Shop in Your Backyard
March 6, 2005

By BRIAN HALWEIL - This month, Whole Foods, the natural and organic supermarket that was founded more than two decades ago in Austin, Texas, will open its fifth store in New York in Manhattan's Union Square. Understandably, many folks are concerned that this new store will signal the beginning of the end for the fabled Greenmarket that now commands the square.

But their worries are overstated. No supermarket will ever be able to compete with a farmers' market in terms of freshness, aesthetics and community ties.

So instead of fretting over something that will never happen, let's use this opportunity to challenge the Whole Foods supermarkets in the state - the two already open in Manhattan, the one in Manhasset and the one in White Plains - to propel "eating local" into the mainstream. Why? Because it's good for business and it's good for your health.

There are more than 3,600 farmers markets in the country. But as popular as farmers markets are, they won't insure the long-term success of New York's farmers. During the last 50 years or so, New York has lost more than 70 percent of its farms, a decrease to 37,000 in 2002, from 125,000 in 1950. This trend has slowed in recent years, partly because New Yorkers are buying more food grown in the state.

What we need is a comprehensive program that focuses on local foods. Local ingredients need to show up in school cafeterias, on restaurant menus and in supermarket aisles. Imagine schoolchildren in Harlem eating New York apple slices, diners in Brooklyn ordering Caesar salad made with New York chicken and lettuce, supermarket shoppers in Queens choosing from whole milk, non-fat milk, chocolate milk and even soy milk, all raised and made in New York.

Some large food companies are already embracing an allegiance to place, as the hunger for homegrown fare pushes beyond the culinary fringe. Leading national food-service firms, like Bon Appétit Management Company and Sodexho, have started offering regionally grown foods to their university and corporate clients. At the University of Portland and at Intel's corporate campuses across Oregon, Bon Appétit offers Oregon Country Beef, Oregon-grown mesclun and Oregon apples.

In 2001, New York State altered purchasing protocols to allow government cafeterias, correctional facilities and public medical centers to favor "cost competitive" New York food products. Last summer, the Department of Correctional Services shifted to buying New York State apple juice concentrate for its food processing plant in Rome. And last fall, the New York City school district began to "reprocess" its most popular cafeteria recipes to include more fresh ingredients grown in the Northeast.

The Wegmans supermarket chain, with stores in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, has a Home Grown program that encourages and rewards produce managers who seek out local farmers. And King Kullen has committed to buying Long Island seasonal fruits and vegetables for its 50 stores in Staten Island and Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Whole Foods is not your standard supermarket. In the last decade, it has helped make customers aware of hormone-free meats, organic produce and snacks made without hydrogenated oils, which has led to increased demand for these products. The company is working with New Jersey tomato growers to revive the state's sumptuous heirloom varieties. And this fall, Whole Foods employees visited Hudson Valley and Long Island farms to plant, weed, water and build fences - all in an effort to understand the rigors of raising food.

But Whole Foods can do even more. Although Whole Foods stores in California buy about 40 percent of their produce from local and regional suppliers, most of the products for the company's East Coast stores are from national and international suppliers. An impromptu survey of the bountiful produce section at the Columbus Circle Whole Foods this past October found that West Coast tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage and potatoes dominated the shelves even as New York farms were heavy with these crops. Of course, compared with California, buying local is more difficult in New York because of a shorter growing season and higher prices for many items.

Whole Foods must make a measurable commitment to local purchasing, like Wegmans and King Kullen have done. Otherwise, the farm trips and occasional collaborations with local growers will be dismissed as lip service - the equivalent of draping photo essays of small farmers around Whole Foods stores when most of the store's produce doesn't come from small farmers.

The volume of produce required to keep shelves stocked year-round can hamper efforts to buy local. But an innovative company like Whole Foods should be able to figure out how to feature Asian greens from Sang Lee Farms in Peconic, or organic mesclun mix from Sky Farm in Millerton. They might sell apples, pears and ciders from Breezy Hill Orchard in Staatsburg, or grass-fed beef from Valley Farmers cooperative in Dutchess County, or produce from any of the hundreds of farmers, fishermen, cheesemakers, and beekeepers who still make a living in the metropolitan area.

Why not have seminars with local growers or invite them to hand out samples during high-traffic shopping times? Whole Foods could feature New York produce in its prepared foods and offer "all New York" catering options built exclusively around ingredients from the Empire State. Price will sometimes be a barrier, but there's a good chance that New Yorkers would be willing to pay a bit more for a McIntosh from the Hudson Valley than the alternative flown in from New Zealand.

And business aside, there's the added health benefit from eating locally. Because local produce doesn't have to be harvested unripe, fumigated or shrink-wrapped to endure the rigors of long-distance hauling, it has more nutrients and much more flavor.

Farmers' markets will never be able to offer the seven-day-a-week, one-stop shopping of supermarkets. And supermarkets can't compete on freshness or intimacy. But by opening its doors to local farmers and suppliers, Whole Foods might evolve into a sort of hybrid that allows its shoppers to favor food grown in New York. And more important, it's the neighborly thing to do.

Brian Halweil, a senior researcher with the Worldwatch Institute, is the author of "Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket."