Ever bitten into a fast-food tomato and thought, ‘Wow, this tastes like mushy cardboard’? Yeah, me too. But I have also tasted sun-ripened heirloom tomatoes, fresh off the vine in my backyard, and had my taste buds do one of those happy dances. That’s an easy way for us all to realize our relationship with food needs to change.

As a city-slicker turned fourth-generation farmer (more to come on that winding road in future posts!), I grew up spending weekends and long summer days on my family’s farm. In Bennett Valley, Santa Rosa, we enjoyed eating largemouth bass or catfish we caught from our irrigation lake, delighted in pies and ice-cream made from apples, stone fruit or berries we picked, and nourished ourselves with salads and soups from vegetables I helped my grandma pick. My uncle provided endless hamburgers from our cows that grazed the land. I chased peacocks trying to collect the treasure of their feathers, and got chased by cows when collecting blackberries.Let’s just say that while you may think that cows are chill, they had no chill when it came to their favorite snack. Lesson learned: never turn your back on a hungry cow; they’re surprisingly fast!

My grandparents created a place where food was raised, picked, cooked, and shared. That kind of farming—rich with tradition, sustainability, and community—is rapidly disappearing. Modern food systems have moved our nourishment far away from where we live. Now, many people don’t even know what grows in their local area, what crops are seasonally available, or what it feels like to pick a tomato at peak ripeness, still warm from the sun’s nourishment.

That loss has inspired a worldwide movement: living close to the food that feeds you —and one we look forward to making at Earth Keeper’s future permaculture community.

Before I joined this movement, I thought local food systems meant farmers markets, co-ops, and fresh herbs I grew on my windowsill. What I didn’t understand is that there is so much more, from health to resilience to freedom. Let me break down the three reasons and why each will make you care even more about eating locally.

Let’s start with your health and the nutrition in the food we eat. You go to your local supermarket, head to the produce aisle and feel good that you’re feeding your body the right nutrition.

It’s common sense that freshly picked food tastes better. Think back to the time when you picked a strawberry right off the bush as it glistened with the sheen of its natural sugars, deep ruby red. Do you remember how sweet, almost candy-like it tasted? And beyond the increased flavors, research from Michigan State University confirms that local food is more nutritious because it has a shorter time between harvest and your table. In contrast, food that’s been picked and transported over long distances loses nutrients due to post-harvest respiration and time in transit [7 benefits of eating local foods, Klavinski].

Annie Cavalier, a registered dietitian nutritio

nist with the American Health Association shares “A ripe, in-season strawberry is going to be a lot sweeter” and red all the way through. Those pigments correspond with a higher antioxidant content, she said. “So, when you have those fruits and those vegetables that are richer in color, richer in flavor, that usually means that they’re actually higher in nutrients as well.”

So that means once fruits and veggies leave the plant, they start losing nutrients faster than an ice cream melts in July. Eating food grown nearby, means you’re getting the good stuff before it goes kaput.

Now, I’ve hopefully convinced you of the nutritional health benefits of locally grown but did you know that research abundantly shows growing our food is also good for our mental health?

Not discounting the grief that came from the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to use the drastic societal change as a case study for understanding the importance of having your own food systems. In 2024, researchers in Asia published a study in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (Xu et al.), that found that home food gardening has 5 measurable health improvements:

• Increases physical activity
• Strengthens social bonds
• Reduces anxiety
• Improves access to healthy produce
• Builds psychological resilience

I’ll admit it—I’ve been known to raid my pantry like a raccoon looking for chips at midnight. But imagine if instead of reaching for processed snacks, I could grab a handful of freshly picked cherries? Maybe my late-night munchies wouldn’t feel so… guilty. Let’s get real on eating healthy when it comes to snacks. I walk into the kitchen, open the fridge and pantry and grab an easy fix. Sometimes this looks like chips, a cookie or an apple. For me, there’s less thought about what will feed me the right nutrition, and is more about the convenience of a tasty snack. But here’s the thing. If I haven’t had a chance to go to the market to buy fresh produce or worse, I went to the market and nothing looked good or was affordable, I will ALWAYS grab the less nutritious chips or cookies. So while I don’t expect fresh-grown food to replace everything I eat, when we have access to delicious, healthy options, it gives us a much better chance to make that healthy choice.

And the research confirms it! A recent 2024 study shows that people who garden at home or in community gardens eat more fruits and vegetables and have better overall diets than those who don’t [Drescher & Grebitus].