The Bergen Market is our way of helping to sustain a rural way of life and to bring farm fresh produce to our neighbours. Our producers are profiled on their own web page so you will be able to meet the people who grow your food. You will find out about their farming philosophy, the methods they use to grow their produce, as well as the variety of products they have to offer. Thank you for supporting the Bergen Market. If you would like to particpate in the Bergen Market or to have us contact you we have a simple contact form for you to fill out.
1. Local produce tastes better and it's better for you.
Food loses it’s nutrients quickly. Food can travel more than 1500 kms from the farm to get to the big box grocery store. This could be a delay of a week or more from harvest to your dinner table. Long distance food tends to lose nutrients over travel time and the varieties that are grown are selected for their uniformity and durability instead of good taste! Food grown in our own community will most likely picked and available for purchase within 24 hours. We grow food for it’s flavor not its shelf life. It is crisp, sweet, loaded with flavor and nutrients. As an added bonus you actually get to meet the person who grows your food!
2. Local food supports local farm families.
Farming is a vanishing lifestyle. The loss of family farmers and the impoverishment of rural communities continues. Fewer and fewer young people can become farmers. As a result, we are all worried about losing our rural way of life to development. It is no wonder, farmers today gets less and less when they sell through the big grocery chains. Local farmers who sell directly eliminate middlemen and receive full retail price for their food. This means farm families can afford to stay farming, doing the work they love.
3. Local food protects genetic diversity.
In the modern industrial agriculture system, varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously, withstand harvesting equipment and be tough as nails so that it can be shipped long distances without being damaged. Shippers demand produce with a tough skin that can survive packing, transport, and a long shelf life in the store. Only a handful of hybrid varieties of each fruit and vegetable meet those rigorous demands, so there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown. Of the long list of demands factory farms place on the food they grow, nutrition and flavor are not included. In contrast, local farmers who sell directly to you, to local restaurants, or grocery stores grow a variety of produce selected for their flavor and genetic diversity. In fact, many heirloom varieties are passed down from generation to generation because they taste good.
4. Local food preserves open space, and supports a clean environment.
As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. By supporting local agriculture, you help to protect your region's farmland from urban sprawl and development. Protection of local farmland means protection of open spaces, natural ecosystems, and biodiversity. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. Farmers are good stewards of the land. In addition, the patchwork of fields, hedgerows, ponds and buildings is the perfect environment for many beloved species of wildlife. That landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.
5. Local food is about the future.
By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in our community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful and abundant food. Buying local food builds our community!