Michael Rozyne, a 2009 NRDC Growing Green Awards finalist, is founder and managing director of Red Tomato, a not-for-profit marketing organization whose mission is to connect farmers and consumers through marketing, trade and education. Red Tomato holds a passionate belief that a family-farm, locally-based, ecological, fair trade food system is the way to a better tomato! Red Tomato coordinates distribution and marketing of produce from forty Northeastern family farmers to supermarkets.
Produce Business magazine (March 2008) sent a team of 'mystery shoppers' into stores across the country to see whether retailers are complying with COOL (Country of Origin Legislation) and to see how shoppers feel about it (i.e. whether they care which country their produce comes from). The 'mystery shoppers' discovered that "what they really seem to care about is whether their produce is locally grown."
What defines local? Some states have legislated local to mean grown-in-their-state-only. Some have defined local as X-number-miles or an X-hour-drive from your home. At Red Tomato, we spend our time figuring out and managing the logistics of distribution for locally-grown fruits and vegetables, not defining local. For us, local has always been a regional effort. Our region is ...read full post
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May 6, 2009 
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Copyright 2008 by the Natural Resources Defense Council
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