A cartful of choices: grocery shopping for local food.

Food sellers are watching a big trend: shoppers are asking for locally-grown foods. From rural to urban, big to small, natural to gourmet to mainstream, the "L-word" is invading grocer marketing materials.

Why Local?

A "new trends" column in the November 2004 Fast Company magazine makes a point many have observed before and since: "In the same way that 'organic' replaced 'all natural' as the label that signified a respect for sustainable agriculture and distaste for fillers, hormones, and other nasties, 'local is replacing 'organic" as the key signifier to people concerned about how their food is produced. The reason: The mass commercialization of the organic label, thanks to the government standard. has diluted its meaning.

As recently covered ha this publication ["Commercialization of Organics", Aug '05 New Life Journal]. it's not just the government standard that has made a difference. The growth of the organic foods industry has drawn big companies to the table, and because of their scale (and profit motive) they are able to efficiently move organic production to where the cost of labor is lowest. compromise growing practices right up to the line of the organic standard, and ship foods worldwide at the expense of flavor and freshness.

One key group making the shift to local are those informed organics shoppers looking for something more trustworthy than that green and white USDA label. To many, nothing is more trustworthy than being able to look the grower in the eye and ask where and how the food was grown. Or. short of being able to buy direct from the grower to know that a trusted grocer is asking these questions for you.

The word "local" is, in theory, uncorruptible: it either comes from around here or it doesn't. Around here, we really only have small farmers growing food, and they are largely growing it outside of the realm of government price supports and agribusiness contracts.

Whether or not they were ever organic shoppers, people recognize that food traditions are fundamental to the character of a place. People who grew up in these mountains and people who adopted them as our chosen home value the connection that locally-grown foods provide to the Appalachian cultural and agricultural heritage.

A broader shopping and marketing trend shows that about a third of the American buying public, often called "cultural creatives" in marketing circles, value things that are small scale, unique, and handmade over things that are mass-produced. and will pay more for those things. If you're reading New Life Journal, you probably fall into this category. Locally-grown foods meet the small scale, unique, and handmade criteria.

Finally, local food shoppers are people who just plain like to eat food that tastes good. When it's fresh, grown small-scale, and grown for taste rather than shipping quality, it's going to taste better.

The question remains: to what extent are local products actually finding a home in the produce coolers of area retailers? Is the word "local" really uncorruptible? Looking closely at area food retailers, there are a few surprises to be found.

Small and Large

It is easier for small retailers to buy from small farms than it is for the big guys. But size doesn't always predict buying behavior. Asheville natural foods retailers Earth Fare and Greenlife are a great example: Greenlife has two stores to Earth Fares thirteen, which means Greenlife's produce managers do most of their buying on the store level while Earth Fare largely uses a warehouse system. Yet both are strongly (and increasingly) committed to featuring local foods, and both make it work within their purchasing systems.

Western North Carolina has ten to fifteen small community natural foods stores. Some put great effort into finding local food: others are content to send in the produce order to a single supplier, usually New Jersey-based Albert's Organics or Florida-based Global.

The same goes for country stores. Some. like the Corner Market in Etowah and the Old Hampton Store in Linville. pride themselves in featuring local farm products. Others. if they do carry produce, make no effort to support the farms that abound in their own rural communities.

Bare-Bones and High End

You'd also think having a fancier shopping environment would lend itself to selling products with added value. including locally-grown foods: research has consistently shown that people are willing to pay more for the "local" label than any other. But among large grocers, high-end places with a gourmet slant like Harris Teeter and The Fresh Market sell very little local produce. Harris Teeter evokes local by calling their produce section a "Farmers Market" and using language like "fresh from the farm everyday" on their website, but they don't deliver, at least not yet.

Similarly deceptive is Bi-Lo's use of the word "local" to refer to anything grown in the Southeast. Their weekly sale fliers shove farmer images and stories from our "local farmers in the South Carolina lowlands and even Florida. While there's probably a Bi-Lo somewhere near these farmers, to broadcast the local message across an area so big is to greatly compromise the meaning of the word.

WNC-based Ingles Markets is an interesting story. Ingles has always carried local farm products, and in fact store-level produce managers still buy direct from farmers. When Ingles stores begin to cam creasy greens in late winter, they're all from small farms around here. but the signage has never told that story. Ingles company management is now leading the charge to more clearly distinguish local produce on their shelves.

Where does that leave us as consumer? Ask questions. If you don't see labeling, ask your grocer what's local. If you see local labeling, address potential misuse of the term by asking your grocer what it means.

Finally, look for the Appalachian Grown logo. Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project is currently promoting this logo in partnership with grocery stores of all types. Appalachian Grown is displayed with farm products from western North Carolina and mountain counties in surrounding states, a definition of local that we think reflects a shared bioregion and cultural heritage, and limits the labeling to independent family farms.

Peter Marks is Local Food and Farm Coordinator for Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). ASAP's Local Food Guide is available in area retailers or online at www.appalachiangrown.org.