RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
On Fridays, we talk about your money, including the money you spend on food. Many consumers want to eat locally-grown produce. Many small farmers want to oblige, but it's not easy to get the food shipped to a local market. The distribution business is dominated by big companies that send the food everywhere.
In Northern Michigan, one entrepreneur is using his experience as a chef and wholesaler to solve the problem.
Peter Payette of Interlochen Public Radio reports.
PETER PAYETTE: Eric Hahn grew up in Charlevoix, Michigan, at the northern end of a cherry-growing region that produces at least 100 million pounds of cherries a year.
But as the sales rep for a national food distributor out of Detroit, the sweet cherries he trucked to nearby stores were brought from Washington State - 2,000 miles away. That's because the cherries ripen there earlier and the growing season lasts longer.
But the stores and restaurants he supplied were constantly asking for local cherries.
Mr. ERIC HAHN (Cherry Capital Foods): I had grocery stores - some of my chefs were interested in them. And one of them one day just said just run down to Friskies and get me a box of cherries and bring them back. I don't have time to do it. So I did. And I sent him an invoice.
PAYETTE: At one point, Hahn convinced his company to work with some small growers on a pilot distribution project. But the fruits and vegetables still had to go through the warehouse in Detroit, and there were other logistical problems, so the company stopped the program.
When the asparagus season rolled around last spring, farmers were calling Eric Hahn, looking to sell their produce.
Mr. HAHN: The farmers that I have been working with were individuals that I had known for a long time. And I knew that they grew great peaches and I knew that they grew great cherries and strawberries.
PAYETTE: So Eric Hahn quit his job, took $5,000 out of savings, traded in his Volvo for a van, and started Cherry Capital Foods. Now he distributes food grown on about 60 local farms to over 100 nearby restaurants, resorts, stores and schools.
As Hahn drops off a load of potatoes at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, executive chef Ted Cizma says until now it was a chore for him to get something as simple as a bag of locally-grown potatoes.
Mr. TED CIZMA (Chef): I bought from a lot of the people that he brings to. But it required a separate phone call to each one of those purveyors. It required really being creative to get it here because most of these smaller producers aren't set up to deliver. So I was actually having to send somebody out to the different areas to pick stuff up. And quite frankly, we weren't getting the variety or the consistency that we get now.
PAYETTE: There are some debates about the environmental benefits of buying food locally. But Cizma says it's just the right thing to do. He argues there is no reason for him to buy food from California or China if he doesn't have to.
Mr. CIZMA: I'm sure they're nice people and they could use the money. But quite frankly, let's think about the Michigan economy for a little bit. We need it here worse than they need it there.
PAYETTE: Hahn says he spent nearly every day this summer in his van. And his revenues have grown to $250,000. The profit margins in this business are slim though, especially since Hahn often competes with the produce grown in countries with cheap and abundant labor.
Farmer Dick Zenner says it's a win-win situation for him. He is here at Cherry Capital Foods' warehouse dropping off the last of his hot-house tomatoes for the year. Hahn will deliver Zenner's tomatoes to a delicatessen later this morning, marking the travel time from the vine to the shelf in hours, not days. Zenner sold half his tomato crop through Cherry Capital Foods.
Mr. DICK ZENNER (Farmer): And that saved me driving around, and with the gas prices the way they are, that's money in my pocket. I don't have to do that.
PAYETTE: Zenner says he'll be putting in more greenhouses soon for lettuce. And Hahn says he'll contract to buy every head of lettuce Zenner can grow. Eric Hahn expects his sales will top $1 million next year once more farmers like Dick Zenner see the markets he's opening up. And best of all, they'll never have to travel more than 100 miles from home.
For NPR News, I'm Peter Payette in Interlochen, Michigan.