Picking Strawberries At The Farm

Plenty Magazine
Published June 3, 2008

Right now, strawberries are a win-win fruit. They're in season, they're bursting with sweetness, and they're low-cal. One way to jump-start eating healthier and more pleasurably, while burning fewer fossil fuels: Pick your own. Buying from a local farm eliminates the carbon costs totted up in "food miles," the distance food is trucked or flown from farm to plate. Locally grown produce travels an average 56 miles from farm to institutional markets, while conventional produce travels an average 1,454 miles, or almost 27 times as far, according to a study by the Iowa State University Leopold Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. When you go to the farm, you're getting the fruit at its freshest; while it's true that you've travelled, and not the food, well...you've still supported a local farmer, which strengthens the local food system. Another reason: Strawberries are among the most pesticided crops, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG);