This local-foods thing is really catching on, at least here in the Bay Area. Kaiser Permanente, who runs 19 hospitals in Northern California, has decided to try a pilot program whereby they'll use local produce from farmers in Fresno County:

The results of Kaiser's experiment will answer a question vital to the future of sustainable agriculture, and to the livelihood of small farmers in California and across America:

Can an institution the size of Kaiser Permanente adopt the Chez Panisse model of buying locally and from many smaller sustainable farms — without busting the budget or bogging down its production of 5,000 to 6,000 inpatient meals every day for 19 Northern California hospitals?

If the pilot program works, Kaiser plans to expand it systemwide and also put it into place in its staff and visitor cafeterias.

This may be a watershed moment for the local foods movement. The idea is to turn the traditional distribution system on its head. The conventional food distribution system is a top-down model — large farms produce one type of food, like tomatoes, and these tomatoes get distributed to many different places. In Kaiser's bottom-up model, many small farms (many of them minority-owned, incidentally) will each send their crops to Kaiser's "big kitchen," where they will be distributed to the hospital's patients (then, if it works, to its workers and guests too).

You might think the cost would be higher, but this is where it gets interesting. Because food has become a more-or-less fungible commodity, then both Kaiser and the farms could come out ahead by opting out of the market: by choosing to buy local, Kaiser may pay more per food item, but on the other hand, doesn't have to pay for transportation from Ohio.

Plus, there is the social benefit of contributing to the local economy and reducing poverty locally.

I'm anxious to see how well this pilot program pans out! Now go read the article.