Northfield Food System

INTERVIEWS

I chose to interview three retail grocers in Northfield, MN for my assessment of the Northfield food system. I decided upon EconoFood, Cub Foods and Just Food as the retailers I wanted to interview for several reasons. First, I believe that these three grocers are the most prominent food retailers in the community. Second, together they would account for vast majority of the grocery retailing in Northfield, allowing the scope of my findings to be representative of a community-wide food system. Third, although many businesses such as convenience stores and specialty food stores also inclusive in the Northfield Food System, the three retailers I chose are aimed to provide customers with all their grocery needs, whereas other businesses may be targeting those who simply need to go out to pick up a few food items. In this sense, I feel Econofoods, Cub Foods and Just Foods are more complete food retailers, and are a representative sampling of the Northfield Food System.

I came up with a series of five questions that when answered would provide details of the Northfield Food System while successfully assessing the impact of the global food system on the community. Previous research on local food systems done by Guptill and Wilkins in 2001 was especially helpful in the development of questions that would be effective in constructing a picture of the Northfield Food System. The questions presented are as follows:

Who oversees or runs the decision-making process of which products your store offers? How does your store go about acquiring to products you provide?
To what extent does your store try to provide goods from local farmers? If so, what experiences have you had in doing so? What limitations have you encountered in doing so?
What percentage of your produce/dairy/meat is grown in Rice County? In Minnesota? In the Midwest?
What percentage of your produce/dairy/meat is grown outside of the United States?
What percentage of your produce/dairy/meat comes from agricultural systems that are organic or are otherwise grown within a sustainable farm model?

Much to my dismay, I immediately encountered difficulties in attempting to find answers to the questions I sought. My first point of contact with the three grocers was to be the store managers. However, in two cases I was recommended to direct my questions to those at the corporate offices, since that was where the product decisions took place. Disappointingly, this was of little assistance and many of my questions were left unanswered. Below are the summaries of the responses I received from each of the retail grocers I had initially set out to interview.

Econofoods
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When I approached the store manager of the Northfield Econofoods I was referred to a contact at the NashFinch corporate office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He had said that any figures he would give me would simply be a guess, and I was better off speaking with someone at the corporate level. He did however tell me that during the summer months Econofoods does attempt to stock local produce such as melons. After a series of attempts to get through to the corporate Public Relations office proved futile, I resigned to the fact that my questions would go unanswered in the case of this particular retail grocer.

Cub Foods
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Again I was directed to the corporate offices for answers, so I began by getting in touch with a personal contact I had within the Cub Foods organization. Through them I was able to present my questions to a representative in the Public Relations department of SuperValu Corporation, the parent company of Cub Foods. In response I was told that there were initiatives to bring in goods from local farmers to Cub Foods stores, but the information I was seeking was not public information. I was not able to acquire documentation regarding the specifics of any initiatives for bringing in local foods.

Just Food
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I was granted an interview with the store manager of Just Food, Stuart Reid. He was able to answer many of my questions in great detail, leaving hope for a conclusion to be drawn from my research. Much of the packaged products that Just Food offers were decided upon by a Food Co-op Consultant. As they continue to grow, these decisions are being taken over by the individual department managers, as well as in part my their members and Board of Directors. Also, they have sent out letters to local producers and have relied on word of mouth for the acquisition of their fresh goods. Since Just Food is community owned, it is a priority of this retail grocer to work with local farmers. Limitations in doing so has been in the area of consistency in product availability. For example, they only receive free range chicken once a week, so daily availability of fresh chicken is a compromise they have had to make.

The majority of the meat at Just Food is grown in Minnesota. At least one-half to two-thirds of it is grown within 25 to 50 miles of Northfield. Additionally, almost all of fresh milk products are locally produced, but many other dairy perishables are not. The top four selling cheeses are all produced in Nerstrand. A lot of the other cheeses come from Wisconsin, but about 20% of their stock is produced in Minnesota. The produce that Just Food provides is very dependent on seasonality. Some local produce is provided during the winter months, mainly grown in greenhouses. Otherwise, the produce available during the winter months comes from all over the United States, and as much as 30-40% imported from outside the United States, mainly from Mexico. This percentage is expected to decline to about 10% during the summer months, with local produce accounting for an anticipated 50-60% of their stock.

Much of the goods that Just Foods provides is also organically grown. About 90% of produce is organically grown, 50% of dairy and 10-15% of meats. Additionally, almost all meats are free range.