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HAROLD BRUBAKER
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA - Franca Fusco is particular about what she eats.
"I'm so worried that the things I buy from the grocery store are not as nutritionally wholesome as they are if I grow them myself," she said, "or buy them from a local farmer."
Thanks to Fusco and other consumers who are putting a lot more thought and effort into food, sales of locally grown food are climbing, forcing changes in the U.S. food system, which excels at moving goods over long distances.
Consumers have lots of reasons to buy local food when possible: They think it is fresher and more nutritious; they want to keep small farmers in business; they like unusual varieties of vegetables that do not ship well; they want their children to know that food ultimately comes from farms, not factories and supermarkets; and they think it saves energy.
While no one tracks overall sales of local food - still a tiny part of the $900 billion U.S. food industry - some examples from Philadelphia local-food advocacy groups such as Food Trust and Farm to City illustrate the increase in consumer spending on food grown on nearby farms:
Sales at farmers' markets and other ventures coordinated by Farm to City have climbed from less than $200,000 in 2001 to $625,000 last year, director Bob Pierson said.
Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market found plenty of demand when it expanded to three days a week from two last June; customers boosted spending from $88,600 in 2004 to $123,275 last year, director Ann Karlen said.
The Food Trust said sales at farmers' markets it sponsored more than doubled from less than $500,000 in 2002 to more than $1 million last year, said project coordinator Brian Lang.
Among the efforts to build on this momentum are a new organic farmers' cooperative in Lancaster; plans for a local-food distribution center in Philadelphia's Brewerytown section; the formation this spring of the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance; and Eat Drink New Jersey, a coalition determined to keep more of the Garden State's bounty at home.
The burgeoning interest in local food is "an attempt to recapture our food supply" from corporations, said Samuel Fromartz, who this year chronicled, in his book Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew, the migration of organic food from its small and locally oriented beginnings to big business.
Nevertheless, those fighting in the trenches for local food say it will thrive in the long run only if it is economically sustainable for businesses that can get products to the right place at the right time.
"Everybody wants to talk about the taste of strawberries or the taste of squash blossoms," but reliable distribution is key, said Chris Fullerton, manager of Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative in Hustontown, Pa.
Tuscarora, founded in 1988, has 22 members in central Pennsylvania and sells mostly in the Washington metro area. The group has averaged 12 percent annual sales growth for the last seven years, reaching $1.3 million last year, Fullerton said.
The Lancaster Farm Fresh cooperative, which has roots in a group of Amish and Mennonite farmers loosely organized as Farm Fresh for Chefs since the late 1990s, hopes to achieve similar success in Philadelphia and New York.
Farm Fresh had a reputation for high quality but inconsistent service. "The problems were that they would show up with half the merchandise," said Sean Weinberg, who bought from the group when he was chef at Rose Tattoo Cafe in Philadelphia. Weinberg now owns Restaurant Alba in Malvern.
This year, Farm Fresh, which had $300,000 in sales last year, merged with Scarecrow Hill Organic Farm in Ephrata, Pa., to form the cooperative with 15 organic fruit and vegetable growers, supplemented by suppliers of dairy, eggs and meat. For what the cooperative is calling its pilot year, it rented a warehouse in Quarryville and developed packing and labeling standards to make the group easier to deal with.
"When it's lettuce, its going to be in the right box, packaged appropriately," said Peggy Fogarty-Harnish, who operates Scarecrow Hill with her husband and is being paid by a government-supported nonprofit group to help organize and market the cooperative.
Ann-Marie Lasher, who owns Picnic, a cafe and caterer in University City, and who has been a regular Farm Fresh customer, is hoping for improved service from the cooperative - such as a warning if something she ordered is not available.
Lasher is happy that Lancaster Farm Fresh is increasing deliveries to twice a week. She does not have enough space to store a week's worth of eggs and milk. "I'll probably be spending more money with them," said Lasher, whose weekly order had been $150 for eggs and dairy, $200 during the produce season.
Larger companies are also buying locally. Two years ago, Eat'n Park Hospitality Group Inc., a Pittsburgh restaurant and food-service company with operations in eastern Pennsylvania, launched Farm Source, a local-buying program, in response to retirement community residents' asking where the company bought tomatoes.
J. Brooks Broadhurst, the company's senior vice president of food and beverage, estimated that Farm Source accounted for more than $8 million a year in spending. "From less transportation and use of fuel moving products across country, to better and higher-quality products, to really knowing exactly where our food comes from, it has huge benefits across our system," Broadhurst said.
At Philadelphia University, there is a Farm Source display identifying local products, such as honey from Easton, mushrooms from Chester County, and potatoes from Schuylkill County. General manager Bill Zimnoch said the display by the cafeteria entrance overflows in August and September.
While Lancaster Farm Fresh gets off the ground, and Eat'n Park pushes suppliers to buy locally, grass-roots local-foods efforts continue - such as the founding this spring of the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance.
The first meeting of the alliance at the Wrightstown library in April drew 30 people, including Franca Fusco. Farmers, environmentalists and epicures shared their desire for easier access to fresh, local food and their concern that farms were disappearing.
Soon after that meeting, Fusco, who has a linens business, got a membership in Blooming Glen Farm in Perkasie, Bucks County, 10 minutes from where she lives. There, she will pick up a regular supply of fresh produce. "It's better than growing it myself," she said. "I don't have to do all that work."
source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/14795108.htm
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