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Community Agriculture Alliance: Keep it local

Kristina Tober
Community Agriculture Alliance

With inflated food prices tempering holiday spirits, we all want to feel good about what we’re buying and why. It’s time to buy better food for your buck.

While the U.S. agri-food system produces some of the most affordable, safe food in the world, COVID showed us how easily our food supply chain can fracture. The Yampa Valley’s Community Agriculture Alliance plays a significant role in building a resilient local food system and, through the newly opened Yampa Valley Foods, offers direct access to locally grown food from close to 100 different producers across the valley.

Before you head to a national grocery chain, consider why Yampa Valley Foods should be your first stop. 



Local food is fresher and more nutritious

  • Local food is picked at peak ripeness and retains more nutrients. Studies show that produce loses vitamins and minerals the longer it’s stored and transported. 
  • Supermarket eggs can be up to 60 days old. Fresh, free range eggs are higher in vitamins, minerals and lower in cholesterol.
  • Grass-finished beef and pasture-raised pork and lamb have higher nutritional value than conventionally raised animals.

Local food tastes better and has less risk

  • Local food is handled and processed less, reducing the risk of contamination. It doesn’t require the chemicals, gasses or waxes used to preserve food across long distances.
  • Most produce sold in grocery stores is harvested before it’s fully ripe to accommodate transportation time. During transport, air, artificial lights and temperature changes can lower a food’s nutritional value.

Buying local food supports the local economy

  • Buying local food keeps money within the community, supporting local producers, businesses and jobs. 
  • When you buy direct from producers or through Yampa Valley Foods, producers earn significantly more. For every dollar consumers spend on food at home and away, only 15 cents on average goes to the farmers and ranchers who produce it. 

Know your farmer, know your food 

  • Local food offers greater transparency. You can connect with the producers who grow your food, ask questions about farming practices and animal welfare.
  • Ranchers who use small, local processors versus large regional ones have greater confidence that the meat they receive back is from their own herds.

Buying local food reduces the environmental impact of your food

  • Less transportation reduces carbon emissions and the overall environmental footprint.
  • Local farms support biodiversity because they typically cultivate a wider variety of crops and livestock breeds than large-scale industrial farms.

Directly comparing the price per pound of pork loin, for example, between conventional and pasture raised is not an apples-to-apples decision. When you weigh all the benefits of locally grown and produced food over what’s available in larger grocery chains, it’s easier to appreciate the value you get.

This holiday, put Yampa Valley Foods first on your list.


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