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A S P E C I A L S E C T I O NYT E1
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2006
By KIM SEVERSON
LIKE most people, Melissa Steineger threw out her
bagged spinach when the nationwide E. coli out-break happened in September.
The contamination, which infected 199 people andkilled 3, was linked recently to infected cattle livingnear the spinach fields in central California and to fe-ral pigs, which might have carried the bacteria to theplants.
But weeks before the source was found, Ms. Stei-neger, a filmmaker and writer in Portland, Ore., de-cided to start eating leafy greens again. Only this timethey were from PastaWorks, a local food store thatbuys its produce from local farmers.
“That’s good enough for me,” she said. Ms. Steineger’s reach for food grown on smaller
farms close to home is part of a larger trend that foodindustry analysts say is gaining ground among con-sumers who are willing to pay a little more for qualityfood. As a result, people who grow food on small farmsor make artisanal cheese or other foods on a more re-gional scale are finding new eaters.
They are also forgoing traditional sales methodsand marketing approaches. Instead of trying to breakinto large distribution chains and fighting for shelfspace, they are finding that smaller is better, partic-ularly if there is a good back story. Produce from anupstate New York farm, for example, reinvigoratedthe image of Great Performances, a Manhattan ca-tering company, earlier this year. In California, a fam-ily that makes olive oil dropped out of many main-stream grocery stores in favor of farmers’ marketsand Internet sales.
And at Tierra Farms, a 20-acre urban farm nearSanta Rosa, Calif., sales are approaching $500,000 witha customer base made up mostly of people who liveless than 30 miles away.
The idea is to appeal to consumers like Ms. Stei-neger, who think that food grown regionally or pro-duced by eco-friendly operations is fresher and tastesbetter. For these consumers, knowing the exact farmwhere food comes from provides comfort about food
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
FARM FRESH TierraVegetables has acustomer basemade up mostly ofpeople who livewithin 30 miles ofSanta Rosa, Calif.
Continued on Page 6
WhyRoots MatterMore
Health Scares and Mass-Produced Food
Strengthen Demand for Local Growers
ALTERNATE TAKEAn out-of-work actor and his wife build a
business recording weddings, but in the
more flattering (and costly) medium of film
rather than video. By Carol Kino, Page 8.
ON THE WEBnytimes.com/smallbusiness
A TAXWISE TO-DO LISTEnd-of-year advice: sort through retirement
plans, consider donating to charity, and,
above all, call your accountant sooner rather
than later. By Jan M. Rosen, Page 2.
SPREADING THE CARE AROUNDA medical practice in northwestern Michigan
succeeds by tailoring itself to its rural market
and bringing its clinics closer to its patients.
By Keith Schneider, Page 4.
A FEW GOOD PRODUCTSHopeful entrepreneurs brought their prod-
ucts, including greeting cards that hug, to a
search sponsored by QVC, the TV shopping
network. By Corey Kilgannon, Page 9.
BUYING INTO A NICHEHewlett-Packard had no cachet in the world
of customized PCs. Voodoo PC, a builder of
machines for gamers, had plenty. Guess what
happened. By Marty Katz, Page 7.Paul Korver Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
ZZ
YTxx,2006-11-15,E,001,Bs-4C,E1