SUPERIOR GROWN SUPERIOR CHOICE

Local food and products listed in the Superior Grown Directory are a ‘Superior’ choice because they strive to be:

• Fresh and taste better. Food grown in your own community is usually picked within a day or two of sales. The fresh food is crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor.
  
  

• Retains its quality. The average distance food travels from farm to plate is 1,500 miles. With a week or longer delay from harvest to the dinner table, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality.
  
  

• Better for you. Once picked, produce looses nutrients quickly. Therefore, the fresher the produce, the more nutrients it provides. In fact, food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest is actually more nutritious than some “fresh” produce that has been on a distribution truck or supermarket shelf for a week.
  
  

• Preserves genetic diversity. In contrast to the modern industrial agricultural system where few hybrid varieties of little genetic diversity are used, local farms grow a large number of varieties of fruits and vegetables. The diversity of plants found on family farms provides for a long season of harvest, an array of eye-catching colors, and the best flavors of produce. Many varieties are heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation, containing genetic material from hundreds and even thousands of years of human selection.
  
  

• Free of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), sub-therapeutic antibiotic, and growth hormone use in livestock and crop production.
  
  

• Supports local farm families. With fewer than 1 million Americans now claiming farming as their primary occupation, farmers are a vanishing breed. With commodity prices at a historic low, often below the cost of production, farmers now get less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. Local farmers who sell direct to consumers and businesses cut out the middleman and get full retail price for their food, meaning, farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing what they love.
  
  

• Builds community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a  time-honored connection. Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food. In many cases, it gives you access to a farm where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.
  
  

• Preserves open spaces. As the value of direct-marketing increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. The agricultural landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are proactively preserving the farming landscape.
  
  

• Supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife. A well-managed farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. Additionally, the patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, ponds, and buildings provides habitat for many species of wildlife.
  
  

• About the future. By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful and abundant food.