Local produce from Lucky Star Ranch, used at the farm-to-table restaurant, Saint Lawrence Spirits Château.
Over the past few years, people have become more and more concerned about mass-produced foods and products found in grocery stores. There’s something special about knowing where your food comes from and how it was raised. If you’ve been considering if buying local is a better option for you and your family, here are five top reasons to start buying locally sourced foods, such as beef, eggs, dairy and produce.
Lucky Star Ranch’s Black Angus cows eating spent mash from Saint Lawrence Spirits Distillery.
What does it mean to buy local?
When you buy locally, you are buying straight from the source. “Locally grown” is a broad term that describes food grown typically within 100 to 150 miles of where you live. Buying locally offers many benefits to not only you, but your community, and the environment, as well. Here are just five of the many benefits of buying locally sourced foods.
1. All Natural & Preservative Free
Most large-scale agricultural operations use pesticides, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals in their products to make their products grow larger, or keep fresh for long transit times. Most local farmers don’t need these dangerous additives, allowing you to get the freshest and all-natural products available.
2. Offers Improved Nutrition
Eating locally grown and produced foods deliver higher nutrient content because of their lack of chemicals and ideal freshness. For people with food sensitivities to preservatives, hormones, and other food chemicals, locally grown food is the optimal choice.
3. Improves Food Safety
Food safety should always be a concern—especially for families with little ones or seniors. With so many recalls on meats and produce, these days, it is important to buy and eat local foods to help rule out contamination risks.
4. Reduces Environmental “Food Miles”
Buying local also has a positive impact on the environment. Large, mass-producing agricultural complexes ship their products sometimes thousands of miles before it reaches the end consumer. This creates what’s known as “food miles”. The more “food miles” a product has, the greater the chance of contamination, higher levels of preservatives used, and increased carbon gas emissions.
5. Supports Local Families & Community
Buying local helps boost the community you live in. Instead of supporting large supermarket chains, you are supporting individuals in your own community, helping them and the local economy prosper.
By buying local, you are not only building relationships and personal connections with your community, but you are also bolstering your local economy and giving your family a healthier product free of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and GMO feed.
Local Black Angus Beef in the Thousand Islands Region
Family farm-raised, all natural, Black Angus beef available from Lucky Star Ranch & Saint Lawrence Spirits.
If you are looking to make a healthy change and want to find the best local and all natural beef in the Thousand Islands’ area, Lucky Star Ranch and Saint Lawrence Spirits is currently offering their Still-to-Grill Black Angus by the quarters, halves, and whole. Keeping the local community involved, their family-farm-raised Angus is butchered at Red Barn Meats, out of Croghan, New York. To learn more about ordering, please contact Jody Garrett at 315.783.3198 or jodycgarrett@icloud.com