Why I only sell locally?

In a world where we can have anything from anywhere in the world, it does not mean it is a good thing...

In my opinion, any potential benefit of transporting products thousands of kilometres is outweighed by the negative impacts. The carbon emissions from transporting goods, the loss of quality of the product due to being transported (more distant, more time from harvest to consumption), the potential multiple companies involved (from growing, to buying, to selling, the exporter and the importer), clouding the transparency of the origins of the product and increasing the price at every company, because everyone needs their piece of the pie.

My aim at 5 Acre Farm is to help in the fight against climate change by taking action in the form of keeping food kilometres low and the food supply chain short, with as much of the raw product coming from 5 Acre Farm as possible or as close to 5 Acre Farm as possible. It also has the benefit of you being able to contact only one place to find out all about our products, I will be able to tell you how I have grown the produce, when it was picked and when the product was made.

If I want to make certain products (eg. Jams) they need ingredients from elsewhere that I just can’t grow and process here. (Side note: it does cross my mind that there is the option not to make these products as well… ) However, I can make sure I am sourcing the most sustainable ingredients possible. Here are a list of ingredients that I am working on sourcing more directly and locally:

  • Sugar

  • Lemons (Hopefully I can grow them here soon)

There is no agreed definition of local*, so I have decided to define this to mean within 70km of 5 Acre Farm. If you order online, products will only be sent to people with an address within the 70km of 5 Acre Farm (see map below). If I stock in small shops, they will only be within 70km.

If you don’t live within 70km of 5 Acre Farm, I encourage you to look locally for your products, you just never know what great products you might find.

*A little bit on how others define local….

Canadian Government defines local at 50 km, whereas the United States Department of Agriculture considers local to be within 400 miles (643.7 km)