Reasons to Eat in Season

By Bella Hillyer

1500 miles is far. Cities 1500 miles away from Seattle include Madison, Wisconsin, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Baja California Sur, Mexico. 1500 miles is also the average distance that food travels before it reaches your plate. Our global, industrialized food system promotes a disconnect between people and place. Buying seasonally from local farmers allows you to know where your food comes from while offering simultaneous benefits to the environment.

Most consumers mindlessly purchase store-bought food without considering the carbon emissions released as it traveled or through the farming practices that grew it. The produce section’s strawberries purchased in August, lettuce bought in December, and dragon fruit sold in California are routinely tossed into the cart. Even though strawberries thrive in the Spring, lettuce in the Summer, and dragon fruit grows in South America, grocery shoppers in the U.S. are conditioned to have these foods available year-round. The average grocery list does not change with location or season. In his “Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry defines these individuals as “passive consumers.” He describes the absence of association with food from farming and land as “cultural amnesia” that poses threats to human spirituality. The gratitude we once gained for our earth upon physically witnessing the soil bear our food has been lost in the midst of grocery store convenience.

Land ethic is not the only thing taken by the food system. Diversity is important for diets; it helps you consume the various nutrients your body needs. Different seasons yield different fruits and vegetables, increasing the likelihood that you’re ingesting necessary vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Also, seasonal produce is harvested when it is fully developed after optimal growing conditions, bolstering its nutritional value. Additionally, let’s not forget that growing food out of season requires more human aid, as the planet cannot adequately support producing the demand for these crops naturally. This means more pesticides and artificial fertilizers that harm your body and deregulate biogeochemical cycles.

Local farmers utilize planetary knowledge to grow delicious, healthy produce that does less environmental harm both in its production and transportation. It is important to support these stewards as they work hard to rotate crops, biologically control pests, and gather natural compost fertilizers. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides consumers with a weekly subscription service to boxes of seasonal produce from local farmers. Guaranteed customers grant financial security for farmers, and they receive payments during the growing season when operating costs are high. Subscription service members gain insight about the process by which their food was grown and transported to their plates.

Grocery stores’ industrial food producers often use carefully curated wording to persuade customers into believing that their food is better. One may picture the chickens laying “cage free” eggs roaming freely in green fields, but the birds are still shoved into confined indoor spaces, just without metal bars surrounding them. When picking up a CSA box, or buying from a stand at the farmer’s market, one can ask the farmer directly about how the food was curated. Consumers are more connected with their food and ensure that they are making the right choice for their bodies and the planet. In an interview, one woman raved about the benefits of CSA, “First of all, you should eat seasonally, it’s fresher, it’s healthier and it’s lost fewer vitamins as a result of sitting around in storage, you don’t have to ship it, and it’s part of living within your environment.”