From The Summer 2005 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

La Vida Local: Support Regional Foods

Retailers may benefit from celebrating unique regional flavors

Elaine Lipson

If you’re like most retailers, you’ve spent the last few years making a place for organic foods in your store. You’ve taken the time to learn the basics about what organic means from both a regulatory and marketing perspective. And you’ve learned that consumers want organic foods in virtually every retailing category, from produce to grocery to meat to baby food.

Now there’s an emerging food trend with broad appeal: foods that are locally or regionally grown or produced. The local foods trend is a companion to the organic foods trend. Both evolved from the same set of values and beliefs—that we have the right to know where our food comes from and whether it has been grown, produced, transported and marketed in ways that are healthy and environmentally sustainable.

Most mainstream retailers have gone to great lengths in the past decades to consolidate and streamline food sourcing, with much food coming from hundreds and even thousands of miles away. Grocery purchasing and distribution systems are not designed to accommodate smaller farms and producers.

While these systems create economies of scale and an abundance of choices, overriding limitations of seasonality and distance, some consumers are beginning to see those limitations as advantages as they seek out fresh, local, seasonal foods—many of which may also be organic. By rethinking purchasing strategies, retailers can offer customers local foods, as well as those transported from afar.

Thumbs up for local label
A survey conducted by researchers at Ohio State University in 2004, mailed to 3,500 Ohio residents, found that 59 percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay at least 10 percent more for locally grown foods. Thirty-nine percent said they were willing to pay a similar premium for organic foods.

“We’re seeing quite a lot of enthusiasm among consumers for locally grown foods and more modest interest in organically grown foods,” said Jeff Sharp, rural sociologist with the Ohio State University Extension, in a press release about the survey. “Historically, the marketing of organic and locally grown foods overlapped quite a bit. Now, foods labeled organic are widely available but not necessarily locally grown. ... I think we’re seeing growing diversity in the attributes consumers are looking for in the alternative food system.”

Why is the local label so appealing? Local farmers are good neighbors. They can tell you directly how a food is grown or processed. And local foods are likely to be very fresh because they aren’t grown for a long shelf life, warehoused or transported for long distances.

When food travels a long way, the environmental impact goes far beyond a loss of freshness. Advocates of local food systems refer to “food miles,” a measure of the distance food travels from where it’s grown to where it’s sold. According to “Food Miles and Consumer Perceptions of Locally Grown Foods,” a conference presentation by Rich Pirog, marketing and food systems program leader at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, food miles in the United States and other industrialized nations have increased significantly in the last 50 years.

Going local
As the Ohio State University survey and other research has shown, the notion of purchasing foods grown close to home is compelling for many Americans. Groups such as Slow Food, a nonprofit that protects and promotes local and regional foods and culture, are growing rapidly. In many areas, producers, chefs and food advocates are joining forces to create organizations such as Berkshire Grown in Massachusetts.

As a retailer, perhaps you’re thinking that you can just send customers who want local foods to the nearest farmers’ market. By going a step further and offering some local foods in the retail environment, you’ll support the local economy, be a good neighbor and offer a meaningful choice to customers. Increasingly, supermarkets may be asked how they support local foods; in New York City, Whole Foods Market opened its newest supermarket in Union Square with a commitment to source up to 20 percent of its produce locally, according to The New York Times.

Some tips:

• The concept of local foods is somewhat elastic, and “local” isn’t a regulated term. In the Midwest, it might mean food grown anywhere in the region. In California, with many small farms and a long growing season, it might mean foods from a 25-mile radius. Let customers know what you mean when you say “local.”
• My neighborhood supermarket, for example, labels “Colorado Grown” produce. That’s a good start. Even better, identify the county or part of the state where a food is grown, or take a page from natural foods markets by creating signage with farmer profiles, including the name of the farm, a photo of the farm and/or farmer and a brief story about the farm. If the farm is organic or uses other sustainable practices, let customers know.
• Build relationships with local farmers and producers. Let them know that you want consistent quality and supply, and ask what they can realistically offer. At the same time, don’t expect that they’ll deliver factory-like sameness.
• If your area has a cooperative organization that promotes local foods, tell them that you’re interested in sourcing locally; they may connect you with producers who can meet your needs.
• Ask your farmers and producers if they can supply recipes or visit the store to offer samples and talk to customers.
• Look beyond produce. In my small Colorado town, we have an artisan goat cheese producer, an egg farm and a bee farm that makes wonderful honey and gift-boxed beeswax candles. All do very well in local grocery stores.

Working with local producers takes a different kind of effort and commitment than placing orders with a warehouse distribution system, but it can also be very rewarding. Knowing where food comes from and how it’s grown makes food a valued resource, not just a commodity.

Elaine Lipson (emlipson@aol.com) is the author of The Organic Foods Sourcebook (Contemporary, 2001).