Locally Grown Food - 3 Steps to Get the Word Out

Before a recent business trip, I bought a bottle of Crystal Geyer spring water at the airport. Nothing terribly remarkable about that…until I looked at the label. Since I’ve been doing a lot of packaging work lately for CPG brands, I took special note of the label on the water bottle. And that’s when I saw it – my bottle was “By CG Roxane”. Not only that – it was bottled “at the CG Roxane Source in Olancha, California, in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains.” In case I didn’t know where that was (which I didn’t) there was a map showing Olancha, CA near Mt. Whitney.

I’ve written before about the local movement relative to fresh produce. USDA and others are careful to point out that locally grown food is not necessarily safer than food from farther away. But it seems consumers are not satisfied with government assurances about the safety of the food supply in general, and they like the greater ripeness that sourcing produce locally affords. In some respects, “Local” has become short-hand for “Safer” and "Better."

The trend is accelerating and taking on new meaning. QSR Magazine’s May 18 issue reported on Chipotle Mexican Grill’s move to source some of the produce used in its 800+ restaurants locally. The story reports that Chipotle:

“will expand its local produce program this summer, purchasing at least 35 percent of at least one bulk produce item in all of its restaurants from local farmers when it is seasonally available. This represents a 10 percent increase over last year's program, the first of its kind for any national restaurant chain.

"Under its local produce program, Chipotle expects to have more than 25 local farms in its network that will supply some of the romaine lettuce, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, red onions and/or oregano served at the 860-plus Chipotle restaurants nationwide."

What’s new is that the trend toward knowing where our food comes from is extending beyond fresh produce to other categories. My bottle of Crystal Geyser is one example. Another is from last week's USA Today, which reported the launch of the Frito Lay’s campaign promoting the:

“80 local farmers from 27 states who grow the potatoes used to make its Lay’s potato chips. “Lay’s Local” is the brand’s biggest 2009 campaign, featuring 40,000 in-store displays customized for each state…Ads and regional store displays announce that the product is “locally in Texas.”

At the same time, Atlantic Monthly’s current issue (May 2009) features a story about the trend to locally grown meat. Apparently, lamb is among the winners here. As Corby Kummer, an Atlantic senior editor and the curator of the food channel on theatlantic.com, reports:

“Lamb offers several advantages to the budding locavore. Sheep are easier to raise and require less pasture than cattle, so aside from poultry and pork, lamb is the local meat you’re likeliest to find from small farms.”

What’s behind this drive to know the source of our food? Perceptions about safety and freshness are clearly part of the motivation. Sustainability and carbon footprint may also be factors. In today’s virtual world, interest in local sources may also be a quest for personal connection to a time and place.

Twitter can help smart marketers capitalize on this seemingly growing desire to know where our food is from, and get around the systems integration required to make real-time inventory information available online. Here are 3 steps for food marketers:

1. Set yourself up on Twitter using your brand name and the relevant geography you serve.
   
   
2. Tweet a few items that are new and / or particularly fresh or locally sourced each day, and where they're from.
   
   
3. Invite people to contact you to find out if you have what they’re looking for.
   

Is Local Better?

We live in Mill Valley, CA, four miles north of San Francisco in Marin County. In our town, there’s a definite bias toward supporting local merchants and products. Smith & Hawken got its start here, and so did Banana Republic. At the holidays, even the parking meters take a vacation so shoppers can park free like they do at the mall up the highway. In terms of store names and ownership, Mill Valley commerce is diverse, and that adds to our town's character and personality.

But Ad Age got my attention when they reported yesterday that "it’s going to be a private label Christmas." Most private label merchandise is sold in chain stores – near us, that includes Safeway, Whole Foods, Molly Stone’s, Target, and Costco (no Wal-Mart nearby). In general, people buy private label goods because of the savings relative to branded goods. Consumers typically don’t know where private label products come from – part of their lower cost stems from avoiding the expense of telling the story of the individual products.

Based on its research, IRI predicts that big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco could be the big winners this holiday, possibly drawing shoppers from department and specialty stores by convincing consumers they can save enough on food to cross the aisle and shop for gifts, as well. Guess that makes the local specialty stores downtown more vulnerable than usual this holiday season, and the local grocery stores, too. Besides free parking, I’m guessing there will be more holiday festivities this year to draw people to the local shopping district.

But what does local really mean? Does it refer to the store’s ownership structure? Or its involvement in the community? Can a big box store be local? Is there a distance that defines what’s local? Is it the distance from the customer’s home to the store, or from the source of the products to the shelf, or both?

In the fresh food category, Wal-mart defines local as grown in the same state as it's sold. Whole Foods considers local to be anything produced within seven hours of one of its stores, and says that most of its local producers are within 200 miles of a store. For Seattle's PCC Natural Markets, local is anything from Washington, Oregon or southern British Columbia. Frankly, of the three, I think Whole Foods gets it closest to right.

According to a story this week by Julie Schmit for USA Today, “the ‘locally grown’ label is part of retailers' push to tap into consumer desires for fresh and safe products that support small, local farmers and help the environment because they're not trucked so far.” And for some consumers, being locally grown is now more important than being organic.

Farmers' markets are seen a source of local fresh produce, meats and cheeses, and they're on the increase. Last month UDSA reported that the number of farmers markets in the United States has nearly tripled over the past 15 years to 4,385. We have seven a week just in Southern Marin County.

USDA and others are careful to point out that locally grown food is not necessarily safer than food from farther away. But it seems consumers are not satisfied with government assurances about the safety of the food supply, and they like the greater ripeness that sourcing locally affords. In some respects, “Organic” and “Green” have become short-hand for “Safer” and "Better." Sounds like “Local” is the newest addition to that list of reassuring words.

Look for a push for standard definitions and certification of “locally grown,” and a move to track and report on the handling of fresh food from source to shelf as people increasingly think about what’s on their plate and how it got there.

And back in Mill Valley, I expect merchants large and small to continue trying to figure out how to capitalize on our passion for all things local.

Does Green Mean It's Safe?

Today's Brandweek features a story about Safeway bringing organic food to the masses. The Q&A with Safeway top marketer, James White, discusses the retailer's latest moves in organic and green products, and tries to clarify the difference its O and Eating Right brands.

It seems to me that the article misses the main point: As a society, we have lost faith in our institutions to keep us safe. From the FTC to the FDA to OSHA to EPA, the regulators are asleep at the wheel. People are looking for someone to fill the void and reassure us that the products we buy and the food we eat are not going to hurt us. Frankly, this is a big part of Whole Foods' historical appeal.

But Whole Foods is embattled on multiple fronts right now: from the acquisition of Wild Oats to the latest e.coli-related recall to becoming more value-oriented. As a result, the "seal of approval" aspect of its brand is in the background.

Safeway has a huge opportunity to become the new seal of approval signaling what's safe to buy, use and eat. Maybe that was the thinking behind the company's name in the first place! Can it afford to invest in both O and Eating Right to deliver the message? Should there be an umbrella brand that carries the overall message, and to which both O and Eating Right are linked? That can all be figured out.

The key is for Safeway to be honest in its claims, speak to consumers in plain English, and put the seal of approval brand(s) only on products that really are good for us and not just less bad versions of what's already available. Are they up to the task?