B.A.R.N. National AG Day essay winners 9th through 12th grade discuss why shopping local is important

Mar. 21—Ninth- to 12th-grade category

Judge: Ashley Fehr, director, Bureau of Market & Business Development, PA Department of Agriculture

Essay topic: Why is it better to buy locally-produced agricultural products instead of nationally-produced big-name brands?

Imagine that you have recently been hired by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and are part of the PA Preferred Program. The Secretary of Agriculture explains that your main job is encouraging people to buy locally-produced Pennsylvania products. A local media service has offered you the opportunity to either write a short essay or produce a short video documentary that can be used to educate the public about why it is better to buy locally produced products. In 350-500 words, give many reasons for buying Pennsylvania and Berks County products as possible.

—First place: Regan Kreitzer, 12th-grader at Tulpehocken Junior-Senior High School

Imagine the face of a farmer who has just sold his local products to a customer. A serene, satisfied face knowing that the residents of Berks County have provided him with a livelihood.

This is what happens when you buy local instead of from a nationally-produced big-name brand. When you buy locally-produced agricultural products, you are buying a fresher product than in the grocery store.

Picture sinking your teeth into a fresh apple compared to an old apple that's been sitting on a grocery store shelf. There is less packaging when you skip the big-name brand products. There is not only less packaging, but an overall lesser amount of wasted materials. No fuel from hauling products, no unnecessary machinery and no more wasteful packaging. What better way to contribute to the cleanliness of our planet than to purchase a product straight from the producer in your neighborhood.

By buying locally, you are also supporting the local economy. Whether you're in Berks County or anywhere in Pennsylvania, you are joining the community together, creating more jobs and helping those in your community.

Buying locally-produced products allows for you to support the people that help your community thrive. Not only are you giving someone a livelihood, but you are also allowing them to continue doing what they love.

When you support a local business owner, you know exactly where your food comes from. No second guessing whether or not your food is healthy or not. You are met face to face with a producer who is extremely passionate about their community. Local products are also cheaper which can greatly affect the way you shop and live. What better way to save money than to buy a product straight from your community members?

Food security may be a topic that you may not think of on a daily basis but locally-produced products and food security go hand and hand. The definition of food security is "the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food."

When you shop locally, you are putting your trust in a reliable member of a tight knit circle. You get the privilege of having access to healthy, easily attainable food/products. In times of emergency, the people around you are able to quickly provide you with everything you could ever need.

In conclusion, buying locally-produced agricultural products is better for the environment, an incredible way to support the people within your community, and a fantastic way to support the local economy. Think twice before you purchase a nationally-produced big-name brand product, you just may want to make that switch to better your life and the people around you.

So the next time you are driving by Way-Har for some ice cream on a hot summer day or stumble upon Plum Creek Farm Market for some fresh fruit, just be aware of the impact that you have the ability to create!

—Second place: Jesse Hastings, 11th-grader at Kutztown High School.

Purchasing local food from small family farms is necessary in order to decrease environmental impacts of transportation of food products, to keep family farms afloat as corporate farms continue to make it harder for them to keep up, and to educate the public further about where their food comes from and why it matters.

Buying locally grown products supports family farms, brings communities closer together, and preserves genetic diversity. Buying local food as opposed to food from name-brand farms supports small farms that cannot always keep up with commercial farms. Buying locally ensures transparency about where your food comes from. It also allows you to get to know the farmers who are growing your food, which promotes a greater sense of community, and allows for further education about agriculture, which is a field that most people are uneducated on.

Local food also preserves genetic diversity because smaller farms tend to produce a variety of produce, as opposed to commercial farms that grow one type of product based on its desirable traits.

Local food is also often less wasteful because they will sell products that may not look perfect, but have the same nutritional value as their other produce — in contrast to commercial farms, who will not sell products that look undesirable, creating more waste.

Farm to Table helps counties in western Pennsylvania promote locally grown agriculture to consumers. They help with delivering food, and educating the public about why it is important to support local farms. They hold events like local food expos for people to come and learn about small farms in their communities and products they sell.

This program makes it easy for consumers to support local farmers, which is important because they may not otherwise have access to farmers markets to purchase local goods.

Chain grocery stores that sell products from commercial farms are more accessible to the public, which makes selling products difficult for small farmers. Organizations like this make locally grown food accessible to the public. If people sought out organizations like this, they could support local farmers, which has a positive impact on the environment, the economy, and their communities.

CSAs, or community supported agriculture, is a program that allows consumers to purchase a monthly amount of food from small farmers. This helps local farmers financially because the food is purchased in one payment, which allows for more financial security.

These help local farmers, and get a steady supply of food for your family. CSAs are also less wasteful because they send food in one package all at once, as opposed to purchasing individual products at the grocery store, which uses significantly more packaging that harms the environment.

Locally grown food is often grown in a healthier, more sustainable way, which is something that is valued by many consumers. If food like this was more accessible to the public through programs like Farm To Table, it would make a positive impact on the environment, on local farmers, and on the general public.

—Third place: Maisy Kellum, 11th-grader at Kutztown High School.

Locally grown food is a privilege to have access to. However, not very many people realize this and take advantage of it. Buying locally grown produce is beneficial to both local sellers and consumers by positively impacting the local economy, providing enriching benefits to the local environment, and providing quality, healthy food for buyers.

Buying local food benefits the economy in your area, since it takes less effort to get from farm to plate if the produce is locally sold. This makes costs lower for the buyer, and profits higher for the seller. "Buying local food also adds to the economic vibrancy of the region. In Western PA, regional farmers offer a wide variety of food, including vegetables, meat, dairy, fruit and grains. When food producers sell locally, they get more money in their pockets since there are fewer steps to the sale." A community thrives when it is able to sustain an economy itself. Surely this is everyone's ideal when it comes to their town or city. Buying locally grown produce contributes to that in a large degree.

Locally bought produce also positively impacts the health of the consumer. If you buy locally, you know where your food comes from and what's in it. "At large industrial farms, the pursuit of high-yielding varieties often comes at the expense of nutritional quality. Production methods that deplete the soil health tend to yield crops with lower nutritional content. Additionally, supermarket fruits and vegetables can spend 7-14 days in transit, and the vitamin content of produce that has been picked early and forced to ripen during transport is often lower than that which ripens right on the plant. Prepared, pre-chopped produce in supermarkets loses protection against nutrient loss when the skin is removed." Foods grown locally don't face these challenges, which improves their nutritional value.

Buying locally also helps to improve the local environment. "Sustainably grown food provides many benefits to the entire ecosystem: it is grown in our own foodshed by a local farmer at a scale that's appropriate to the area and involves minimal ecological disruption and processing. Sustainable farming means thinking long-term — preserving topsoil, biodiversity, and rural communities."

Local, small businesses farmers are able to help the land by committing to practices such as IPM, or integrated pest management, which provides solutions to crop pests other than harmful pesticides. Farmers are also able to pay attention to soil conservation, diversity, and water conservation.

To sum up, it is far better to buy locally-produced agricultural products instead of nationally-produced big-name brands. The community would begin to flourish with a steady, improving economy. The land and environment would thrive since local farmers are giving special care to their farmland.

Finally, consumers would receive much healthier, fresher produce that they can feel one hundred percent comfortable about buying. All of these factors simply cannot be provided by big-name produce brands shipped to every grocery store in America.