NUTRITION AUTHOR
Rachel Cook
WHY YOU SHOULD BUY FROM LOCAL FARMERS n Do you know where everything came from on your plate? This is your sign: Start buying from local farmers.
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hile buying from the farmers’ market is a pleasant experience in itself, there is so much more to gain than just the ambiance of shopping outdoors. Here in ATX, The Texas Farmers’ Market hosts two events every weekend. TFM is at Lakeline on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at Mueller on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The events are a wholesome way to spend the weekend, moseying about the stands of vibrant fruits and vegetables during cool autumn mornings, listening to live music and conversing with local, small, family farmers. The meat and produce at the market may have less in common with the offerings at your local grocery store than you would think. Texas farms like Bouldin Food Forest, B5 Farm, Fruitful Hill Farm and Flintrock Hill Farm implement farming practices
NOVEMBER 2020
in line with permaculture, a sustainable design in which farms work as an ecosystem, mimicking nature rather than fighting against it. The use of crop rotation, cover crops and grazing animals results in better water retention, less erosion, carbon-rich soil and an abundance of nutrient-dense, organic food that is more resilient than traditional soil-tilled, monocultures. Monocultures like corn, wheat and soy require herbicides, fungicides and pesticides which can be so harmful that corn is actually genetically-modified to withstand it. According to regenerative farmer, Gabe Brown, the lack of crop rotation depletes the soil and crops of nutrients, resulting in the desertification of the land. When one of these monocrops fails, whether that be due to drought or bugs, taxpayers’ money is allocated toward federal crop insurance, subsidies and disaster relief. Between 1995 and 2020, this totaled
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