Comments on: Kroger offering locally grown produce

By: crooked road

crooked road — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:00:16 +0000

To reiterate, I’d eat anything Eric Layman grows. There are far too many barriers to purchasing the ‘right’ food applied by our federal and state governments.

It’s a shame that it has devolved into such a state…

By: crooked road

crooked road — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:05:08 +0000

Lindsey nails it on the head. The best of intentions are to buy ‘organic’, but the federal definition of ‘organic’, take note of the ‘quote’ marks, is quite different than reality.

As Lindsey correctly states, the more you can talk to your actual food supplier, the FAR better off you are.

We all want to do the right thing, but these days, it’s like wandering through a corn maze to get there. (little tip of the cap to Layman Farms, there)

By: Lindsey Nair

Lindsey Nair — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:46:23 +0000

@David, I checked back with Eric Layman and he said they are not certified organic. He said they “minimally spray.”
I don’t know what type of spray he uses.
Although it may not apply to this situation, Crooked Road is correct when he points out the difference. A lot of growers’ practices would be considered organic under the standards but they have not forked over the cash to have the paperwork that says they are “certified organic.”
This is why it’s always a good idea to talk to the grower about how he does it. And that’s why it’s nice to have access to local products because you can actually CALL and talk to the man who grew your food

By: crooked road

crooked road — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:42:52 +0000

Organic by the fed’s standards and organic by common sense standard are two drastically different things.

By: david

david — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:22:25 +0000

Will any of this produce be organic?

By: tass

tass — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:34:11 +0000

We may never get a Wegmans here, but it’s nice to see Kroger modeling their practices. The more options there are for small local farmers, the more small local farms we’ll have. Win-win!

By: crooked road

crooked road — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:21:25 +0000

I will always be a proponent of buying locally sourced food as directly from the grower as possible. Ideally, that means just that – buying directly from the grower. If not, then a secondary source like Kroger is the second best option.

Food City, a grocer based in Abingdon, does much of the same, although they do not reach up into the NRV or RV areas. They actually name the supplier and location for the source of their produce sourced in SW Va and NE Tennessee.

I think it is fantastic for companies to do this. I would love to see Food Lion do the same, as they seem to be the type of chain that would embrace such a concept. Smaller grocers would be easily adaptable to this as well. For me, Wade’s in the NRV is a natural for such a promotional campaign.

To me, it is like touting ‘Made In America’, in that there is no downside, and it’s such a great selling tool as to be the cliched ‘no-brainer’.

By: david

david — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:31:27 +0000

Yea!