Editor’s Note: The following is part of a class project initiated in the classroom of Ball State University professor Adam Kuban, who challenged his students to find sustainability efforts in the Muncie area. Several such stories will be featured in November.
MUNCIE, Ind. — Shoppers in Muncie have many options where they purchase and obtain their produce.
Both farmers markets, where produce is locally and freshly grown, and big box stores, where the goods are mass produced but more convenient to buy, are choices for shoppers.
Farmers markets can provide more nutritional benefits than big box stores.
According to farmers such as Susan Ess, when shopping for produce, it’s important to know how fresh the product is. Different places where a shopper buys their produce has different life spans. For example, a strawberry bought at a box store such as Walmart can have a different level of freshness than if a strawberry were to be bought at a local farmers market.
“We always say fresh is best,” said Ess, owner of Landess Farm. “The stuff you get from the store is usually a week old or so, and the things you get at the farmers markets may have been picked that day.”
According to a graduate thesis done in 2013 by Joshua Gruver and Samantha Grover, there were 4,300 farms in East Central Indiana at the time. The Indiana State Department of Agriculture reports there are 56,649 farming operations in the state, with an average farm size of 264 acres.
Many of these farms are small scale, so they are able to grow many different kinds of crops and produce. Much of what these small-scale farms grow are corn and soybeans, but they also are able to grow things such as fruits, vegetables, berries and nuts that they distribute to local shops in the community.
Knowing the produce goes from the farm to the table makes the farmers markets where the produce is sold more trustworthy, said Jenni Effinger, manager of the Minnetrista Farmers Market. This way, the customer knows that there is virtually nothing done to the product before consuming it. There are no artificial preservatives put on the goods, and it is in its healthiest form.
“The quality is much better because it’s not traveling thousands of miles before it gets to you,” said Effinger. “I buy lettuce from one of our vendors, and it’s grown locally. When I purchase their lettuce, it lasts me three to four weeks. If you buy lettuce from the store, we all know that it lasts three to four days.”
According to an article in Mother Jones, bagged lettuce can be two weeks old by the time you eat it.
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Locally grown produce has health and local benefits.
According to an article from Virtua Health, a nonprofit healthcare provider located in southern New Jersey, local produce is usually picked at peak ripeness. When you purchase produce at a farmers market, it’s in its most nutritious and healthiest form.
They…
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