Local Food Locator

Posted by Lynsie Watkins Mon, 19 May 2008 13:31:00 GMT

Just an observation…

The other day I was in the grocery store (Harris Teeter) and I noticed something odd.  Over the past few years, but especially the past few months, I’ve noticed the grocery chain’s introduction of locally made food items.  I’ve seen things like jams and jellies, mostly.  There’s Route 11 chips, of course…and lately, there’s even been an artisanal bread maker from Richmond selling sandwich loaves.  It’s pretty fantastic to see at least some locally made foods for the choosing.

Sadly, I’ve noticed something else-quite appalling, really.  The locally produced food has been moving, slowly and methodically, to the back of the store.  In one case, there’s even a stand of jams that’s currently sitting in a dark "employees only" entrance.  (Specifically next to the fish counter, on the right hand side closest to the juices and "fresh" fruit.)  If I were deciding between my cheaply priced Smuckers jam and the normally priced locally made jam, there’s no doubt that the latter’s creepy location would deter me entirely from even approaching.  This, to me, is devestatingly sad.  As far as I’m concerned, what the grocery store is saying to me is, "We don’t care about this local food because the markup isn’t as high, so let’s sell as little as possible so that we can drop the account and stick with our cheap ingredient-based staples."  Sigh.  It really does make me sad.  What are we going to do when gas prices get so high that Smuckers will inevitably have to raise their prices?  I don’t want our turn to purchasing local food to be one of obligatory action, but instead one of well-thought out choice in an effort to support our local farmers.

What can we do?  We can start by approaching the manager of any grocery store, and requesting specific brands of food.  We can ask our friends to do the same.  The way it seems to go is that the manager/buyer will respond to a collective request.  But be sure that if we ask for it, and then we don’t make an effort to buy it, "it" will be gone quicker than you can find it!