Dear Kroger, the ‘Sweetest Corn in America’ comes from your neighborhood, not Colorado

This is a letter to the editor I wrote that was published yesterday in the Lexington Herald Leader. And yes, I was talking about my experience at Kroger’s, a chain with its headquarters in Cincinnati that you would think would buy at least from regional farmers. I did not name them specifically because they aren’t the only supermarket that claims to sell local produce but fails to do so in any substantial way. They are, however, the largest supermarket chain and what they do — or do not do — can have a significant impact on a farmer’s income. Also, I felt the letter had a greater chance of being published if I did not point the finger squarely at the newspaper’s biggest advertiser. So there you go. And I’d like to thank the paper for printing it.

My main question for the Kroger Co. would be why a corporation that relies on a community’s goodwill and food dollars, does not, in turn, support the communities it serves, particularly the farming communities of Kentucky? And why, as customers, should we support them when they do not walk their talk?

Kentucky is a huge agricultural state. Until recently, that farming has been predominately devoted to the horse and tobacco industries. However, with many tobacco farmers converting to vegetable and grain crops after the tobacco buyout, there has never been a greater need for supermarkets, restaurants, and large institutions, to buy from these farmers. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture even has an incentive program for businesses to buy local Kentucky products called "Kentucky Proud," which is funded by our tax dollars. For every $1 a business spends on Kentucky produce, they get a return of .20 cents up to $12,000.

In June of this year for the first time that I have noticed (and I shop there at least once a week), the Kroger store in Beaumont featured "local produce" on a small display in the front of the produce section. I could not believe the sorry examples of ‘farm fresh’ vegetables there: Oversized zucchini that looked as if someone had used them for bowling pins, pale ‘vine ripened’ commercial variety tomatoes that were just starting to turn, and corn that had seen better days.

Having been to the Lincoln county produce auction (about 50 miles south of Lexington) the quality of most of the produce sold at auction is very good and generally superior and fresher to what Kroger typcially sells. I was perplexed as to why Kroger would choose this collection of rejects as an example of local produce. You might look at this display and think, well, at least it’s something. But what it said to me was Kroger did not care enough to feature the best local produce, nor to showcase it in any meaningful way. I have not seen local produce advertised for sale in a Kroger store since.

Although Kroger (and other chains for that matter, including the natural food chain Wild Oats in Lexington) may claim to have a regional approach to produce buying — this is what Kroger employees are instructed to say when questioned about where their produce comes from — that’s far from reality. Most of the produce sold in supermarkets comes from California, Florida, Mexico, and Guatemala, and as far away as Chile and New Zealand. Hardly regional.

When I was a food editor and stylist for magazines where you routinely worked several months ahead and bought food out of season, I learned a good deal about where supermarket produce comes from at any given time of year. While I think that buying food from greater distances is acceptable to consumers during the winter and off season months, it is less so in a farming state when seasonal produce is abundant and farmers are in need of outlets.

I am aware that Kroger bought a limited amount of corn from a large producer in Shelbyville, KY, in June but then switched to selling the patented "Olathe" Colorado corn, which is marketed as ‘the sweetest corn in America!" for the better part of the summer. The Kroger Co. has an exclusive contract to sell Olathe, by the way. I’m sure it’s very lucrative for the Colorado growers, The Tuxedo Corn Company, and no doubt this hybrid is popular in Colorado and the western region (it’s named for the town of Olathe which each year has a festival for the corn). But I am surprised that Kroger would think Olathe corn would garner the same popularity roughly 1,460 miles from its state of origin to Lexington, particularly in the Bluegrass where customers are known to quiz farmers (as they unload their trucks at 6 am) if the corn was picked "this morning?"

From what I’ve seen at my local store, the dried up Olathe corn sits in the bin while locals clamor for Silver Queen sold from roadside stands and at the farmers markets. Local produce is something customers are willing to pay a premium for as they know that the money will help support a Kentucky farmer, and consequently, protect farmland.

Premium products attract a well-heeled customer, that is, if you think the monumental success of a supermarket chain like Whole Foods Market is any indication. And the Kroger Co. must be thinking along those lines, too, with the recent introductions of Starbuck’s cafes and larger organic produce and organic product displays. With the influx of upscale Fresh Market, Walmart’s expansion and shift to more fresh produce and organic foods moving into Kroger territory, Kroger perhaps ought to re-examine its window dressing of iced cappucinos and chocolate-coated biscotti and commit more of its resources to buying from local growers. This to me would demonstrate that Kroger wants to be a part of the community and is thinking about sustainable solutions to high fuel and food costs for its customers.

One of my regular customers on Saturday told me that the Kroger’s in her neighborhood now has a sign in the produce department that says, ironically, "Farmer’s Market." Michael Pollan, in his latest book "The Omnivore’s Dilemma," calls this kind of marketing "supermarket pastoral" — painting a pretty picture for customers when the reality is the store sells industrially produced food from foreign countries and states on the opposite side of the map.

I think few customers realize how many miles their food has traveled, how much age it has (a head of broccoli can be up to 3 months old, an apple a year old) and the marginal nutrition and flavor they are getting for their food dollar. If they did no doubt shopping at farmer’s markets would be an even bigger trend than they are today.

The "Colorado" sign is no longer on display at my local Kroger, perhaps because it spurred too many customer questions. And Kroger still uses the Kentucky Proud logo in its newspaper ads (they get cost sharing money for that from the KDA as well) even though there appears to be no Kentucky produce in their stores. Oh and the cost of the aged Colorado corn last I checked was .44 an ear or $4 for 10 ears, which has remained mostly steady since July. That’s a pretty high price for corn that wasn’t picked the same day (or possibly the same week?).

Until supermarkets truly commit to having a significant percentage of local product in their stores I fear for the future of our farmland and particularly those farmers struggling to make a living from their former tobacco farms. What can you do about it? First of all, buy your produce directly from a farmer if you can (not all farmers sell directly to the public so this is where the retailer needs to step up). Be a vocal customer (or as I like to say, bitch). Go to customer service at your local Kroger store, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, or other chain, and ask them how much local produce they carry. Then ask them why they don’t have more. Kroger has a customer comment card they send to their headquarters in Cincinnati and I think if they got enough feedback they might just be persuaded to ‘get more local.’ There’s also an email form you can fill out at the consumer website: www.kroger.com.

Let them know you care about keeping Kentucky farmers in business and you vote with your food dollars. And let them keep their mocha lattes and their western corn.

Posted on Mon, Aug. 21, 2006
Passing up a sweet product
BIG CHAINS SHOULD SELL LOCAL CORN
By Susie Quick

During the first week of August, the peak of sweet corn season in Kentucky, you would have been hard-pressed to find this seasonal commodity in any of the area supermarkets. Instead, customers could buy corn that was several days old and had traveled from as far away as Mexico and, surprisingly, Colorado.

Peaches, cherries and beef are what I think of when I hear "Colorado," not corn. A sign next to the dried-looking ears in the store where I shop actually boasted about the Colorado corn and a recording urged shoppers to make their way to the produce department for this sweet corn from thousands of miles away. I asked the manager why, when Kentucky fields are full of sweet corn and farmers are in desperate need of buyers, did this regional chain choose to sell sweet corn from another state thousands of miles away? Those decisions, she said, were made at the corporate level.

A day later, I attended one of the Kentucky produce auctions in Lincoln County where sweet corn, picked shortly before the auction, sold for a paltry $1 a dozen. Many of the farmers in Lincoln County are Amish or Mennonite and use horses to farm and pick by hand, which is even more difficult than using machinery to plant, cultivate and harvest. It is not unusual for the families to include eight to 10 children. Everyone participates in the work, which can be grueling, particularly in 90-degree July and August weather.

Their produce, and especially sweet corn, is the best I have ever seen or tasted, unlike the ear of Colorado corn I bought to compare to my own sweet corn and that of my Amish friends. The Colorado ear was sweet, all right, because of its engineering, but it seriously lacked good corn flavor. And not surprisingly, considering the time and distance, the kernels did not have the crisp texture of freshly picked local corn.

A supermarket chain buying large lots of premium Kentucky sweet corn — as well as squash, beans and tomatoes — from local farmers helps preserve Kentucky’s dwindling farmland and a way of life for farm families. Instead, the chains buy from giant agribusinesses and brokers in states and countries thousands of miles away.

Not only are the chains depriving local farmers of an honest income, but they are also supporting the use of large amounts of fossil fuels that pollute the environment and add to the cost of the flavorless, inferior produce they buy.

What’s wrong with this picture?

With the popularity of local foods at farmers markets and the influx and unprecedented success of high-quality chains like Fresh Fields and Whole Foods, which routinely buy from local producers and recently pledged to do more, you would think supermarkets would get on board the local food train, so to speak.

Despite displaying the Kentucky Proud logo in newspaper and on TV ads — for which they are compensated through an incentive program with our tax dollars — supermarkets in Central Kentucky offer a token amount of locally raised produce in their stores. These companies boast of supporting local farmers, but when it comes to selling one of the largest local commodities — sweet corn in peak season — they don’t walk the talk. They should be ashamed, or at least ceremoniously stripped of their "Kentucky Proud" logos.

Susie Quick is a Woodford County farmer.

© 2006 Lexington Herald-Leader and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kentucky.com