Healthy eating vs buying local

I love to garden and enjoy talking to people who grow plants, too.  If you can't tell from a couple of my blogs past, the farm market is one of my favorite shopping destinations.  Milwaukee and the area surrounding it has become a place to find fresh fruits and vegetables grown in close proximity to the city.  Even areas in what some may consider the bleakest urban neighborhoods now have opportunities to access wonderful foods within walking distance of their work and home.  There have been many reasons why this has happened and people to thank for that.  
Winter does put that availability out of reach for some.  The local crops are fewer but still available in some locations (not all).  The shopping opportunities are not as obvious as the farm market tents set up in the middle of the neighborhood.  It takes a bit more to find where to get what you are looking for.  Which brings me to a question I have been thinking about.  What is more important, eating healthy or eating local?

There is a fruit and vegetable market right in the heart of a south side neighborhood which used to be a food desert.  Food deserts are those areas where fast food abounds but grocery stores with healthy choices do not.  Pete's Market has slowly evolved from a seasonal tent to a fairly large year-round market considering the range of food is mostly fresh fruits and vegetables.  Pete has an interesting story which I will let you google as it is several links following his expansion in Milwaukee.  I will give you the link to his market if you are interested in knowing more about the store http://www.petesfruitmarket.com
The store has so many affordable items that make having fresh produce an every day opportunity in this neighborhood.  I have the opportunity to stop on my lunch to pick up some things as I work in this area on a regular basis.  Pete shops the Chicago markets every day so the turn over at the store is fantastic.  Many local restaurants buy from Pete in this predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.  The place is busy whenever I stop or drive by.  Since the fruits and vegetables come from all over the globe, buying here is not usually buying local or organic.  
The rates of obesity and related diseases continues to climb in this country.  The poorest areas of many urban areas suffer the most as food stores pull out of these neighborhoods and fried food restaurants move in.   People in these economically depressed areas are not thinking about what they can do to save the planet when just getting enough food for their family weighs heavily on them every day.  
Eating unhealthy foods not only hurts the waistlines but also affects student performance and success.  Graduation rates in our public school are just over 50%.  That affects the whole community as more and more unskilled people populate an area already hit with high rates of unemployment.  It is not the whole answer, but it is part of the problem. School lunch menus do very little to providing the healthiest choices for our kids.  It is hard for those planning these menus as many of the unhealthy foods are subsidized (making them cheaper) while fresh fruits and vegetables are not.  Kids are so used to eating the unhealthy choices.  When dietitians try to improve the menus, they are frustrated by the amount of uneaten food going into the trash. Taste buds have acclimated to eating more fat, sugar, and salt than is healthy.   
It is not going to be easy to change but we do have to do something to try and improve food choices for everyone.  They say we produce enough to feed everyone on the planet but food production has been moved to larger areas with further shipping distances.  My mother taught me how to can and preserve things from the garden but this is far from the norm nowadays.

  
We will have to get back to our roots to help solve local food issues.  People are able to grow a good portion of their families needs in a small plot of earth.  Knowledge is a powerful thing.  Teaching more people how to pull the resources out of the ground is one step towards improving neighborhoods everywhere. 

If you have made it this far, I thank you for reading about these issues.  Not everyone sees food choices affecting something other than hunger.  If you can afford to do the best for you and your family by growing your own and doing it as organically as possible, I encourage you on.  If you can only do one thing to improve your life, do that.  I just ask that you remember those who have few choices and think about what you could do to help others.  We are a community and we need to care about each other.