What makes 25 Farms so special? Part 2: Living La Vida Local

There are lots of interesting marketing campaigns out there, but the one I get a real kick out of is the local produce campaign from Walmart. Over the last few years, produce prices have increased with diesel prices because the average item of produce travels 1,500 miles to arrive at your local grocery store. In an effort to save money by reducing miles, Walmart is now selling what it's marketing as local produce to customers. But according to a recent New York Times article, Walmart defines local produce as something grown in the same state. When did “anywhere in the state” come to mean local?

My state of Colorado is the 8th largest state in America at about 100,000 square miles. It’s bigger than Ireland and 178 other countries. And yet Walmart's standard of anywhere-in-the-state lets them market local produce to any town in Colorado (imagine how ridiculous this is in Texas, Alaska, and California.) That means…if you live in Ft Collins and buy something grown in Durango 400 miles away, it’s local, but if it’s grown over the border in Cheyenne, Wyoming, almost 50 miles away, it’s not local. I wouldn't call something made in Boston local when I'm selling it 400 miles away in Baltimore. Baltimore residents don't cheer for the New England Patriots, and Bostonians don't cheer for the Baltimore Ravens. Likewise, I don't see the point of cheering for Walmart's local farm when it is not actually local.

If state lines define "local," then what word do we use when produce really is local? That is, when I can quickly drop by the farm before or after work, when I hang out with the farmers on the weekends, when it produces local jobs in my neighborhood, when it pays local taxes, when it provides learning events for my kids to attend?

Produce is exempt from sales tax, and Colorado farms are exempt from the estate tax, so when a head of lettuce is grown across the state in some distant county, it has very little impact on my neighborhood. Most of the taxes it generates are spent in the county where it was produced, so its impact on my community is equivalent to that of a head of lettuce grown in California or Arizona. When you include the wear and tear on my town’s roads that result from large trucks hauling in produce, and the pollution that comes with these trucks, the net impact is probably negative. Farmers who grow produce 400 miles away aren't local job creators, local taxpayers, local residents, or giving members of the local community. So would someone tell me why Walmart considers them and their products local?

Local is not just a marketing gimmick or a way to save gas money; instead it is the only way to make fresh produce possible. 25 Farms will prove it.