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Writer's pictureRachel Averitt

The Environmental Impact of Shopping Local:Why I Choose to Support Local Businesses



I've read again and again that the average vegetable found in our supermarket is up to 40% lower in minerals than those harvested just 50 years ago (these are older studies, I'd love modern figures).

I get a lot of shit for the way I eat. Long is the list of people who refer to me as a food snob, label me picky, or think I’m too particular.


The problem is - It’s a lot easier to mock or criticize the way I eat than it is to participate - and WE SHOULD ALL BE FURIOUS about that.


Every single day we continue to damage our food supply and amplify the earth's peril and it persists quite easily unnoticed by the majority of the population.


I don’t shop local to tell you I shop local. I love putting money back into our community and uplifting neighbors but my primary reason is for flavor and because I am confident that mono-cropping and mass agriculture - will bring about our extinction.



Overused and abused soil is a nutrient desert and it grows nutrient-deprived, tasteless food. Poor nutrition leads to chronic disease and cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are all real money-makers. Bland foods lead you to the leaning on processed foods for satisfaction - another big money maker with opportunities for addiction.


We prioritize size, growth rate, pest resistance - anything other than nutrition - it’s very sad to think that most of us don’t know what real vegetables, herbs and spices taste like. But it's not impossible to turn around.



If America really cared about our health we would prioritize it - that starts with farmers getting paid on nutrient density rather than the size of the crop.


I'm grateful for folks reigning it in with regenerative practices and the constant desire to learn more and be better, inspiring me to dig deeper - as I’m hopefully doing with you. Don’t simply believe me - do your own research but also - TRUST WHAT YOU SEE HAPPENING BEFORE YOUR EYES. We are not well.


The plants need us but the truth is we need them more.


Criticize the way I eat and live (it's been under a multitude of microscopes my whole life, doesn’t matter if it’s Asian food, divorced parents, troubled sibling or healthy choices someone always has an opinion) but please know I’m only trying to leave a liveable planet behind for your children. I'm on this earth to share this message and I have never been so certain of anything in my life.

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