South Florida supermarkets don’t stock local produce

June 23, 4:47 AMMiami Food and Drink ExaminerRosalie E. Leposky

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Trying to purchase locally grown produce in south Florida supermarkets is an exercise in frustration.

Years ago, the area’s supermarkets purchased local produce from their back doors. Now the large grocery chains have moved to central purchasing, located for the most part outside of south Florida. If you are very lucky, you may occasionally find a locally grown mango or avocado or some winter vegetables in your neighborhood supermarket.

Part of the problem is that fewer food crops are being grown in south Florida today.  A generation ago, Homestead and the Redland were America’s winter food basket, growing seed potatoes for the nation as well as tomatoes, squash, green beans, peppers, and other vegetables for shipment to northern cities.

Long before the terms “sustainable” and “slow food” were invented, valuable Everglades land was drained and rock-plowed to feed America. While I have never supported draining the Everglades and wish to see politics removed from Everglades restoration, that is a different issue.

Florida agriculture today

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) posts extensive crop information on its Web site.  A chart on the IFAS site shows what months of the year particular vegetables are available,  and a separate chart shows the growing seasons for tropical fruits.

These lists track only the larger commercial crops. Small crops from small farmers and backyard tropicals aren’t included and are harder to find. They may appear on roadside stands and small farmers markets. Meanwhile, growers of tropical fruits are struggling to get their fruit to market.

Two recent events made me even more aware of our local South Florida food distribution issues.

I attended a picnic hosted by Slow Food Miami. The highlight of the event was a local pie contest with  nine entrees. Each pie maker told what was local about his or her pie and where its ingredients were acquired. Most obtained the special ingredients in their own yards or their neighbors’ yards, not in local supermarkets.

A week later, while shopping in a south Florida Publix, I was taken aback by an older produce employee responding to a customer from Pinecrest who described seeing lychees sold at roadside stands. The employee gave us an earful about roadside stands, pesticides, and what was wrong with organic vegetables and fruit. Both of us left without buying any produce.
 

  Hunter Reno and daughters  finish their
award wining pie. © 2009 Rosalie E. Leposky

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A longtime friend who is a Publix employee says Publix has a very high standard for what it sells, excluding irradiated or genetically engineered vegetables. All organic products must come from certified growers. This employee also described the Publix central purchasing system in Lakeland that prohibits local stores from making backdoor purchases and doesn’t purchase much from south Florida growers. Local Publix store employees no longer know the produce buyers. Publix’s Lakeland office doesn’t want to discuss such issues with the media.

For example, passion fruit is a commercial crop in south Florida, available throughout the summer, fall, and winter.  Publix purchases and sells very expensive out-of-country passion fruit in the spring when it’s out of season in Miami, but won’t sell more the economical locally grown passion fruit during the rest of the year.  Because of its cost, much of the passion fruit Publix imports dies on the shelves for want of consumer demand.

Local growers and lobbying groups want south Florida supermarkets to join the sustainable and slow-food trend by offering a “Redland-grown” department where signage would identify locally grown conventional and organic products.

If you shop at Publix or Winn-Dixie and want local produce, tell the company’s top officials.  Write to Publix on-line at Send us a message . Write to Winn-Dixie at Comments and Customer Service, P.O. Box B, Jacksonville FL 32203-0297, or Contact us on line.  The smaller chains also have contact information posted online.

Strawberry acreage withering

Intense urban growth has eliminated most of Miami-Dade’s acres of u-pick strawberry fields. While not a tropical fruit, strawberries are an important Florida commercial crop. Currently the Florida Strawberry Growers Association (FSGA) has no commercial grower membership in south Florida.

Florida strawberries come primarily from Hillsborough County and elsewhere upstate. During the winter growing season, several farmers in Homestead and the Redland sell fresh strawberry products and may know of a local u-pick field. They are:

• Burr's Berry Farm
• Knaus Berry Farm and Bakery
• Whitney's Produce Market (open all year)

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