Following is a review by Andy Pedersen of research done in 2006 for Farmers' Markets of Nova Scotia as a community project by a team of Mount St. Vincent University fourth-year students in Applied Human Nutrition. The students--Corinne Porter, Jason George and Alyson Werger--took on our cooperative's request for help with research into the nutritional benefit of fresh local food as part of their course work. The purpose of our request was to generate resource and support materials for our 2006 Marketing and Development Program. You can download the full text of their report here. 

Three graduating students in Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University say:

“It is indisputable that consuming products available for purchase at the local Farmers’ Market is beneficial to the health and overall well being of the consumer.”

“As future nutrition professionals, we are proud to stand behind FMNS and help them improve the health of our community.”

The students found that many of the techniques used by corporations to produce vast quantities of food and then distribute it across great distance actually drains the food of its nutritional value. From one end of the corporate food system to the other, the students turned up evidence of compromised food quality.

They found that problems with factory food begin at the beginning: as the food is being grown or raised.

One study of tomatoes grown in plastic tunnels rather than in open fields found that being deprived of direct sunlight left the tomatoes with lower levels of the antioxidant lycopene, which may help reduce the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer, including prostate cancer.

The types and amount of fertilizers used can also have a detrimental effect on crops. High levels of nitrogen-based fertilizer decrease the amounts of vitamin C in potatoes, cauliflower and citrus. Wheat and millet grown using manure fertilizer boasted more vitamin A and vitamin B than crops grown with chemical fertilizer.

Animals that are allowed to graze freely on grass have been shown to have higher levels of the health omega-3 fatty acids – and lower levels of overall fat – than animals that are grain-fed.

The cramped quarters and unnatural diets inflicted upon livestock in large, corporate farms causes the animals stress, which weakens their immune systems. To keep their herds safe from bacterial infection, corporate farmers feed them heavy doses of antibiotics. Many of the bacteria have become resistant to the bacteria and now threaten human health. Because of this, the European Union has restricted the use of antibiotics on farms. Governments in North America haven’t.

The nutrition students also found studies indicating that many foods lose significant nutritional value on the often long journey they must take from farm to supermarket.

So it appears ripe by the time they make it to the supermarket, factory tomatoes are harvested while they’re still green and allowed to ripen on the truck, or are even forced to ripen by being subjected to ethylene gas. One study revealed that vine-ripened tomatoes contain almost a third more vitamin C than artificially ripened tomatoes.

The longer it takes to get spinach to market, the more of its nutritional value it loses. One study shows that a spinach crop loses more than half of its vitamin C and folate content – folate is a vitamin B compound with important health benefits, especially for pregnant woman – in just eight days after being harvested.

A crop’s vitamin C content is also severely damaged when the crop undergoes physical hardship such as extended storage, temperature extremes and rough handling. The longer and farther a crop must travel, the greater the likelihood of these conditions.

The Mount Saint Vincent students found another significant difference between the food at Farmers’ Markets and the food at supermarkets: choice. It’s simply more difficult to choose unhealthy food at a Farmers’ Market.

Studies show that consumers make the majority of their food decisions while they are shopping. While Farmers’ Markets often feature rich delicacies and baked goods, these indulgences lack the additives and preservatives that are so common in the supermarket varieties.

To keep their stores stocked with so much “choice,” food makers serving supermarkets have to load their food with preservatives. A favourite preservative is salt, not just because it preserves the food, but also because it replaces the flavours that may have been lost during manufacture. National dietary surveys have found North Americans consume at least three times as much salt as they should, up to 80% of it coming from processed foods.

“Local residents can attain a high level of satisfaction and security with the knowledge that the products they purchase at the local market are feasibly healthier, higher in nutrients, and produced using environmentally safe and sound methods,” they wrote.

“There is also the undeniable gratification of purchasing from a producer that considers you to be a part of their community, not a part of their profit margin.”

Background

Following are excerpts from the Community Project Proposal submitted by the team of MSVU fourth-year students in Applied Human Nutrition--Corinne Porter, Jason George and Alyson Werger--who took on our request for help with research into the nutritional benefit of fresh local food as part of their course work this year.