The Stress of the Grocery Store Experience
It wasn’t that long ago that we knew where our food came from. Many of us grew up picking strawberries at the beginning of summer or apples in the fall. We stopped by farm stands to get fresh herbs, tomatoes, melons, and more. Visiting butchers to buy meat and bakeries for bread were common errands. We interacted with local producers to purchase our food.
This is far from what most of us experience today. Gathering food is overwhelming, and it is rarely fresh or local. The current food system smothers our entire relationship to food - it has not only separated us from where our food comes from, but has also extracted the nutrient value from what we eat, making our desire to live healthy lives more difficult and confusing.
Eating Food Today is Hurting Our Health; Buying Food Today is Stressing Us Out
Most of us buy our food at grocery stores. We choose the stores to shop at based on our own values, and assume that these stores will sell food items that we can trust. But instead, we face a much different and more stressful situation:
Overwhelming choices: We’re given an endless array of tantalizing colors, sizes, and shapes of addictive, processed, and ultra-processed foods.
Labels to scrutinize: To know what is in the food and whether we can feed it to our family in good conscience, we must inspect ingredient lists, nutritional information, and certifications.
Misleading marketing: Many food products are marketed as healthy or natural despite their ingredients.
Concerns about food quality: The quality and safety of food are not certain. So, we purchase food unsure of the amount of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, or other harmful substances used in its production.
Lack of quality food: There is often a limited selection of fresh, whole foods. Produce travels thousands of miles to get to the store, and it was potentially grown and preserved with harmful chemicals, harvested too early, bred for transportation, and reduced in nutrients as a result.
Ultimately, we are in the dark - we can’t trust where our food comes from and what its outcome on our health will be. This way of shopping for food, of having to make ill-informed choices from an overabundance of items that are deceitfully limited to what large companies deem profitable, not fresh, affects our health and adds stress to our lives.
Buy Fresh, Eat Fresh, Less Stress
The health benefits of eating locally-grown and harvested whole foods are many:
More nutrients: Locally-sourced foods, especially fruits and vegetables, are harvested at peak ripeness and don’t travel far, which preserves their nutritional integrity.
We found that the carrots grown at our organic farm in Arlington, VA, are twice as nutrient dense as those found in a local grocery store.
Better taste: Food that travels, or that is made to preserve itself on grocery store shelves, loses its flavor. Locally-grown and prepared foods will taste better and have more nutrients.
No chemicals: You can reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals and the health risks associated with conventional farming methods when you choose locally-sourced foods.
Eat seasonally: Buying local foods allows you to eat seasonally, which enables a more balanced diet and provides a diverse array of nutrients.
Support community: Purchasing food directly from local producers builds community and connection. Developing relationships with local producers allows you to learn more about where your food comes from, how it's grown or raised, and the people who produced it.
Fresh, Real Food Should be the Norm, Not the Exception
We’ve been successfully guided away from where our food comes from and towards consuming foods that are processed, not fresh. Local food sources that produce real, whole foods offer a way to take authority over our diets, and detox from the overwhelming experience of the modern grocery store. Getting closer to where your food comes from and knowing your local producers will make the entire food experience, from purchasing to eating, less stressful and more fulfilling.
Area 2 Farms for Locals
Your food should be equally accessible and nutritious. Which is where we come in. We’re Area 2 Farms, we grow organic produce, deliver it to your door weekly, and operate all within 10 miles of you.
