The Importance of Diet Diversity

by The Etsy Blog

So what can we do? For starters, shop at your local farmers’ markets. Seek out farmers and purveyors of heirloom vegetables: not just tomatoes, but beans, eggplant, squash, radishes and potatoes as well. If none are to be found, grow heirlooms yourself by joining a seed bank in your area or purchasing transplants of heirloom vegetables from your local farm or greenhouse. And this extends to the meat-eaters as well; while Angus and Wagyu beef are as tasty as they come, grass-fed Longhorn and Pineywood varieties aren’t too bad either. (And with their smaller amounts of saturated fats, they’re healthier for you, too.) If you can grow chickens, look for the heirloom varieties, like the Light Sussex or Pekin Bantam breeds.

Eating (and growing) less common, non-supermarket varieties not only opens up a world of flavors, textures and dishes, but by creating a demand for these products, you’re actually helping to expand that narrow base of the pyramid. If each one of us starts to incorporate a few heirloom varieties in our diet and share our discoveries within our communities, we’d collectively be taking a bigger, concrete step towards securing our future food supply than any agricultural policy or seed bank can do.

read more at THE ETSY BLOG