Sustainable Ideas...

Now that “local” equals “quality and yummy,” consumers are flocking to farmers’ markets, and fuel costs are making it too expensive to get food from one coast to the other, supermarkets are stocking more stores with local produce.

Some signs of the times from a recent New York Times article: Wa-Mmart is investing in local produce, spending $400 million to put local fruits and vegetables in its aisles. Fruit companies Dole and Nunes are contracting with farmers in the east for products (broccoli and greens) that they used to ship in from the west. And, farmers’ markets are welcome on some supermarket parking lots or even in the store.

It’s all paying off. As the Times reported, Hannaford Brothers, a chain with 165 stores in New England, has seen a 20 percent increase in local produce sales in the last two years. Why? Michael Norton, company spokesman, says their customers want five things from local produce:

1. freshness and taste,
2. to maintain community farmland and open space,
3. to keep food sources close,
4. knowledge of where their food comes from and keeping that money in the community, and
5. food safety.

Moving forward, there are definite challenges when it comes to getting local food from area farmers on supermarket shelves. The biggest challenge, often, there isn’t an established distribution network for many farmers to get foods from their farmers into grocery stores. But, clearly, local food is here to stay.

Photo from the Organic Test Kitchen.