 Hi, I'm Hannah Corman, a graduate from a master's program in Earth Sciences at Stanford University. So, I'm sure you've heard people say that locally grown food is better, but why is that? First, local foods are fresher because they take less time to get to you. And because they've traveled less, they contain more nutrients and people often find that they taste better. Second, local foods usually have a lower carbon footprint because they don't have to travel as far. Let's take a look at these two oranges. They look the same, but one's from Chile and traveled 6,000 miles to get here and one's from California and was from really close by. Buying local foods doesn't have to mean that you spend more. When you buy local foods in season, it's often the same price or cheaper than the grocery store. Local foods are cheapest at the height of the season when the supply is large. Also, local food doesn't carry the same travel costs as food from far away. For me, the most important reason to buy locally is to support your local economy, especially at the farmers market. The money you spend on local food stays in your community. So it turns out that in the U.S., over 25% of the money we spend on groceries is at Walmart. So if you spend a dollar on food at Walmart, the money goes to the store's overhead, it goes to shipping and packaging and marketing the food, it goes into the pockets of the billionaires who own Walmart. A much smaller amount goes to the employees at Walmart, and just a few cents of that dollar will go to the farmer who grew the food. When you spend a dollar at the farmers market, the majority of that dollar goes directly to the farmer. In the food movement, it can be easy to feel powerless because at the root of most food issues are policies that lie in Washington. But really, every time we spend a dollar on food, it's an opportunity to vote with our dollar. We're sending a message through the market about our values, about our preferences, and about what we support. So when you can, buy local more often. It will be good for you, for your community, and for your environment.