The following is mostly my opinion but I am very pleased to know there are more and more people wanting to learn about local produce and the thought of "getting away from the supermarkets" seems to be growing every day.

The following are a few reasons why I consider local produce very important :

• It enables more consistent supply in times of floods etc and for whatever reason the produce that is transported further isn't available, for example import strikes or panic buying (remember the toilet paper and at times egg supply?

• It is a great way to find out how the produce / food you eat is actually grown, is it sprayed with pesticides or fed an unnatural diet. What i am saying is when you can meet the producer of your food, or at least some of the ingredients of your meals and you get to ask them how they grow what they do, in fact you soon learn that you as a consumer / customer have a lot more say in what happens on farms than you might at first think.

• This goes with the second point above, the transparency of exactly how food is grown is much easier in a small local system and if you suspect the producer isn't being truthful about how they do things, you can choose to either challenge them to be more transparent (farm tours, open door policy etc) or simply decide to go elsewhere.

• Locally grown produce tends to be much fresher and is more likely to be seasonal as the majority of fruits and vegetables are picked much closer to the date they are eaten. There are exceptions of course and produce like meats are routinely frozen and are not as dependant on seasons.