Family Farms and Community
According to the USDA, the U.S. has lost over five million farms since 1935.  Family farms are going out of business at break-neck speed, changing rural communities. If this continues, they will soon not be able to provide the local produce we have come to expect.  By supporting local farms near suburban areas and around cities, you help keep farmers on the land growing the foods we want and, at the same time, preserve open spaces and counteract urban sprawl. Buying local means buying food and goods that are grown, raised or produced as close to home as possible. Buying local also means that you are helping to preserve the environment as well as a sustainable way of life and community.  You are providing more nutritious produce for yourself and for your family, in addition to knowing where the produce is coming from.

Environment
Transporting food long distances uses an incredible amount of fossil fuel that releases pollutants into the atmosphere contributing to global climate change and air pollution.  Energy is also consumed with the refrigeration required to keep your food from spoiling as it travels.

There is a large amount of paper and plastic packaging to keep food fresh (or at least looking fresh) for a longer period of time. This packaging often ends up in the landfill and the production of the packaging adds to even more pollutants entering the atmosphere. The industrial farms on which these foods are produced are also often major sources of air and water pollution.

Know where your Food is coming From
Small, local farms are often run by farmers who live on their land and work hard to preserve it. Buying local means you are able to find out what they do and how they do it. Is their food grown organically? If not certified organic, ask why. Many small farms still use sustainable or organic farming methods that help protect the air, soil and water and are therefore better for you. Know where your food comes from.

Health and Nutrition
Buying food from local farms means getting food when it’s at its prime. Fresh food from local farms is healthier than industrially-farmed products because the food doesn’t spend days in trucks and on store shelves losing nutrients.

Food transported short distances is fresher (and, therefore, safer) than food that travels long distances. Preservatives are often used to keep foods looking fresh longer, and can be hazardous to human health. Industrially-produced foods are also difficult to grow without pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which can be damaging to both the environment and human health

Buy Local
Buying local means buying food and goods that are grown, raised or produced as close to home as possible. Buying local also means that you are helping to preserve the environment as well as a sustainable way of life and community.  You are providing more nutritious produce for yourself and for your family, in addition to knowing where the produce is coming from.

The Buy Local network of websites include, www.BuyLocalThinkGlobal.com www.CraftFairsandShows.com www.FarmersMarketsintheUSA.com and www.FarmersMarketsinCanada.com. Our websites lists over 20,000 farmers markets, growers and growers associations enabling consumers to search out local producers and retailers easily and efficiently. Search articles on buying local, energy news, technology and business. Take a moment and visit our featured profiles or photo blog, it's all right here.

Our Privacy Policy
We are committed to respecting the personal privacy of individuals who visit our Web sites. This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices of Farmers Markets in the USA.

We do not automatically gather any personal information from you, such as your name, phone number, e-mail or street address during your visit to its Web sites. This information is only obtained if you supply it voluntarily, usually through contacting us via e-mail, or registering on a form within the site.

Farmers Markets in the USA uses per-session cookies. The per-session cookies do not collect personal information about you. Per-session cookies are used to store information within a session (or visit to our web site). These cookies are deposited on a user's computer only while the user is visiting the site and are deleted when the user closes the session. Here is the list of information that we are collecting by using per-session cookies:

• The name of your Internet service provider, its IP address, and the name of your service provider's server
  
  
• Farmers Markets in the USA  makes no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting Farmers Markets in the USA sites
  
  
• The length of each visit
  
  
• The number of requests per visit
  
  
• Your type of operating system (Windows, MacIntosh, Unix, etc.)
  
  
• Your browser type (Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.)

By keeping this data, site administrators can fine-tune the sites based on user-activity trends.