Taste the Local Difference

July 20, 2005

Thanks to a new “Taste the Local Difference” website and booklet it’s now easier than ever to buy fresh-from-the-farm food direct from local growers.
Taste the Local Difference is a campaign by the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) to promote local agriculture. The campaign includes distribution of a free, pocket-sized guide listing about 160 farms in the region that sell their products directly to shoppers and retailers.
The MLUI is ramping up its effort this year by including about 55 food retailers from northwest Lower Michigan. The partners -- grocers, restauranteurs, caterers, and hoteliers that feature locally produced food -- should add marketing clout to the year-old program, which includes a new Web site.

SAVING FARMLAND
The “buy local” push is part of the Beulah-based non-profit organization’s work to save farmland by building new economic opportunities for farms and food entrepreneurs.
The project’s Web site, www.LocalDifference.org, features a searchable version of the pocket-sized guide, news about local farmers and food policy issues, a seasonal harvesting guide, recipe tips, application forms for farmers and retailers who want to join the campaign, a calendar of events, and links to dozens of retail partners and sponsors.
The farms listed in the guide represent a significant chunk of the eight-county region’s agricultural economy -- approximately $5 million in annual sales, about 320 full- and part-time jobs, and nearly 23,000 acres of farmland.

Taste the Local Difference at a Glance:
• Look for Taste the Local Difference logo at participating grocery stores and restaurants. A complete list of retail partners is at www.LocalDifference.org .
• Pocketsize Taste the Local Difference guides are available at libraries, visitor centers, farmers markets, and other popular spots. They are available by mail by calling 231-882-4723.
• The Michigan Land Use Institute more than doubled its Taste the Local Difference print run to 25,000 this year and expanded from five to eight counties: Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee.
• The Web site www.LocalDifference.org allows specialized searches, and can even find farms that take the kids for “u-pick” activities or use certain techniques such as certified organic practices and hormone-free beef and dairy products.

ECONOMIC FUTURE
Topping the list of nearly 40 financial supporters of Taste the Local Difference are Traverse City State Bank and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
“As a locally owned community bank, we appreciate the efforts of those working to promote and sustain Northern Michigan businesses,” said Pete Correia, the president of Traverse City State Bank.
“This helps us build our economic future,” added Robert Kewaygoshkum, the chairman of the Grand Traverse Band, which operates two local casinos and counts 28 families in its membership who jointly own or work on four of the five commercial fishing operations listed in the pocket guide. Together, the four family-owned businesses chalked up $224,000 in fish sales last year.
“The tourists come up not just for our casinos but for the beauty we have to offer,” Kewaygoshkum said.
“It helps two dying enterprises that are close to Mother Earth,” he added. “One is farming and one is fishing. They both offer good foods. And this helps us educate our young about how to eat good foods and have good health.”
Brad Oleson, co-owner of Oleson Food Stores which has five groceries in the region, said his business supports Taste the Local Difference because it can help local farms, stores, and restaurants call consumer attention to local foods. “I’d like to see people be more aware of the importance of locally grown foods and the value it has for the economy,” he said.

LOSS OF FARMLAND
According to agriculture census statistics, the eight-county region from Manistee to the Mackinac Bridge lost nearly 35 percent of its medium-size farms between 1997 and 2002. These are operations that gross more than $50,000 a year. Yet farms in the region that focused more on selling directly to consumers instead of to big processors and bulk commodity markets increased that part of their annual sales by 18 percent.
The Taste the Local Difference program aims to help farms expand on that trend by increasing their connections to local shoppers, restaurants, and other food buyers.
A successful campaign could make a substantial difference to the local economy. “Sales and Marketing Management,” a retail industry journal, says consumers in the Manistee-to-Mackinac region spend more than $853 million on food and beverages annually. MLUI staff say that if they reach their goal of helping local growers capture an additional five percent share of that spending, it will translate into an $8.6 million increase in sales by local farms.

STAYING IN BUSINESS
Empire farmer Harry Norconk is retooling to tap the local market more effectively. Norconk used to sell 90 percent of his 40-acre asparagus crop wholesale to canneries. But then canned imports from Peru and Brazil flooded the American market and lowered prices so much that it made growing asparagus as a commodity crop a money-losing proposition.
“It was extremely bleak,” he recalled.
Norconk switched to selling fresh asparagus to local stores and restaurants and now counts two local grocery chains, four smaller independent stores, and about 25 restaurants as steady customers.
In late May and June, he is busy from dawn to midnight plunging asparagus picked by his employees into icy-cold water to wash it and maintain freshness during delivery. Norconk hopes to sell about 55 percent of his crop to fresh local markets this year at 90 cents to $1.25 a pound. The processed asparagus market, in contrast, is paying just 45 to 50 cents a pound -- about half as much and barely enough to cover the costs of growing and picking it.
“At this point, now that we’ve somewhat established ourselves in the fresh market, I think we are going to survive it,” Norconk said. “I feel like we can.”
And if he does, he will keep his 80-acre farm in business.
FRESH START
Local grocery stores, restaurants and catering businesses are also looking to local foods as a new way to gain market share and boost profits.
Oleson, the Traverse-area grocer, said he values freshness so much that he bases many of his local food purchases on how close farms are located to each of his stores. Recently, he took over the job that his late grandfather, Gerald Oleson, treasured: Buying products from local farmers. For years, his grandfather bought fresh produce in the region.
But, he said, those were also the days when stores sold fruits and vegetables by the bushel to women who canned them for a winter’s worth of food. Now, he said, the stores buy in smaller, steadier quantities that enable customers to shop a few times a week and get the freshest produce. To manage that new kind of demand, Oleson frequently talks to about a dozen local farmers who, armed with his cell phone number, keep him abreast of their daily harvests.
Oleson said consumer interest in local fresh food is so strong that shoppers are willing to pay a bit more for it. He sees shoppers pass up California strawberries for local ones, even when the nearby berries cost 50 cents a quart more. Customers know that the local berries will be sweeter, juicier, and more nutritious because they were picked ripe, rather than green.
“I’ll probably get yelled at by my suppliers in California, but over time food loses its nutrition,” Oleson said. “Strawberries might be three days old before they get here -- two days by truck and then turnover in the warehouse. Locally, I’ve had them as close as five hours off the field.”

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Smaller grocers are also participating in the campaign.
Dave and Leslie Hansen of Hansen Foods in Suttons Bay sell everything from apples grown at a large and well-established operation, to salad greens from a small farm, to rhubarb from 100-year-old rootstock from a neighbors garden. The approach has helped them build the reputation of the food they sell.
“It is always fresher, and the farmers know it better be good because everyone knows who they are,” Hansen said with a chuckle.
Dale Schneider, a partner in the relatively small Honor and Copemish Family Markets, gives local products first priority for his limited shelf space, and he’s pleased to see the farmers also shopping in his store: “I thought, ‘Did I need a maple syrup from Vermont if I had one local and fresh? Did I need a honey from out East if I already had honey locally?’”
Oryana Natural Foods Market in Traverse City provides a specialized market for farms that are certified organic or use other ecologically oriented growing practices. Crystal Mountain Resort, in Thompsonville will use more local foods on its restaurant menus and offer local, in-season fruit during conference breakfasts and breaks.
Proprietors of several restaurants are also forging relationships with farmers.
“If a farmer has two dozen free-range chickens, we’ll put them on the menu until they are gone,” said Paul Danielson, co-owner of Trattoria Stella in Traverse City. “We change our menu every day. We wanted to open a restaurant that would allow us to eat real food, as opposed to manufactured, processed food, so we’ve been very happy to find local farmers.”

Diane Conners coordinates the MLUI’s Taste the Local Difference campaign. Reach her at diane@mlui.org. The campaign’s Web site, www.LocalDifference.org, lists the program’s sponsors, retail partners, local wineries, and farmers markets.