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Tagged: local food

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Business
4:18 pm
Wed May 8, 2013

Lucky's Farmers Market set to open downtown in fall

Credit Andrew Yost / KBIA
Renovations are already underway for Lucky’s Famers Market, set to open in October. The owners chose the old Osco building site because of the accessible location from downtown.
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Lucky’s Farmers Market, based in Boulder, Colo. is setting up shop where the Osco Drug building used to sit. Aside from possibly creating about 100 jobs, the opening of the grocery store fills another need in Columbia.

According to Luis Zamora, Southwest Regional Director of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Columbia’s considered to have limited grocery options. Bo Sharon, president of Lucky’s Farmers Market, says the new store should help alleviate the issue.

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Agriculture
10:36 am
Mon February 4, 2013

Small Farmers Aren't Cashing In With Wal-Mart

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Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson / Harvest Public Media
Wal-Mart claims that 11 percent of the produce in its stores now comes from local farms.
Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson / Harvest Public Media
Produce broker Herman Farris, outside a Wal-Mart in Columbia, Mo., was heading to St. Louis to pick up a shipment of bananas for Wal-Mart.
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Originally published on Tue February 5, 2013 7:21 am

When Wal-Mart calls, Herman Farris always finds whatever the retailer wants, even if it's yucca root in the dead of winter. Farris is a produce broker in Columbia, Mo., who has been buying for Wal-Mart from auctions and farms since the company began carrying fruits and vegetables in the early 1990s.

During the summer and fall, nearly everything Farris delivers is grown in Missouri. That's Wal-Mart's definition of "local" — produce grown and sold in the same state. In winter, it's a bit tougher to source locally.

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Agriculture
1:05 pm
Fri February 1, 2013

Field Notes: How Wal-Mart's local foods push is playing out in the Midwest

Credit Abbie Fentress Swanson/Harvest Public Media
A customer shops for produce at a Wal-Mart in Columbia, Mo. The retailer claims 11 percent of its produce sold in its stores nationally comes from local farms.
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This is the latest installment of Harvest Public Media’s Field Notes, in which reporters talk to newsmakers and experts about important issues related to food production.

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Business Beat
4:58 pm
Wed January 16, 2013

Wal-mart and the local farmer; Mississippi River and barge business

Credit Jacob McCleland / KRCU
Mississippi River near Thebes, Ill.
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The lingering drought continues to keep the Mississippi River at historically low levels. But now the Army Corps of Engineers says the river will likely stay open for transportation at least through this month. But many grain and energy industries that send products up and down the river aren’t yet breathing a sigh of relief. Iowa Public Radio’s Clay Masters reports from the Corn Belt where a lot of grain begin its journey south down the Mississippi.

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