Is Locally Grown Food Going Corporate?

Is locally grown food about to go corporate?

That's what I've been wondering as I've pondered Whole Foods' new deal with a small sustainable Long Island vegetable grower. The grocery chain is aiming to bring high quality locally grown salad mix, produced by Long Island-based Satur Farms, to several stores in Manhattan and on Long Island.

The hip downtown Chelsea, TriBeca, and Bowery Whole Foods markets in Manhattan will be among the first stores to receive the Satur product, which shipped its first batch of produce in mid-June. What could be more trendy than locally grown veggies delivered straight to the produce aisle? King Kullen, a Long Island-based chain, also stocks produce produced by nearby growers.

"Local food has grown beyond the culinary fringe," says Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End magazine and senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute. "Some of the nation's largest and most forward-thinking agribusinesses are beginning to carve out a place for produce raised nearby."

Satur, which is not certified organic but does grow its crops on about 200 acres of land on the East End of Long Island according to organic standards, is owned by chef-turned-farmer Eberhard Muller and his wife, Paulette Satur. Muller once helmed the famed gastronomic temple, Lutece. For years, Satur has been supplying chefs like Daniel Boulud and Mario Batali as well as several local grocery chains in Manhattan. (For more on Satur, see Edible East End's High Summer issue coming this August.)

At Whole Foods, a five-ounce plastic tub of Satur's "Tender Sweet Local Baby Lettuce Blend" will run $4.99 -- the same price as the Earthbound Farm organic salad mixes. That's a pretty hefty price for greens -- even ones that arrive at the store in under 24 hours. But maybe it's not such a bad deal for a mix of carefully cultivated arugula, mesculin, baby spinach, and other lettuces.

Fred Kasak, Whole Food's senior produce and floral coordinator for the Northeast region, insists local won't follow the lead of organic to become a commodity. Large growers in California and Arizona have "degraded" the original pristine organic products developed during the 1980s and 90s, he says.

"There are land issues," explains Kasak, citing one of the main reasons that small local farmers won't go corporate. Farms like Satur could never get big enough to become mega-growers.

Clearly, the expansion of locally grown is a boon for small growers.

"Without volume, you can't exist," says Paulette Satur.

Still, you have to wonder. If locally grown vegetables are packed in plastic tubs, crammed into trucks, and shipped off to grocery stores, how different are they from any other produce section offering?

Yes, the produce arrives at the store much fresher than the product shipped from afar. Yes, the carbon footprint for delivering it is infinitely smaller.

But I can't chat with the farmer about his growing methods.

And I can't roam from farm stand to farm stand sampling just-picked strawberries, still warm from the noonday sun. Who thought the grocery store checkout line would become the new farm stand?

Comments

[WIpatriot]

I guess the perspective is different in various parts of the country.

I can hit 3, count 'em, three Farmer's Markets on Saturday AM from May through October on my way from home to downtown, if I had any reason to go that far. What's even funnier is that I can walk 25 feet from my kitchen back door and pick the freshest veggies you probably ever saw. We just had a super-fresh swiss chard dish for dinner tonight....yummy.

[NYCBear]

If "locally grown" means a dollar an ounce for greens, it's not sustainable.

Complaining that big-scale local food production is bad because you can't chat with the farmer about his growing methods is incredibly ignorant. There are 20 million people in the greater New York area. You're not going to feed them off of 200 acre boutique farms where each leaf is gently and individually nurtured to perfection, harvested in it's sleep, and whisked to the market in hybrid SUVs.

We need robust, full scale local agriculture. Organic practices, yes - the USDA has repeatedly shown that makes for healthier food. Family farms, yes - big family farms, preferably. But corporate farms too as long as they follow sustainable farming practices. It's the way the land is treated that's important, not who owns it this year.

[Laura Weiss - Huffpost Blogger]

See Laura Weiss's Profile

Hi,

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Yes, there are a ton of people to feed in the NY area and small players like Satur won't get the job done. We need all kinds of farms producing quality food.

[Jaxxon]

I guess depends on what your definition of what corporate is.

[shaman]

I am surprised there is no discussion of farmer's markets. Pike Place Market in Seattle is a wonder place to get local produce that doesn't (or least it didn't) cost 16 per pound. Using Whole Pay Check as a model is pretty much elitist since most people can't afford their prices.

[IreneL]

So how does it taste? :-)

[OttoMann]

I don't know if it's locally grown food going corporate as much as it is corporate going to locally grown food. There is a difference. My local Giant here in PA will sometimes have peaches or some other produce marked as "locally grown," which is better than having it come from CA, or worse, Chile or New Zealand.

My only issue would be that if they're going to charge the same price for locally grown, I hope they're giving the local farmer more. (I doubt it, though.)

[maddie0001]

At Whole Foods, a five-ounce plastic tub of Satur's "Tender Sweet Local Baby Lettuce Blend" will run $4.99.

A dollar an ounce? WOW!! How can people afford that?

[Henry]

"Without volume you cannot exist"?

That's it... economy of scale, rationalization, consolidation, and homogenization. This must be what we want because we cast our dollar votes for this.

I was in Glacier National Park a few years back and took some of the huckleberries that would otherwise be the domain of the Grizzlie.