Hello there!👋
This is the Spira Farms newsletter. Where we talk about how spinach can lose 90% of its vitamin C in just 24 hours 😭
Today we are going to talk about:
- The Hidden Food Pandemic 🚚🚛
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The Hidden Food Pandemic 🚛🥬
It’s no secret that plants we often bought are not grown here. Rather, they are grown in warmer places, Mexico, or California. ☀️😎
Do you know how long it takes for harvest food to get here, and more importantly why that amount of time matters?
Penn State did research in the past that particularly looked at Spinach. Spinach lost 90% of its folate in 24 hours when not properly kept cold. Even when keeping the leaves at 39 degrees it losses 53% in 8 days. That SUCKS 👎. Do you know how old that spinach you are buying is? There is either no indication at all or more often a ‘expiration date’ on the container. Leaves don’t need an expiration date, like dairy. What it needs is when was the plant actually harvested, because the freshness of the foods actually matter.
The freshness of food from out of state is not spoken about enough, and it got worse. Truck drivers used to be able to get food here in 2-3 days. The practice was a bit much, in that they were driving almost non-stop. Whether driving the truck with another person, or just driving crazy hours they pulled it off because it was financially incentivized for them. Recently, the law changed ⚖️
The 625 ILCS 5/ Illinois Vehicle Code kicked in 2021. Since then commercial drivers are limited of driving 12 hours. I don’t want to paint the law in bad light, I don’t know the field, nor do I know if it negatively impacted the truckers. What I do know is that our food is now arriving significantly later than it did in the past. If we know that our leafy greens are losing their nutritional worth just getting here. Our nutrition silently suffered as a direct result of the law. 😭🥬
This is why we do what we do.