Why Local Food is Best
The Local Food Difference and Why it Matters…
Local food accounts for an estimated 1.5 percent of the value of U.S. agricultural production, and much of the fresh produce sold at your typical grocery store is imported. Industrial-scale agriculture works hand-in-hand with national distributors and large grocery chains to create a food system built for efficiency — not flavor, not nutrition, and not community. This system has made it possible to buy a strawberry in January. It may be convenient, but it’s not getting you the best quality, flavor or nutritional value.
Two Very Different Journeys for a Tomato…
Those perfectly round, uniformly orange tomatoes in your grocery store's produce aisle are available 12 months a year. Have you ever wondered how they arrived there?
Most fresh-market tomatoes consumed in the United States come from Mexico, California, or Florida. Here is how one typically travels to your table on Long Island:
Picked green, before peak ripeness, to survive the journey.
Pre-cooled and packed into crates for transport.
Loaded onto a refrigerated truck bound for a regional distribution center — a trip of one to three days.
Held in a ripening room and treated with ethylene gas for two to five days.
Transferred to another refrigerated truck, delivered to a grocery store, and shelved for several more days before purchase.
From field to table: one to two weeks, and thousands of miles.
Now consider a Golden Earthworm tomato.
During harvest season, we keep a close eye on each variety as it approaches peak ripeness. A day or two before your share is packed, our crew picks tomatoes at just the right moment when they are perfect for harvest. From the field, they travel a few hundred feet to our wash/pack barn, and are packed into your farm share, loaded onto a truck, and driven to your drop site across Long Island.
From vine to table: 48 hours max.
Two Very Different Tomatoes
That difference in journey produces a profound difference in what ends up on your plate.
Local produce tastes better.Varieties grown for flavor, not shelf life, can be harvested at peak ripeness, when their natural sugars and volatile aromatic compounds are fully developed. We don’t grow varieties that can survive a cross-country journey. We grow varieties because they have the best flavor.
Local produce is more nutritious.Research consistently shows the nutritional superiority of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. Vine-ripened tomatoes, for instance, contain significantly more lycopene (a powerful antioxidant) than those picked green and gassed to color.
Local produce offers variety. Because our tomatoes don't need to withstand weeks in transit, we can grow lots of different delicious and flavorful varieties.
While the tomato makes a vivid example, these same truths apply across nearly everything in your share, from summer corn to fall carrots, which become sweeter still after the first light frost prompts them to concentrate their natural sugars.
Five Reasons Local Food Matters Beyond the Plate
It supports local jobs and economies. Every dollar spent with Golden Earthworm stays within our local community, supporting the people who grow, pack, and deliver your food.
It strengthens regional food security. Long, industrial supply chains are fragile. Local food systems are resilient, rooted in the soil of a specific place, accountable to the people they serve.
It reconnects us to one another, and to the land. A CSA membership is not simply a produce subscription. It is a relationship: with a farm, with a season, with the land your food comes from.
It reduces your food's carbon footprint. The average American meal travels roughly 1,500 miles. Your Golden Earthworm share travels a fraction of that distance, from our fields to your neighborhood.
It protects the land itself. As a USDA Certified Organic and Real Organic Certified farm since 1994, Golden Earthworm is committed to practices that build soil health, protect pollinators, and preserve the rich agricultural heritage of our region.
Here’s to good local eating! - Maggie & Matt