Produce Subscription Services Are Everything

There’s nothing like a good subscription service. Whether it be makeup, clothes, or shampoo, the satisfaction of a hand-selected batch of things arriving at your doorstep is an indescribable feeling. However, some are quick to call subscription services “a waste of money” and “unnecessary.” But these critics should critique no more. A brilliant, necessary genre of subscription services has arrived to change everything: fresh produce delivery. 

It’s no secret that the produce we buy from stores is imperfect. Regardless of whether you believe it, to buy affordable produce, one must purchase fruits and vegetables that are shot up with chemicals and covered in pesticides. Not only is it questionably authentic, the produce we buy also comes from farms that work to mass-produce fruits and vegetables, stripping the soil of the nutrients organic fruit provides. Essentially, if you were to eat a strawberry from a farm 30 years ago, you would consume more nutrients than if you were to eat a strawberry from the same farm today. In order to benefit nutritionally from grocery store-produce, one must buy and consume much more of it than if you were to eat from an ethical, local farm. 

The produce bought in stores is also incredibly wasteful. Even though you are consuming compostable and biodegradable food, it is boxed or wrapped in a plastic barrier that will take over 400 years to decompose. So, not only is the produce you’re buying from the grocery store nutritionally insufficient and ruining our environment internally, its containers are also impacting our world externally. All the while, though, local farmers are growing organic, eco-friendly produce that has the power to fix all of these issues. 

This is where the subscription service comes into play. Over the last few years, several box subscription companies have come on the scene, some with different focuses but all with the same common goals. Some boxes, for instance, allow customers to pick out their produce ahead of time (for meal prepping purposes), and some specialize in distributing unattractive, mutated produce that would otherwise be wasted. Some only offer fruits and vegetables, and some include cage-free eggs and ethically fed meat too. Unlike store bought produce, nearly all of these services make sure to distribute their materials in compostable and recyclable packaging as well. 

The only caveat to these services is the price. While paying $20-30 a week for a box of produce may seem expensive, it’s really not compared to the amount someone spends on the same lesser-quality product when visiting the grocery store one to three times a week. 

This service is a wonderful invention, and frankly, I think we all would be better versions of ourselves if we got fruits and vegetables delivered to our doorsteps every week. If you’re interested in supporting local Georgia farms, you can learn more about different food subscription companies here.

By Annie Levy