How 'Green' is your local food market?

I always love visiting my local farmers or food market. Lots of passion, yummy- creative snacks and the result, a vibe that makes you feel good about eating and buying local and organic.
There is always an abundant array of delicious and beautiful local organic grown veggies, beer, freshly baked breads, fair trade chocolates, wines and sustainable fish to choose from. 


However, I was also struck by two things.

An awful lot of cars. Parking a nightmare.  Secondly, a ridiculous amount of non-eco-friendly packaging &  plastic bags used. Don’t get me wrong, buying local food and supporting local is probably one of the most 'urban hip' things you can do for our planet, but I feel it should not end there.  I think our local food markets need to educate and encourage a greener lifestyle by example. From their certified organic stall holders, onsite visible recycling bins, fairtrade products to eco-friendly packaging used by stall holders.

Lets face it, we as a society aspire to follow the latest trend and if following a green trend is the latest, then I'm all for it. It's ultimately an all round win-win for us and Mother Earth.

Even when we buy local, we need to make efforts to do it in the most responsible way. That means refusing those plastic bags and taking our own, making use of the recycling facilities when you finished with your gourmet prepared meal, it means biking, busing or carpooling when possible, and it means asking questions about how your food was grown, as well as the packaging it is being presented in.
 

In some ways this highlights one of the biggest, but perhaps most intangible, benefits of the food markets, asking the real questions. Because we come face-to-face with the people producing, cooking our food, and often the people organizing the market, we can form real relationships, and communicate our values to them. It’s not so easy to do that at your local big box retailer. Of course, these thoughts are probably nothing new to the dedicated weekly market goer but its nice to be reminded why we visit the local market weekly. 

Article by Natashia Fox
www.greenlifestore.co.za or www.vegware.co.za