Hello friends! My name is Joshua Macalinao. I'm the founder of Nabu Market. I'm writing this blog post to tell you the story of "how" and "why" I started Nabu Market.

    Take a journey with me through time and space. The year is 2011. The place is Miami, Florida. This was the summer I graduated high school. I had just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called psoriasis, a skin disease marked by red, itchy, scaly patches. At that point the disease posed very little concern to my teenage mind. I was told by my doctor that the disease was incurable and was genetic. I decided to ignore its effect on me until it was too late. After 18 months 50% of the skin on my legs, arms, and torso was covered in red, itchy, scaly patches. I had spent my first year in college, stressed out, eating junk food, binge drinking, and sleeping late nights with very little exercise in between. These habits exacerbated my psoriasis and by 2015 70% of my skin was covered in red, itchy, scaly patches. The pain was unbearable. I made a decision to not use any pharmaceutical intervention because I didn't have health insurance at the time, and I feared the cost would take too large of a financial burden on me and my family. Due to that constraint I realized I had to get creative. I began researching what I could do to naturally heal my self from within without the aid of pharmaceuticals. I soon learned that we can control about 5% of what happens to us based on our daily habits, the rest of the 95% is left to fate. So I focused in on that 5% that I could control which involved transforming my lifestyle and habits. I learned that there's 3 key pillars of health that I have the power to control through sheer will and discipline:

1. Sleep.

2. Diet.

3. Exercise.

    I can't control my own genetics but I sure can control the quality and quantity of my sleep, what I put in my mouth, and how often I exercise. This is called "stacking the conditions in your favor" to help optimize your bodies natural healing mechanism. I didn't cure my disease this way but I primed my body to be as healthy as possible so when I finally decided to use pharmaceuticals I was able to attain a semblance of normalcy at break neck speed.

    Soon I developed the habit of shopping at my local Publix supermarket to buy leafy greens for my green smoothies every week. One day I was standing at the produce aisle and I looked at the back of the package of my leafy greens and realized that what I've been eating had been shipped thousands of miles away from California all the way to Miami, Florida! This astounded me, I thought to myself, "why am I eating vegetables from another state that traveled across the country, when I live in Florida!" I learned that the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables degrades the longer it stays in cold-storage. By the time I would get the leafy greens for my smoothies the nutrient content was at a fraction of what it was when it was freshly picked. On top of that the lack of transparency in my food supply chain began to bother me. I had no idea how many people handled my food before it got to my hands! Most people don't even think about this but dozens of people handle our food before it reaches our plates. I lived in an apartment building down the street from that supermarket, that night I was sitting on my balcony and noticed an empty lot next to my apartment. As I peered over my balcony at the site, "I thought to myself that would be the perfect spot for a local community farm." I called up my best friend that night and we decided to build a local farm! 

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nabumarket.com is an online marketplace that helps you search and discover local farms. Our mission is to democratize fresh nutritious food for local communities across the world. Visit our marketplace linked here to buy fresh fruits and veggies online and get free curbside pickup from local organic farms in South Florida. Sign-up now and we'll match you with a local farm in your area!