Trend is a natural

Everybody thinks about food, and lately more people are thinking about where their food comes from, counting miles instead of calories as they strive to "eat local."

"People want to know where I'm from, how far away my farm is. They want to know how far their food has traveled," said David Purpura, who sells the produce from his Middleborough farm locally. Donna Blishke, who has been growing food for 13 years on her Web of Life farm in Carver, sees the same thing. "People are much more connected to their food," she said.

The "eat local" trend, fueled by health and environmental concerns, is boosting business at farmers markets - there were 135 statewide this year, up from 88 five years ago - and prompting new food-marketing strategies.

Studies by the University of Massachusetts suggest Massachusetts could produce up to 35 percent of its own food, compared with the 12 percent it now produces. Already, Massachusetts farmers make more money selling directly to consumers than do farmers in any other state, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

Customers at area farmers markets - where business peaks this month and next - say the locally grown food is fresher and healthier. They also like that buying local supports the region's farms, which in turn helps preserve open space throughout the region.

And if everyone went local, they say, it would dramatically reduce the nation's energy bill. Eating just one organic, locally grown meal a week would save the nation 1.1 million barrels of oil a week, asserts author Barbara Kingsolver and her family in their new book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life."

For Jenny Healy of Plymouth, who shops for a family of four at the town's weekly farmers market, the decision to eat local started "with health reasons," but there's more to it. The organic strawberries she bought from a local supermarket were organic all right, but they were grown in Turkey. "Think of the amount of energy that takes," she said.

Incidents such as the contaminated spinach from California last year also helped spark a demand for locally grown food, according to Scott Soares, acting commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture.

The state has promoted local agriculture by distributing grants to regional groups such as the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership, a nonprofit organization that promotes local products and provides business and technical assistance to farmers.

Direct sales to consumers leave farmers with greater earnings and are especially important in Massachusetts, he said, because of the state's high costs, such as the price of land.

"There's a real opportunity to make a living getting at the retail dollar," Soares said.

Jim Ward, who with his brother Bob runs the popular Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon, takes the food straight from his fields to the farm's roadside stand, where travelers from nearby Interstate 95 say they like what they find. "I feel like we have real enthusiastic customers," Ward said.

His farm, Ward said, also sells to "fine restaurants in Boston," plus Sharon's Coriander Bistro, whose chefs have a "sincere passion" for the flavor of locally grown and freshly harvested produce.

But despite that kind of success, getting large amounts of locally grown produce on the shelves of local supermarkets - the key to building a strong "eat local" movement that supports the state's farmers - remains a challenge. Some local farmers are not optimistic.

"I think it's a long time coming," said Frank Albani, who directs the Soule Homestead Education Center in Middleborough, which teaches children where food comes from. He also sold tomatoes and squash through one popular food store chain this summer.

"It felt like the largest companies are not set up to handle small New England farms," said Ward, noting that, for example, he had to wait hours to execute a sale with a large company. And, he added, small farmers aren't prepared to deal with large supermarket companies.

Corporations need a steady, reliable supply of product to meet their retail strategy - but that's not how nature works, farmers point out. The move to buy locally, he hopes, will lead to a "better understanding of seasons," said Ward.

Another problem is supermarkets' emphasis on homogeneity. They want every fruit or vegetable to look right, regardless of how it tastes, said Papura. Regional farmers say they have had 80 percent of their produce rejected because it didn't have the perfect finish supermarkets demand.

Soares was more optimistic about local farmers ability to sell their produce through supermarkets. "It's a new thing," he said. Local farmers "are being looked at as a marketing tool." He cited Whole Foods Market and some individually owned markets as featuring locally grown foods and said consumers are asking store managers for locally grown.

Purpura, who grows on two leased sites, has found a reliable alternative to store sales. It is called Consumer Supported Agriculture, or CSA. Customers pay a monthly fee to receive a weekly basket of produce. What they receive depends on what's in season. The arrangement gives farmers the luxury - rare in a notoriously risky industry - of knowing they have a fixed market for what they grow

"When I put out my produce," Papura said, "I have the certainty that it's pretty much sold." His CSA customers are largely looking for organic food (he's a certified organic grower) and many find him through localharvest.org.

For now, the expanding farmers markets are doing their best to meet the growing demand.

The Plymouth market attracts about 500 cars, including scores of first-time customers, according to Barbara Anglin, market manager, who estimates sales to those drivers are feeding some 2,000 people. The growth in demand helps farmers. "They sell out of eggs every week," said Anglin. "They expand . . . They offer more varieties of local food."

The relatively new Carver Farmers Market offers a wide range of vendors from crafters and musicians to bakers and lobstermen in addition to farmers, according to Mike Nash, the market's manager.

It also includes hayrides, cooking demonstrations, and pumpkin painting. "We're going good," Nash said. "It's a fine time." It is also, Anglin asserted, the way of the future for smart consumers.

"If you want to know how your food is grown . . . if you want to trust your food," she said, "the best way is to get it from the people growing it."