Local Food - a New Idea?

or, Your Co-op Had a 33-Year Jump on the Hottest Trend in the Food-Biz

Ah June! Summer solstice, June bugs and a rush of local bounty into our produce department. As I write in early May, area produce growers are working the fields and planning their first deliveries to the Wedge and our wholesale arm, Co-op Partners Warehouse (CPW).*

Local food is trendy. Was it possible to pick up a newspaper or magazine in the last year that didn't expound that "local is the new organic" or describe "organic vs. local" as an either/or choice? Veterans of the natural-and-organic food co-ops are thrilled that decades of effort broke through to public consciousness, but wonder how "organic" and "local" became enemies.

Wedge produce buyers were writing contracts with local growers in the 1980s. Not only is the local connection nothing new here, it is our tradition. Local, organic and sustainable food networks were always intertwined in the minds of our founders. "Back in the day" co-op members might have spent a September weekend camping on a farm for a harvest celebration and barn dance. Local growers, wild rice harvesters, bee-keepers and candlemakers knocked at co-op back doors to sell their products. It was haphazard, which is natural when building networks from scratch.

In the 1990s, co-ops spent a great deal of time and energy working on the USDA Organic Rule, in order to ensure that the "organic" label would mean the same thing everywhere. Perhaps it was due to this that some emphasis was lost on local food. Yet, as soon as the ink dried on the Rule in 2002, co-ops and producers renewed their focus on building and utilizing strong regional networks that bring small-scale producers and consumers together. Maybe this is the part "Big Food" missed. As they stock their shelves with the same products, whether conventional or organic, every day of every season, mega-markets do not have room for delectable local specialties that are only available a few weeks of the year.

Instead, products are shipped hundreds of miles and breakouts of nationwide food contamination have spurred growing awareness of how precarious the industrial food system really is. Think about the pet food and animal feed problem this year. Now consider that, according to Michael Pollan, our government recently approved a procedure for American chicken carcasses to be shipped to China to be cut up and packaged before coming back to U.S. grocery stores. Conventional chickens will travel farther after death than many of their eaters travel in a lifetime. Could things get any weirder or less trustworthy? Maybe, but let's hope not.

All the while, farmers' markets and food co-ops continue to meet the growing interest in food produced by nurturing nature and delivered with the lowest carbon emissions. The Wedge Co-op keeps you in touch with local food and local producers by bringing both to you. When I talked with our local producers about the relationship they have with the Wedge and CPW, a few words and phrases came up repeatedly: support, partnership and "you take care of us."

Taking care. I call it the Mom-Theory of Business. Take care of people, animals and the land. Play nice. When you do that, other things somehow take care of themselves. Happy summer.

*CPW carries Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, cheeses, meats, maple syrup, "sunbutter" and finished products like fruit pie, soup, pasta and pizza available to avid eaters all over the region.