OP-ED In support of local foods

Author: Glenn Lower

I would like to thank the College for sponsoring the Food Symposium during the week of October 20-24. Congratulations to the students who organized the event!

As the General Manager of the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op, I was especially interested in the Tuesday lecture (Oct. 21) delivered by Walter Robb, President of Whole Foods, Inc. Mr. Robb emphasized his company's support of locally grown and produced foods. To highlight his point, he showed a number of slides and film clippings, including several Vermont farmers and cheese makers. Evidently, Whole Foods has a different definition of "local" than we do at Middlebury Co-op, or at cooperative businesses nationwide. Whole Foods does not own any stores in Vermont; its nearest supermarkets are located four to five hours away in Portland, Maine, Hartford, Conn., Boston, or New York City. While I am happy to hear that Vermont food producers are featured in Whole Foods supermarkets, these products can hardly be called local when sold in stores hundreds of miles away.

At Middlebury Co-op we define local as grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. We actively support locally grown produce and local cheese makers and food producers, whenever quality meets our expectations and buying criteria, and we mean it! I am sometimes amazed at the ease with which supermarkets claim to be supporting local business and agriculture when they don't offer much more than a few varieties of locally grown apples!

Mr. Robb said that he knew of no other supermarket chain that supported local agriculture to the extent that Whole Foods does. I challenge this assumption. In my view, it is cooperatives that actively and wholeheartedly support local food production.

Co-ops are community-driven. They grow out of their community, are guided and supported by their community members, and exist to serve the community. Profits are reinvested to benefit the local community. At the Middlebury Co-op, for example, 25 percent of sales are generated by local producers, and much of it by growers and cheese makers in Addison County! Sales benefit local consumers and local producers. When our Co-op expanded four years ago, the Co-op raised $500,000 from our member-owners and $1.5 million as a loan from a local bank. This is local capital at work!

I agree with Mr. Robb that it is farmers' markets that best promote locally grown foods, but his presentation of Whole Foods supermarkets as committed supporters of local foods and economies strikes me more as a marketing ploy than a true commitment. Because of our smaller size, community integration, and our cooperative business model, co-ops are far better equipped to promote local, and in my experience that is what we do.