'Buy local' trend also good for environment

“We just had our minds set on buying some fresh stuff,” shopper Julia Alston said.

Alston says she liked to shop at the State Farmers Market, 1201 Agriculture St. in Raleigh. Some of her favorite purchases are center-cut ham and molasses.

"You want to keep your money where you live,” Alston said.

"If you buy local foods, you support your local farmers,” Jones said.

"We don't have run-off in the streams. We don't have problems because of overproduction on one piece of land,” Thompson said.

However, not everyone agrees about whether buying locally-grown foods reduces greenhouse gases. Last year, a study found only 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions resulted from delivery of food from farm to store.