NBC25 NEWS – The food on your dinner plate had to travel afar and could have an impact on our environment.

In a typical supermarket produce section, there are peppers from California, cranberries from Maine, and a lot of stuff from overseas. When you stop and think about it, there are a lot of frequent flier miles for your dinner salad. For that reason, each summer one particular store switches suppliers.

“Last summer, we started our own in-store farmers market. We teamed up with Fass Night Creek Farms, and it went over really exceptional, and we'll have that back when the good vegetables become available,” said Randy Richards, grocery store owner.

The store doesn't stop with produce. Practically every aisle has some home-grown product from nuts to milk and even eggs and meat.

“We have a fresh is best kind of philosophy around here. We do have people who come in and do want locally-raised and especially the all-natural products, and we try to give them what they want,” said Eric Hull, Butcher.

The idea may be to meet customers' expectations, but helping Mother Nature is a nice bonus.

“Anytime you can cut down on transportation costs, you're going to have less fossil fuels used and that does have a benefit to the ecosystem. What I like is we get to know the actual people who grow it, or have the product and they come by and deliver it a lot of time,” said Richards.

One way to get to know the producer is to become the producer.

“Have your own garden,” said Gaylord Moore, University of Missouri.

Calories are the only fuel you will burn getting the vegetables to the table and you'll know exactly how they have been raised.

“People are very concerned about pesticides. More people nowadays are into organic gardening. The gardening that I do here is the minimal amount of use of any pesticide,” said Moore.

In an effort to get started, consult the experts at your university extension center.
 
“Every state has a program that is called the Master Gardener Program,” said Moore.

Then, find some dirt and seeds.

“Starting small is very important. A small garden, whether it is open or a container, or whether it's a raised bed, you can grow a lot of stuff in small space,” said Moore.

If raising your own food is going a bit too far for you, there is an easier way to get locally-produced food. You can simply click here for a state-by-state list of farmers' markets in your area.