Local Foods Memo - Farmers' Markets: Farmers' Market Season is Fast-Approaching

Customers line the vendor stalls at the popular farmers' market in the small city of Sonora in Northern California's Gold Country foothills region. It's a social market as well as a farmers' market. [Photo courtesy of ianandwendy.com.]

Farmers market season is fast approaching in the U.S., as well as elsewhere in North America and the world.

The end of March and first of April marks the opening (although some have already opened) of thousands of farmers markets throughout the U.S., where local farmers and other food purveyors sell their fresh produce and artisan foods directly to consumers.

The farmers' market season is part of spring, that time of renewal in all things lifestyle.

The farmers' market movement in the U.S. has been growing super-fast over the last decade, and even picking up more steam in just the last few years, as new open-air markets open in cities, suburbs and small towns throughout America. There are thousands of farmers markets operating in the U.S. today.

What makes farmers' markets a unique format for fresh produce and artisan-specialty-natural foods retailing are essentially five key elements:

>In most cases the vendors grow all of the produce they sell at the markets. In states like California and a number of others, "state certified" farmers' markets exist in which all of the sellers must also be the growers. Non-growers-sellers can sell at non-certified farmers' markets but consumers like the certified markets because it ensures they are buying directly from the farmer.

>Most of the fresh produce sold at farmers' markets in the U.S. is "locally grown," coming from a distance of generally no more than about 100 miles from the market location.

>Organic fruits and vegetables abound. Since many of the growers-sellers at farmers markets are on the cutting edge of farming, the fresh produce they offer is in many cases organically-grown. Much of it also is biodynamic. For many farmers who sell at the markets doing so is more about saving money by not buying chemical fertilizer, pesticides and fungicides than it is a marketing tool. It's also about being conservationists of their land.

>Price is generally good. The prices on both conventional and organic fresh produce at local farmers markets are generally as good or better than supermarket prices. Even in the cases when the prices are a bit higher, the value often is better because the produce tends to be fresher and of higher quality. There's also the added benefit of supporting local farmers.

>Farmers' markets are a social event. Farmers' markets allow consumers to get closer to the food they eat. As mentioned, most of the sellers at farmers' markets also are the growers. This allows for interaction between the farmers-vendors and consumers. Farmers' markets also provide a forum, centered around food, in which residents of a community can interact, visit and network. It's community at its best.

Since farmers' market season is fast-approaching, Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM) decided to search the web and choose a selection of stories and articles about farmers' markets in the U.S. (and one in the UK at the bottom of the list) for our readers. (We will have more about Canadian and UK farmers' markets in upcoming posts.)

Below are links to the articles we've selected. All of the stories are from March 17, 2009:

~Tampabay.com: Tampa farmers markets a boon for frugal food shoppers
~Seal Beach Daily: The beauty of buying local: fresh and fun at the new Seal Beach farmers market
~Valley Courier: Local flavor
~Vernon Morning star: Eating close to home
~California Farm Bureau magazine: Considering organics? Farmers offer advice on how to get started. And: Growth in organic food sales continues, at slower pace
~Boston Globe: Economy of scales
~Christian Science Monitor: Refugee job hopes wax and wane at farmers market
~Minneapolis City Pages: Great news from Chef Shack!
~Hobby Farms.com: Top 10 Ways to Support Agriculture
~WXII12.com: New Farmers Market To Open In Downtown Winston-Salem
~MPNNow.com: Farmers, families like veggie coupons
~Rural Northwest.com: Growing the Farmers' Market
~The Post-Standard: Farmers markets seminars coming up
~Richmond TimesFarmers market in western Henrico opens April 25
~United Kingdom: Liz Hurley to take up stall at Stroud Farmers' Market

Enjoy.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM) will be visiting a variety of farmers markets in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom in the upcoming spring and summer months, bringing first-person reports about local foods' selling and buying, along with photographs, to the Blog. Stay tuned.

Food Retailing Innovation Memo: Innovative Combination Retail Food Market and Urban Farm Set to Open in New Orleans LA USA Neighborhood

New Orleans' Hollygrove market and urban farm is set to open in January, 2009

Educational garden and market hope to regrow Hollygrove neighborhood
By Judy Walker

Food editor, The Times-Picayune - New Orleans
November 10, 2008

Once the site of Guillot's Nursery in New Orleans, LA USA, the Hollygrove Market and Farm is set to start selling local produce in January.

The site of the former Guillot's Nursery will become the Hollygrove Market & Farm, a self-sustaining nonprofit store selling local produce and an education center for urban farming, organizers announced last week.

The Carrollton-Hollygrove Community Development Corp. and New Orleans Food & Farm Network will develop and operate the market on the one-acre site at 8301 Olive St. It is expected to open in January; the first cover crop to build the soil in the teaching garden already is sprouting.

Hollygrove community member Michael Beauchamp lives nearby and is a volunteer who has been with the program about three months.

"I'm a first-time gardener, and I'm loving it," Beauchamp said. "It's a cost savings. There are lower transportation costs. I can eat healthy and probably add years to my life. And I can plant my garden and come here and sell the extra."

The concept sprang from the Carrollton-Hollygrove Community Development Corp., a neighborhood organization formed to encourage rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. The group wanted to address the long-standing lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the
Hollygrove-Gert Town-Fountainbleau area.

Paul Baricos, the group's executive director, said they saw the Guillot's property and realized it would be perfect., They partnered with NOFFN, which was looking for a place to train farmers in organic certification, to "grow the growers" to meet the huge demand for local food.

"We'll operate the store," Baricos said, providing community jobs, "and (NOFFN) will train four to six people at a time. We hope to .¤.¤. focus on locally grown foods. But there's not that much grown in New Orleans. We canvassed rural farms within 100 miles, and we will buy from farms in south Louisiana and southern Mississippi. So it will be seasonal."

The market also hopes to sell to chefs, schools and weekend markets, he added.

NOFFN executive director Kris Pottharst said the partnership "is looking at it as not only fresh food but economic development. One purpose is to highlight the neighborhood as a desirable place to live. This will provide one of the sought-after amenities that is mentioned by all neighborhood groups as to how they want to rebuild their neighborhood after the storm."
Pottharst said the lease on the property was effective in September, and includes the 5,000-square-foot main building that will house the market. The second floor will be used for offices, classrooms and neighborhood meeting space.

Demonstration plots will be placed along the outside fence, in direct sight lines of the Carrollton Boosters sports fields across the street. A salvaged hoop house will be used to grow seedlings. Donated fruit trees have been planted. Tulane City Center, the outreach program of the Tulane University architecture department, is creating an outdoor shade space and entrance arbor.

Among those attending Friday's announcement of the program was former NBA player Will Allen, who received a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant as founder of Growing Power Inc. in Milwaukee. Allen has become an international spokesperson for urban farming.

"I'm the son of a sharecropper," Allen said. "And I'm passing on what was passed on to me, in a different sort of way, with a community twist."

Local Foods Retailing Memo" We Suggest the Next Steps in the Evolution of Local Foods Retailing Will Be 'Grocer Grown' and 'Store Grown'

By day Simon Richard is the produce department manager at the Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, California's Mission District. Often by day he also is a farmer, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as the heirloom tomatoes he's just harvested and is holding in his hand in the photograph above taken at his Sonoma County farm where he grows a variety of fruits and vegetables offered for sale in the store's produce department. We call it 'Grocer-Grown.'

Earlier this year Natural~Specialty Foods Memo coined the term "Local foods retailing 2.0" to explain a practice being conducted by a handful of retailers such as the upscale United Kingdom (UK) supermarket chain Waitrose, Wal-Mart's UK chain Asda and a few others that have taken the merchandising and sales of "locally-produced" food and grocery products to the next level by growing fresh fruits and vegetables on their own land, along with raising hogs, steers and other animals to be butchered and sold as fresh meat cuts and used in prepared foods items in their stores, as well as creating some specialty foods products from the produce they grow. We also call this phenomenon "Grocer-Grown." In the case of meats, we call it "Grocer-Raised. And in the case of value-added food and grocery products, "Grocer-Produced."

Waitrose is the pioneer and most aggressive retailer we've yet to find that is practicing "Local foods retailing 2.0," going from its own farm right to the supermarket shelf, offering numerous "Grocer Grown" fresh produce, fresh meat and value-added food products from it own large estate farm in England.

Wegmans experimenting with 'Grocer-Grown'

The innovative upstate New York USA-based Wegmans supermarket chain also is growing some of its own fruits and vegetables on a farm owned by CEO Danny Wegman and his family. The idea to do so came from one of Wegmans' daughters. So far, fresh fruits and vegetables grown on the Wegman family farm have been offered for sale at one of the Wegmans' supermarkets, a unit located nearby the farm.

Danny Wegman told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo earlier this year the family plans to produce more varieties (and increase production a bit) of fruits and vegetables on the family farm for that one nearby store, along with selling the produce at a few other stores in that same region. The retailer is experimenting with "Grocer-Grown" and doesn't want to over-produce because the idea is to offer a selection of seasonal, high-quality, artisan produce items grown on the family farm and sold at the company's supermarkets located in the region where the farm is in upstate New York.

Bi-Rite Becoming leader in 'Grocer-Grown'

Another innovative American grocer in the city of San Francisco, independent food retailer Bi-Rite Market, also is becoming a major player in "Local Foods Retailing 2.0" or "Grocer-Grown."

Bi-Rite Market, which is located in San Francisco's Mission District neighborhood, has a garden on the roof of the urban food store where it grows fresh herbs which are sold in the store's produce department.

Bi-Rite also locally raises and butchers its own hogs, which are then offered in the store in a variety of ways: fresh pork roasts and chops, sausage, bacon and other cuts of meat. The pork also is used by the food retailer in a variety of the numerous in-store fresh, prepared foods items it makes and sells in the upscale supermarket.

The independent grocer, which sells all sorts of natural, organic, specialty and prepared foods items (a great many which are produced locally) in its popular San Francisco market, along with a selection of basic food and grocery items, is now kicking up its local foods merchandising program into the 2.0 world. "Grocer-Grown" Bi-Rite Market has started growing a selection of its own fruits and vegetables and is selling the fresh produce in the store.

In Bi-Rite's case, the store farmer also is the store produce manager, Simon Richard. This spring Richard grew a variety of fruits and vegetables on land in Sonoma County, which is located about 45 miles from San Francisco.

His crop recently came in. Among the fresh produce grown by the farmer/produce manager being offered for sale in Bi-Rite's produce department include heirloom tomatoes, Romano beans, arugula and more.

What's unique and very interesting about what Bi-Rite is doing is that in this case the "locally-grown" fresh produce items being produced by the store to be sold in the store are being grown by the same person who then is in charge of how they are sold in the store. That would be produce manager turned farmer Simon Richard. Talk about not only a local but a personal touch as well. The produce at Bi-Rite Market isn't only "Grocer-Grown," its "produce manager-grown."

The San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote about Bi-Rite's newest entry into what we call "Local Foods Retailing 2.0," the offering of the first crop of "Grocer-Grown" fresh produce for sale in the store. You can read the story, "Food Conscious: S.F. grocery branches out into farming," by Chronicle staff writer Jane Tucks here.

"Grocer-Grown' more than a fad

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo expects to see more retailers, particularly innovative independent supermarkets and natural foods retailers, join the "Local foods retailing 2.0" movement by growing some of their own fresh produce, either on land they own or in special arrangements with small, family farmers in which the grocer takes a hands on role.

Numerous U.S. food retailers like Whole Foods Market, Inc., Raley's in Northern California, Wegmans, Publix in Florida and a others regularly contract with farmers to purchase 100% of a certain crop, such as melons, apples, onions and other fresh produce items; usually specialty crops. In some cases these retailers also have input into how the crops are grown.

This practice, although close, isn't quite "Local foods retailing 2.0" because there still remains a separation between the retailer and the grower rather than the retailer being the grower.

Whole Foods is getting much closer to becoming a "local foods 2.0 retailer" however. It's increasingly working in partnership with small farmers to grow crops just for the retailer as well as loaning money to a number of these farmers so they can expand there production.

The only thing keeping Whole Foods from being a "local Foods 2.0 retailer" like Waitrose, Wegmans and Bi-Rite is that it has yet to directly grow its own crops and then sell the fresh produce in a Whole Foods market store. At least that we are aware of based on our research.

Whole Foods Market and 'Store-Grown'

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo however has a way for Whole Foods Market not only to become a charter member of the "Local foods retailing 2.0" "Grocer-Grown" club but also to leap-frog over all the others and become the pioneer in what we call "Store-Grown" local foods retailing. Yes, we are coining another new term.

We would like to see Whole Foods Market include a good-sized organic hydroponic garden in one of its stores, along with an outdoor organic rooftop garden. Make the indoor hydroponic garden about 3,000 square feet to start (prototype store) and have it glassed in so store customers can watch workers tending the garden while they shop. This fits into Whole Foods educational mission as a food retailer very well we believe. Think of the glass-walled in-store garden as the store's version of a restaurant's open demonstration kitchen.

Why not skip the farm altogether and use the store as the farm? Single-store Bi-Rite in San Francisco is doing this in part with its small rooftop garden after all.

Additionally, we suggest devoting a substantial portion of the store's roof to the rooftop garden. The store needs to be in a geographical location -- California, Florida, ect. -- where there's lots of sunshine throughout the year.

There are a myriad of crops Whole Foods 2.0 could grow in this store rooftop garden and sell in the store below, including fresh herbs, tomatoes, greens, seasonal fruits and more. As is the case in any garden, Whole Foods' limitations would primarily be based on the climate, weather and the like. With modern, intensive farming techniques one can grow an abundance of different fruits and vegetables and achieve considerable yields in such a rooftop garden.

Between the in-store hydroponic garden, which has no climate or soil limitations, and the outdoor rooftop garden, that Whole Foods 2.0 store could produce a wide-variety and abundance of fresh produce to be sold in the store throughout the year -- putting an emphasis on seasonal fruits and vegetables. It would be a supplement to rather than a substitute for all the other fresh produce sold in the store.

We even have a name for this produce -- that which would be grown inside the Whole Foods store in the hydroponic garden and on the rooftop outside. That name -- and remember you read it here first -- is: "Store-Grown." We think that term would look rather impressive in the Whole Foods store's produce department alongside the other signs reading "Organic," "Locally-Grown," "Hand-Picked" and the like.

"Store-Grown" also would be a major point of differentiation for Whole Foods and that Whole Foods store. We think its an natural and logical progression for Whole Foods in terms of a "what's next" aspect to the natural products retailers innovation cycle. That's why we chose Whole Foods as the retailer we think would be best to do it right now.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. also needs to try something innovative to break out of its current malaise caused by its recent net profit decline and the significant drop in the value of its stock.

Creating the Whole Foods 2.0 store (it can be a remodel of an existing store as well) with the in-store hydroponic garden and outdoor rooftop garden (maybe toss in a garden on the side of the store as well if there is available land) also is a natural progression for the retailer in terms of its already extensive local foods procurement and retailing program. The "Store-Grown" aspect would merely be an addition to that and of course would be limited to the one test store for some time anyway.

Plus, you can't much fresher, higher-quality locally-grown produce than that which in the course of say one hour has been harvested from the store's rooftop garden and in-store hydroponic garden and stocked in the store's produce department bins and cases. That's why we call it "Store-Grown."

Retail Memo: Meet Waitrose's Two-Legged 'Hog Blogger'; He's An Integral Part of the UK Food Retailer's 'Save Our Bacon' Campaign

No, United Kingdom supermarket chain Waitrose's "Hog Blogger" isn't a real hog. But he is a real pig farmer, as well as being the upscale food retailer's chronicler of all things porcine on its website.

You might say Waitrose's "Hog Blogger" is the "whole hog." He's 33-year old Fergus Howie, a second generation pig farmer from the English countryside town of Essex.

About his recent debut as a blogger in February, 2008, second-generation pig farmer Howie says:

"I thoroughly enjoy pig farming, it's great fun. As a farmer, I take tremendous pride knowing my pigs have had a lovely life. Our Wicks Manor bacon is dry cured by hand and smoked over oak and beech - in my experience, people are happy to pay a little extra for good quality. I'm proud to be the Save Our Bacon hog blogger. Over the coming months I'll be sharing my tales of life on the farm and I look forward to hearing what you think." Waitrose stores feature the farmer's Wicks Manor bacon mentioned above.

The full-time hog farmer and part time Waitrose blogger is part of the supermarket chain's "origins of our food" policy and program. Under that policy, Waitrose has three principles regarding the foods--especially locally-produced food products--it sells in its 165 upscale food stores and supermarkets in the United Kingdom.

Those three principles are: knowing the provenance of the foods it sells in its stores; food traceability, not only knowing where it comes from but keeping track of its origins in a quantitative manner; and responsible sourcing, which the retailer says means buying locally-grown and produced products whenever possible, along with making sustainable and Fair Trade foods a priority in its procurement and merchandising practices.


When it comes to hogs and pork (bacon, sausage, chops), Waitrose has launched a local foods campaign called "Save Our Bacon," which is designed to save, protect and sustain the British hog farming industry, which has been challenged and threatened by a variety of factors like economics, urbanization, animal disease and the rise of cheaper imports of pork products to the UK.

The Waitrose "Save our Bacon" campaign and the retailer's policy of selling local pork products is where Waitrose's "Hog Blogger" comes in. The full-time hog farmer, part-time blogger, who's local hog farm supplies bacon and other pork products to Waitrose, posts once a week or so on his blog, depending we imagine on how busy he is on the hog farm. [Click here to read and learn all about the grocer's "Save our Bacon" local foods campaign.

Below is the "Hog Blogger's (who remember is a first-time blogger so be gentle) inaugural post when he kicked off the blog on February 20 of this year on the Waitrose website:

Life on the farm
Published: 20 February 2008 20:18:06

Hello this is my first ever blog so stick with me. I’m a pig farmer, Dad started the pig farm about 45 years ago, I was brought up with pigs and my brothers and I used to ride them as small children (Dad said it gave them exercise and would make them better mothers), it was a bit like bucking bronco, and you had to watch where you fell. Our pigs are all farm assured as you would expect, and live...

You can read the "Hog Blogger's" latest post titled, "Who's the Boss," along with all his others to date at the blog here.

Waitrose prides itself on personally knowing every British farmer who supplies local pork, beef, poultry, eggs and dairy products to the upscale supermarket chain.

In fact, all of the beef the grocer sells in its stores comes from British Farms, for example. All of the sausages sold in the stores also come from British farms. Waitrose's bacon comes primarily from UK farms but some comes from Denmark as well. You can read more about the grocer's meat procurement here.

Waitrose, which was founded as a single small grocery shop in west London in 1904 called Waite Rose & Taylor and has been owned by the John Lewis Partnership since 1937, also owns and operates its own farm, the 4,000 acre Leckford Estate,which supplies free-range hen eggs, honey, flour, apples, fresh mushrooms and much more to Waitrose stores.

This weekend, which is the back holiday in the UK, Waitrose is holding a food faire for local vendors and customers at its Leckford Estate. The grocer also conducts regular tours of the estate farm and has a shop on premises which sells fresh produce and other foods produced on the farm.

In terms of the "Save our Bacon" campaign, in addition to pig farmer and "Hog Blogger" Howie, Waitrose has built a strong coalition to move the campaign forward in the UK. The coalition includes celebrity chefs, foodies, farmers, politicians, food industry types and many others. [You can read a recent "Save the Bacon" campaign update from Waitrose here.]

The campaign's strategy is to build local consumer awareness around the issue of saving Britain's hog-raising industry, as well as to promote sales of local pork, and to create laws and policies which will sustain and grow local hog farming and related industries and businesses.

Waitrose regularly writes about the issue and campaign in its popular consumer magazine Waitrose Illustrated and even has a "Save our Bacon" pledge here online which consumers can sign. There's also a "piggy quiz" at the link, where you can test your "pig knowledge."

Meanwhile, pig farmer and "Hog Blogger" Fergus Howie's last blog post was May 14, which is nearly two weeks ago. In other words, the world's only full-time pig farmer/supermarket chain blogger of all things pig (or the whole hog) is due for a new post.

In fact, he's a little late, based on his normal schedule. However, we understand mid-to-late May is a busy time on the pig farm, so we understand.

But we do hope Fergus Howie can break away from his work with the real pigs, so that "Hog Blogger" fans like us, who miss "pigging out" on his posts about life on the pig farm, can get a fresh taste of his latest comings and goings about life on the farm.

To be honest though, we haven't eaten much pork since discovering and regularly reading the "Hog Blogger" blog in March.

Local Foods Guest Memo: Palm Beach, Florida Post: Local Foods Movement Booming in the Sunshine State of Florida USA

At age 6, Katie Shirley (pictured above) just might be the youngest local family farmer, as well as the most adorable, in America. Katie, who's parents own Jupiter Farms in Jupiter Farms, Florida, and her three siblings, ages 4 -to- 12, have their own farm on the family plot. That local foods' producing farm is called Veggie Kids Farm. The four young local family farmers sell their vegetables at the farm and the local green market. They also give their neighbors some of their overflow, since the kids are said to have not only cultivated bumper crops of vegetables at their local farm but green thumbs as well. (Photo: Allen Eyestone. Courtesy: The Post.)

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Note: The local foods movement is booming in Florida in the United States, according to an article in today's Palm Beach Post newspaper, which is based in Palm Beach, Florida.

According to the piece, three major factors are driving the growth of the local foods' movement in the state: the soaring cost of food, the seemingly never-ending gasoline price hikes, and a concern on the part of consumers over the safety of the food they eat, especially that from far away.

Sighting one example of the growing popularity of locally-grown fresh produce in Florida, the Palm Beach Post story sites the fact membership in the Florida chapter of Local Harvest, the Santa Cruz, California-based "grow-local, buy local" foods organization has jumped to 250 members this year, from just 68 in 2004. Local Harvest members include farmers' markets, local family farmers, local food purveyors, and food stores and restaurants which sell locally-grown foods, among other businesses and groups.

U.S. membership in the Local Harvest local foods support organization has tripled in the last four years, from a mere 5,413 farmers and local foods-oriented businesses and organizations, to 13, 740 at present, according to Guillermo Payet, the founder and president of Local Harvest based in the Northern California coastal city of Santa Cruz.

Florida, the Sunshine State, is fourth behind California, Texas and New York in population, with about 19 million residents.

It's not called the Sunshine State for nothing. One of the most productive agricultural states in the U.S., Florida produces 75% of all the oranges consumed and used to make orange juice in the U.S., and supplies nearly 40% of the world's orange juice via its orange crop, for example.

the weather and soil in most of the state is conducive and welcoming for small farmers to produce lots of local fresh fruits and vegetables, which is another reason the local foods movement is growing so much in the Sunshine State.

Read the article, "Demand booms for local produce as fuel prices, safety concerns increase," in today's issue of the Palm Beach Post here.

What the piece reports on and discusses regarding the boom in local foods in Florida echoes what's happening across the U.S., from giant California, rainy Washington State and the Empire state of New York, to nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and smaller states like Montana and Vermont, along with so many others.

Locally-grown and buying locally is hot in the U.S. just like it is in Western Europe and Australia for example at the moment. We think its a trend and not a mere fad.

Retailers who ignore the local foods movement do so at their own peril, in our analysis. Food marketers that aren't yet getting involved in the local foods movement if they are able to also are missing the boat we believe.

The good news is that since it's a solid trend rather than just a fad, there's still time for both retailers and marketers not involved in local foods marketing and merchandising to get involoved. But remember, like in all business activities, there is an advantage to being a first-mover.

Supply-Side Memo: Food Industry Giant Campbell's is Making a Big 'Locally-Grown' Push as Part of a Tomato Processing Plant Expansion in California

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo learned at the recently concluded FMI (Food Marketing Institute) annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, that food industry giant Campbell Co., marketers of both conventional and organic food brands like Campbell's Soup, Prego pasta sauce (both conventional and organic), V-8 vegetable juice and V-8 juice drinks (conventional and organic), Pace Salsa (also conventional and organic) and numerous other brands, plans to increase its use of locally-grown California produce as part of a $23 million expansion and upgrading to its tomato processing plant in Dixon, California USA, near Sacramento.

The company's Dixon, California tomato processing plant is located in an agricultural and tomato processing-rich valley about 15 miles from Sacramento and about 50 miles from the San Francisco Bay Area.

The plant processes tomatoes and vegetables for Campbell's flagship soups, its sauces, salsa varieties and V-8 vegetable juice, V-8 V-Fusion and V-8 Splash vegetable drinks.

The $23 million expansion and remodeling of the plant will increase its size, add new, state of the art equipment, and boost overall plant production by about 15%.

The Dixon plant in Solano County in California's Sacramento Valley agricultural region is Campbell's largest tomato processing plant in the U.S. The plant was built in 1975, according to the company, and currently employees close to 200 people.

Campbell's has become an increasingly bigger player in the organic foods sector, with introductions of its organic versions of its Campbell's tomato juice, V-8 vegetable juice, Prego pasta sauce and Pace salsa, along with a few other brands and products.

As part of the plant's expansion, Campbell's Anthony Sanzio says the company will be buying more organic vegetables to process at the facility for these organic food and beverage product brands and lines.

Campbell's has plans to line-extend its current organic product offerings and to create new products, according to Sanzio.

The locally-grown angle

Because the Dixon plant is located in a tomato and vegetable-growing region, as well as being very close to the heartland of California agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, along with near the central coastal region where numerous vegetables also are grown, Campbell's sees an opportunity to add the "local" angle in a big way to both the conventional and organic produce it buys to process at the facility for its soup, juice, beverage, pasta sauce and salsa brands and products.

The food company correctly sees numerous similarities between the organic foods and local foods consumer, and wants to play that fact up at least in California by increasing the capacity of the Dixon plant so that it can process, and thus allow Campbell's to buy, more locally-grown conventional and organic produce. IT also says it wants to further support local farmers.

As part of its plant expansion plan and locally-grown foods procurement emphasis, Campbell's Sazio says the company will increase agricultural production with farmers it contracts with in Solano County, as well as in neighboring Yolo and Sacramento counties, along with those in nearby Colusa, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Sutter and Monterey counties.

This expansion of vegetable production includes organic as well as conventionally-grown produce.

Local agricultural industry officials and observers say the Campbell's Dixon plant expansion will be good for both local conventional and organic farmers.

For example, even though Solano County has urbanized considerably over the last two decades, agriculture, including tomato growing and processing, remains a significant industry in the area. Last year's tomato crop value in the county for example was about $23 million. Other double digit (in millions) crops in the county include walnuts and almonds and alfalfa, along with a few others. Numerous other fruit and vegetable crops are grown throughout the region as well, including an increasing amount and variety of organic crops.

Michael Amman, who heads up the Solano County Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit entity, says Campbell's Dixon plant expansion will be a big boost for local agricultural, locally-grown foods and local farmers, many of whom are smaller family farmers.

He says a major benefit will be that the local farmers will be able to get longer-term contracts with Campbell's because of the plant's increased capacity and emphasis on organic and locally-produced produce. In other words, Campbell's will put its emphasis on vegetables grown by local farmers even if they can buy produce for less money from farther away. As a result, the food company will need to sign longer contracts with the local farmers so it can ensure enough supply of the local produce to meet its needs. This is particularly true in the case of organic produce.

Campbell's says it may flag (on the labels) some of its conventional and organic food products produced at the Dixon plant with all locally-grown produce as "local" or "Made with California Produce," or something similar. However, the food giant isn't sure of that since what's local in California isn't local in Chicago or New York. In order to flag the products as local on the labels, the plant would have to produce certain runs just for California, after all.

However, Campbell's marketing and sales teams will be able to conduct "local foods" promotions with supermarkets in the region, including the Bay Area, with those products produced at the Dixon plant. (Shelf talkers identifying the "locally-grown" aspect of the products would be a simple and cheap way to promote the local angle of the products in-store.)

The important local foods aspect of Campbell's Dixon, California plant expansion and emphasis on using produce produced by local farmers though is the huge boost it could give to the region specifically and to local foods procurement in general. After all, many food processing plants, even in California, truck-in produce from a long way away rather than use that produced locally because they can obtain it for a cheaper cost.

As we've suggested numerous times on Natural~Specialty Foods Memo, we see the "local foods" movement growing in size and popularity to equal that of the organic foods movement.

Local is a bit harder to define than organic? Is it the strict locavore definition of food from no farther than 100 miles from where a person lives.? If so, why not 200 miles? That's still local to many, and it makes a bit difference in terms of increasing the variety and amount of "local foods." "Local" does have some wiggle room, in other words.

But, when it comes to locally-produced, most of us basically know it when we see it. If you live in Los Angeles, even though the city is about 400 miles from Sacramento, produce or food products bought in LA and produced completely in Sacramento are pretty "local," even though it doesn't meet the 100-mile locavore definition.

In the case of produce used for processing like at the Campbell's plant in Dixon, the important fact is that local farmers, ranging from those just down the street from the facility, to others as far as 150 -to- 200 miles away (Monterey County), are providing the vegetables.

This practice will be using locally-produced crops, which supports local communities, and offers those consumers who live nearby an opportunity to buy packaged food and beverage products at the supermarket which in turn will benefit their local economies if they do so.

Doing so, in a widespread way, is essentially a major aspect of the local foods' movement philosophy, it just pertains to processed food products rather than fresh ones. We think Campbell's is on to something in Dixon.

Local Foods Retailing Memo: Tesco is Making Stronger Commitment to Local Foods Sourcing, Marketing and Merchandising in the United Kingdom

Tesco, the world's number three retailer and the number one food and grocery sales market share leader in its home country of the United Kingdom with about 32% of the nation's total retail food sales, is launching what appears to be the biggest local foods sourcing and merchandising program in the UK.

Last year, Tesco opened five new local foods' regional buying and marketing offices in the UK cities of York, Leicester, Plymouth, Peterborough and Horsham, making it the first supermarket chain in the UK to develop such an extensive regionally-based structure designed to procure and market locally-based food and grocery products.

Each of the five local offices has a buyer and marketing person who's jobs are to find and procure high-quality, locally-produced products to sell in Tesco's UK stores.

As part of its local foods procurement and marketing program, Tesco also has started holding "Meet the Farmer" local foods events in its UK supermarkets.

Since Tesco launched the program, called "Local Sourcing", last year, the retailer says it's five regional UK offices have thus far launched over 1,00 new, local food and grocery product lines in its stores, bringing the total number of locally-produced products the retailers sells currently to about 3,000. Tesco also says it's added 90 new local suppliers to its vendor list.

Tesco UK also has an executive in charge of the local sourcing program, Emily Shamma. Ms. Shamma says UK consumers want to buy quality local food and to support local producers by doing so.

Tesco customers also want to buy more local foods to cut down on food miles and the resulting carbon emissions, Shamma recently told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

Further, UK consumers see locally-produced foods as having overall superior quality to food products imported from elsewhere, as well as liking the idea they can know more about how the local products are produced (because the goods are local) compared to imported food and grocery products.

Tesco plans to further grow its local foods' sourcing and marketing program, according to Ms. Shamma. She says the retailer's goal is to sell more locally-produced food and grocery product lines than any other UK food retailer.

To further this aim, Tesco also has set up a fund designed to help small, local farmers expand their businesses. This is similar to what U.S.-based natural foods' retailer Whole Foods Market, Inc. is doing for small farmers in the United States as a way to promote small-scale agriculture and local food production. Tesco has put ~1 million-p ($1.95 billion U.S.) in the fund to use to help give local farmers and producers a leg up in expanding their operations.

The British retailer also has created a local technical team in each of the five regional offices. The team offers and provides free help to the local producers in the areas of manufacturing, packaging, quality assurance and marketing. part of the reason for creating these dedicated technical teams is so Tesco can make sure the local producers have the means available to meet the retailer's overall product quality control standards for the goods it sells in its UK stores.

Samma also says Tesco doesn't just want to make local foods available in its stores to wealthy consumers. Rather, the goal is to make local fresh produce for example more affordable so that it's available for UK consumers of all income levels, she says.

Tesco's current goal is to sell ~400 million-p ($780 million U.S.) worth of locally-produced food and grocery products in its stores this year, with a longer-term goal of selling ~1 billion-p ($1.95 billion U.S.) worth of the locally-produced bounty by 2011.

Tesco PLC had gross sales internationally of about $84 billion U.S. in 2007.

The locally-produced products Tesco has introduced in its stores just since last year when it opened the five new regional buying offices range from fresh produce like Yorkshire cucumbers and locally-raised fresh meat, pork and poultry products, to locally-produced ice cream and beer. The local foods initiative is across all store product categories, from fresh and frozen, to refrigerated and shelf-stable.

Tesco's main competitors in the UK--Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose, the Co-op and a couple others--also are to various degrees involved in local foods sourcing and marketing programs. Besides Tesco, probably Waitrose and Sainsbury's, followed by the Co-op, are the second, third and fourth most aggressive in local foods procurement and selling in their respective stores in the UK.

None of these competitors however has created as aggressive and as comprehensive local foods program as Tesco has with its five fully-staffed regional offices. And perhaps they don't need to. There are many ways to procure and sell locally-produced foods in their stores.

However, based on the fact Tesco has added 1,000 new locally-produced products in its stores, and 90 new local vendors to its roster in less than a year, it seems the regional buying office concept complete with the in-house technical teams is working well for the retailer--and for the local farmers and food producers who thus far have been able to get their goods into Tesco's UK supermarkets, which exist in nearly every city and town in the nation.

Sainsbury's and Waitrose both are increasing their local foods procurement and merchandising efforts in the UK, particularly upscale Waitrose. In per-capita size, Waitrose, which is much smaller than Tesco, is arguably the leader in local foods selling in the UK.

Wal-Mart-owned Asda recently announced it would be putting much more emphasis on local foods procuring and merchandising in its UK stores than it has up to now.

Local foods selling is becoming an international trend for Wal-Mart. The mega retailer has focused strongly since last year on procuring and selling local Canadian foods, especially fresh produce and meats and poultry in its Supercenters in that nation.

Wal-Mart also is stepping up its local foods merchandising in the U.S., the retailer's top market. It's stocking more fresh, local produce, meats and poultry, as well as more grocery products of all kinds produced locally throughout its U.S. market regions.

Local Foods Memo: Never A Grocer to Have its Head in the Sand, Waitrose is Selling Locally-Produced Ostrich Eggs at its UK Supermarkets

Nobody can accuse the United Kingdom's Waitrose supermarket chain of having its head in the sand when it comes to local foods retailing.

The upscale British grocery chain, purveyor of fancy, natural and local foods, is now the exclusive seller in the UK of Clarence Court Ostrich eggs, which are produced locally by UK flocks. As pictured at top, the ostrich eggs come in an attractive pink box with a tote handle, which no doubt is needed as the huge eggs have some weight to them.

The huge, local ostrich eggs weigh 2kg, and are nearly equivalent to two-dozen large hen eggs. The massive ostrich eggs also take nearly two hours to hard boil.

For those who've never tasted an ostrich egg, the Clarence Court folks describe the eggs as having a distinctive yet light flavor and texture. They also say the eggs are ideal for a myriad of cooking uses.

One ostrich eggs goes a long way: Clarence Court says you can make about 100 meringues or 32 souffles with one of the 2kg giants.

The ostrich eggs are laid by special ostriches called South African Blacks, which the egg-producer describes as inquisitive and majestic birds. The big birds lay the eggs four or five hours before dusk to protect them from the heat of the sun, just like they do in the wild. The ostriches are raised free-range at the Clarence Court farm.

Ostrich egg shells are very thick. Many people drain the egg with just a pin prick at each end so that they can then decorate the large egg after it is used.

Waitrose's corporate egg buyer, Frances Westerman calls the Clarence Court Ostrich eggs a "real show stopper in terms of both looks and taste."

Ms. Westerman says Waitrose's customers love experimenting with new food ideas. "We've seen growing popularity of duck, pheasant and goose eggs, now it's the turn of the ostrich to take off," she says.

The locally-produced ostrich eggs, which are a seasonal product, will only be available in Waitrose's stores from now until August, 2008.

The UK's Clarence Court is a producer of specialty eggs of all kinds, ranging from the seasonal ostrich eggs to others including: Old Cotswald Legbar pastel eggs, Mabel Pearman's Burford Brons, Free-to-Fly Quails' Eggs, Gladys May's Burdock Whites, and additional seasonal specialty eggs like pheasant and goose eggs. You can view Clarence Court's egg range here.

All of Clarence Court's eggs are produced free-range, and are fed a primarily cereal-based diet, along with some maize.

The specialty egg-producer also has its own 10-point ethical guide to raising its eggs, which you can view here.

Clarence Court is considered a heritage egg producer in that today it still produces egg varieties that go back thousands of years in the UK.

The egg-producer also has high quality standards, along with its ethical and humane hen-treatment policy. Read more here.

In fact, Clarence Court is so proud of the way it treats its egg-laying hens, it's set up its own real time "Hen Cam" on its website, where you can watch the hens' roam the green free-range pastures at the farm.

You can view the royal birds at Clarence Court's farm on the "Hen Cam" here.

Clarence Court's heritage eggs are gaining quite an impressive following among the UK's food royalty these days. For example, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver uses Clarence Court's eggs at his "Fifteen" (the name not the quantity) restaurants, as does that top UK chef Gordon Ramsey.

As a way to market and promote the specialty eggs, such as those sold at Waitrose, the egg-producer has teamed-up with British chef and food writer Mark Hix, who has developed numerous recipes for Clarence Court's heritage eggs. You can view those recipes here.

Meanwhile, Waitrose's egg buyer Francis Westerman, who's head is never in the sand but rather always is looking for the next new thing in the egg world, might just have another locally-produced egg innovation on Waitrose's shelves soon. After all, the ostrich eggs are only available until August.

Local Foods Memo: Tesco's 1,000 Mile 'Local' Scottish Chickens

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get into the truck for its 1,000-mile round trip of course.

Retail giant Tesco, the world's number three retailer and the UK's largest supermarket chain, is coming under fire from environmentalists and shoppers today in the United Kingdom (UK) for labeling chickens sold in it's stores as "local" despite the fact the birds' actually have taken a 1,000-mile round trip to be slaughtered, packaged and then transported to the grocer's stores in Scotland.

The thrust of the matter regarding the "local" labeled but well-traveled birds is that the grocery retailer is currently selling chickens in its Scotland stores that have been raised at a chicken farm in North-East Scotland, then sent 499 miles to Essex to be processed, before then being shipped back to the Scotland stores to be sold. Perhaps Tesco should change the label to "locally raised for now. Or, use another local packaging plant.

But, that seems to be the crux of the problem. According to the UK industry trade publication Meat Trades Journal, the chickens killed at the Grampian Country Foods slaughterhouse in Perthshire, Scotland (local so far) are being shipped (at least until today perhaps) to Witham in South-East Essex (499 miles away) for packaging because the regular packaging plant in Banff, Abberdeenshire (which is close to Perthshire) shut down last year. So much for outsourcing locally and then not finding another local packaging plant right away.

UK environmental groups such as Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, are accusing Tesco of a lack of full-disclosure by still labeling the birds as "local." The "green" groups' also are saying the chickens' 1,000-mile round trip--from near the Scotland stores to 499 miles away and back again--is creating unneeded extra food miles and adding to the country's already growing carbon emissions. Sounds logical to us.

Another UK environmental group, Friends of the Earth, also issued a statement today about the non-local, "local chickens." Vicki Hird (rhymes with bird), a Friends of the Earth spokesperson, said: "Consumers thinking they are buying 'greener,' local and Scottish are actually buying pretty travel-sick chicken." In all fairness (at least to the birds) chickens travel much farther than 1,000 to get to the grocery store and are still tasty. But we do get Ms. Hird's point.

Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, defended its travel itinerary plan for the birds in a statement saying basically it didn't have any option because the local packaging plant closed and they needed to get the chickens packaged for sale at the stores. A Tesco spokesperson didn't comment on how many chickens are being sent on the 1,000-mile round trip journey However, the retailer said it hopes to have the situation solved very soon

The local Grampian Country Foods' packaging plant closed last year (about six months ago), according to Max Tooley, Tesco's technical meat manager for poultry. Tooley added that although the situation has been going on for about six months (then why still label the birds as local we wonder?) it should "hopefully be solved in about two weeks," with the pending approval of a new packaging plant at a new site nearby where the chickens are slaughtered. We're glad it will be solved in two weeks. But that could be a long two weeks if Tesco doesn't take the local label off the chickens' packaging or the shelf.

Tesco shoppers weren't very happy today upon hearing the news that the "local" birds aren't really all that local because of their travels. Consumers buy "local" foods not just because they are raised locally, but also because they are processed and packaged locally as well. In other words, one of the keys to "locally grown" is that the products don't have to travel excessive food miles to get to the stores where shoppers buy them. Local equals a lower carbon footprint.

The locavore (local foods) movement defines a locally-produced food product as one that generally comes from no more than 100 miles from where it is sold at retail and purchased at the grocery store, or elsewhere, by a consumer. This local definition includes the food product being grown, processed, packaged and distributed within that 100-mile distance. Obviously, in the case of the 1,000 mile chickens, they don't quality under that definition.

Meanwhile, the revelation about the well-traveled "local" chickens is a serious hit for Tesco. It's CEO, Sir Terry Leahy, has been arguably the most outspoken of all UK retailers on the need for the supermarket industry to reduce its carbon footprint. In fact, under a plan of Leahy's, Tesco plans to eventually label all of the food and grocery products it sells in its stores with a "carbon footprint" label.

The label, similar to nutritional labels on packaged foods, will inform the consumer where the product was produced, processed and warehoused, and how many food miles it traveled to get to the Tesco store.

Tesco in the UK also has been a major proponent among UK food retailers of buying and selling locally-grown foods in its stores, including beef, pork, poultry and other food and grocery products. Local foods is a major issue among UK consumers, not only as part of the nation's popular and fast-growing green movement, but also as a way of preserving it's shrinking farming industry.

To the latter point, the Tesco chickens are raised locally. However, to the former point, the 1,000- mile journey--to the packaging plant and back again--violates the "green" aspects of the "buy local" movement.

It seems even without their wings, these particular Scottish Tesco chickens are still well-traveled birds.

Local Foods Memo: 'Eggs, Bunnies and Piglets, Ow My': The UK Soil Association and Organic Farmers' Invite City Folk to Celebrate Easter on the Farm

The United Kingdom's Soil Association has come up with a fun and educational way for Brits to learn more about where their foods come from during the upcoming Easter Holiday weekend.

The environmental, farm and food organization has partnered with some of Britain's organic farms to create a number of Easter weekend farm tours, walks and other educational and recreational activities designed to showcase local sustainable and organic agriculture, as well as offering a relaxing and enjoyable holiday weekend.

The Soil Association is the UK's leading environmental charity. It's charter is to promote sustaniable and organic agriculture, along with human health.

There will be plenty of scenic walking tours, a chance for kids to see lambs and piglets up close, tastings of gourmet-prepared, fresh organic produce and meats, organic wine tastings, and even Easter Egg hunts run by UK-based Green & Blacks, a maker and marketer of premium, organic and Fair Trade chocolates, come Easter weekend. And, since Green & Blacks' produces some of the finest quality chocolate products in the world--and those chocolate delights in the form of chocolate Easter eggs will be the prizes at the egg hunts--you can bet the adults will be looking for an egg or two themselves out on the farm.

A number of the United Kingdom's sustainable and organic farms are involved in the Easter Weekend events. Among these farms include:

Commonwork at Bore Place: Chiddingstone, England. The farm will offer an educational session on food and climate change, including hands-on activities. Lunch will feature local, organic and Fair Trade foods. March 29. For Information: Call: 01732 463255.

Densholme Farm: Great Hatfield, Hull, East Yorkshire. Among the special activities will be a Marathon race and a fun run through the farm's rolling green meadows. March 30. For Information: Call: 01964 535315.

Hindon Farm: Bratton, near Minehead, Somerset. This a must-visit for the kids. The farm will have piglets and lambs in the fields for visitors. Hindon Farm also will be where one of the Green & Blacks' Easter Egg hunts will be held. March 22. For Information: Call: 01643 705244.

Lower Rundhurst Farm: Tennyson's Lane, Roundhurst, Haslemere, West Sussex. Another must-visit with the kids. The farm will place colorful characters in its fields. When kids find the characters they will win chocolate Easter Eggs. Green & Blacks' also is conducting one of its Easter Egg Hunts at the farm. For mom and dad, there's an afternoon tea, with homemade chocolate cake. March 22. For Information: Call: 01428 656 455.

Pink Pig Organics: Holme Hall, Scunthorpe, Linconshire. March 21, 22, 23. There will be a "hunt the rabbits" event. Kids finding a rabbit (or more) win chocolate Easter Eggs. Green & Blacks' is providing the chocolate eggs, and also will hold one of its Easter Egg Hunts at Pink Organics. Lastly, there will be a competition to name the farm's brand new local, Lincolnshire Curly-Coated Pigs. For Information: Call: 01724 844466.

Rushall Farm: Scratchface Lane, Bradfield, Berkshire. There will be a Lambing Weekend on March 15 and 16. Visitors can merely watch, or participate if they choose to. FOr Information: Call: 0118 974 4547, or email: jst@rushallfarm.org.uk.

Sedlescombe Vineyard: Cripps Corner, Sedlescombe, Robertsbridge, East Susex. The vineyard will hold a vineyard and nature trail hike on the property, along with a tasting of its wines, on March 21, from 10am-6pm. For Information: Call: 01580 830715.

Sheepdrove Organic Farm: Lambourne, Berkshire. On March 16, the farm will host farm tours, a demonstration of lambing, a hog roast, butchery demonstrations and farm walks. There also will be a fair featuring local craftspeople, books written by local authors, and gifts produced locally. On Easter Sunday, March 23, Green & Blacks will hold one of their Easter Egg Hunts at the farm. the farm will also offer tours of its eco-garden, eco-conference center and sustainable agriculture grounds. Lunch is a three-course meal made with all organic ingredients, meats and produce. For Information: Call: 01488 674737, or email: myevents@sheepdrove.com

Programs like the Soil Association's Easter Weekend events, in which consumers are brought into contact with the farms (and farmers) where their food is grown, are important on many levels.

First, many urban dwellers, especially younger people, have little or no concept of the farm-to-food store chain. Ask them where their food comes from and you are likely to hear: from the supermarket--or restaurant. Many adults, who are aware that food is grown on farms, aren't to clear on the concept either however--preferring to not bother with the details. Farm tours, like those to be held in the UK in conjunction with the Easter Weekend, create a relaxing and fun setting, which encourages adults and kids to want to learn more about farms and farming, and how food gets from the farm to their dinner tables.

Additionally, by showcasing local farmers, groups like the Soil Association are not only creating awareness about where food comes from and how it's produced, they also are showing consumers the importance of locally-produced foods, and how such enterprises can benefit local economies with jobs, as well as the social and cultural benefits that go along with local agriculture.

The more awareness that can be created around local agriculture and local foods, the more consumers will look for local items and purchase them. And, the more consumers buy local, the more benefits acrue to local farmers and others involved in the food chain. This creates stronger local economies, as well as providing consumers with fresher and healthier foods. It's a win-win really. It also benefits retailers who make it a point to merchandise local products.

Lastly, creating awareness of and educating about farming has a larger environmental purpose. Farmers really were the world's first conservationists and environmentalists, and many remain so today. Especially those generally small farmers who grow their crops sustainably, avoiding pesticides and other synthetic chemicals. In this way, farming and environmentalism go hand-in-hand.

Exposing urban consumers to the farm can create a greater understanding of how agriculture and consumer behavior are linked, from the field, to the supermarket, to the home.

Easter is an excellent holiday and time of year to promote farming and agriculture. The religious themes of Easter, it's spring setting, the symbols of celebration--Easter Eggs, the Easter Bunny--are all rural and farm-oriented. It's only right for farms and farmers to be a part of any Easter weekend celebration.