With the amount of animals and minimal to no regulations in place, that waste has to go somewhere and the giant slaughterhouse corporations aren’t eager to think of or actually implement safe disposal methods, because as you guessed it that would cost them money. So a huge amount of that waste goes directly into our waterways, destroying marine life and leeching into our drinking water. The only people that have to pay for this are us, the everyday person drinking the water. Now I am not saying you should become a vegan or vegetarian if you don’t want to. What I am saying is that our meat processing practices are harmful to both the animals, the waterways, and to us.

A better solution then are farmers who care about the well-being of their livestock, care about responsible waste management and not harming their community members, these farmers are often at your local farmers market. If you are a meat eater I encourage you to talk with the meat vendors and ask them about their practices, see how the animals are treated, see how they deal with waste. Ask them questions that you can’t ask the rows of meat at a grocery store. Being responsible meat eaters is so important on many different fronts.

The other side to meat eating is that we know that eating less meat (especially red meat) is both healthier for our own bodies as well as the planet. Farmers Markets can help people keep a more balanced diet. At our own market, there is only one meat vendor while there are at least six vegetable vendors. With more vegetables available you’re likely to start eating more of them.

A big takeaway from this is how impactful you can be on an individual level. It is extremely easy to fall into the trap of “well what can my one action really do” or “this small thing won’t really matter in the end”. But I hope as you have read the above you have started to realize just how impactful you can be.

I encourage you to decide what your values are and what you care about. And then go out and shop accordingly. In our capitalistic society one of the biggest ways to make change is through your dollar. Where are you choosing to spend your hard earned money, who is your money supporting, what values are your money uplifting? Purchasing power is real and makes an impact. Especially when you are purchasing with sustainability in mind.

Hope to see you at the next farmers market!

Sources:

• McKibben, Bill. Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. New York, Holt, Henry & Company, LLC., 2007.

• Oliver, John. “Corn: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” HBO Original, YouTube, uploaded by Last Week Tonight, 23 May 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI78WOW_u-Q

• Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.New York, Penguin Group, 2008.

• Riley, Trish. The Complete Idiots Guide to Green Living. New York, Penguin Group, 2007.