GEN191 … in the Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 48b, we are given two important Jewish reasons to eat locally: the preservation of green spaces in towns and cities for the health of the residents, and the enjoyment of eating food. Eating locally grown food preserves farms in and around cities and towns.  Without a viable market for the food that is produced, it is difficult for farmers to keep farmland for agricultural use and not turn it over to residential or commercial use.  Agricultural land use is more easily sustainable than homes or businesses, depending on how the land is farmed. … Another reason to eat locally is that it preserves the diversity of what is grown: “The Rabbis said: Even though you may think them superfluous in this world, creatures such as flies, bugs, and gnats have their allotted tasks in the scheme of creation, as it says, “And God saw everything that God had made, and behold it was good” [this verse].  B’reshit Rabbah 10:7  This midrash reinforces how everything has a purpose in creation, even the things that we might think we would be better off without.  When we require our food to be shipped long distances, we reduce the number of varieties that are grown, thereby reducing the biodiversity.  The varieties of tomato that “travel well” – in other words, the tomatoes that can be shipped with minimal loss—become the predominant varieties of tomato that are grown.  When the characteristics of disease and pest resistance or adaptability to climate are added in, the number of choices represented in the supermarket can become even fewer.  Eventually this push to market eliminates the varieties of tomato that are available.  We lose more than taste as we limit the number of varieties of tomato or strawberry or corn or anything else that is grown for our consumption.  When we diminish biodiversity, our agricultural industry becomes vulnerable to one disease or pest that can threaten an entire crop.  The gains that we achieve in developing a tomato that is more marketable makes the tomato plant more vulnerable.  As Wendell Berry writes in his essay “The Pleasure of Eating,” “But as scale increases, diversity declines; as diversity declines, so does health; as health declines, the dependence on drugs and chemicals necessarily increases.” With the increasing demand for locally grown food, there is an increasing interest in “heirloom” varieties of tomatoes, as well as other types of produce.  These older varieties are more fragile and less disease resistant, but have amazing colors, flavors, and tastes. (By Batsheva Appel, "Connecting Locally: Jumping Off the Production Line")  SACTAB 175-6