Local Food: Got milk? The many paths to local, organic food

There are areas of this country where finding a local organic dairy is not a problem in the least (northern California, for instance), but San Diego is not one of those places. I'd almost given up last week when one of my leads finally came through! If you're on a similar quest for organic local items, you may like to see where this hunt has taken me. Many of these sources are good for more than info on dairies:

1. Local co-op, natural food stores, and farmers' markets. No luck. All the organic milk on the shelves comes from elsewhere in the country, and none of the farmers' markets I’ve attended have had any milk or cheese stands.

2. San Diego-specific chat sites. A query online to my fellow San Diegans at the Yelp site received plenty of people eager to help, but no leads I didn't already have.

3. Local non-organic dairies. I contacted some local dairies, Hollandia Dairy in particular, and exchanged emails with one of their salesmen. They are a family-owned operation and a San Diego mainstay, but they aren’t organic, so I kept looking.

4. Organic dairies elsewhere in the country. Going a little more afield, I contacted organic dairies around the country to see if they had any partners or contacts who run similar operations in the San Diego area (eventually “San Diego” became “southern California”). It was at this point that I became incredibly jealous of the northern California folks and the numerous organic dairy farms at their disposal. A great example of organic dairy done right is the Straus Family Creamery. I chatted with one of their salespersons, but he didn't know of any similar dairies in southern California.

5. State government. I contacted the State of California Department of Agriculture Inspection and Compliance Branch of the California Organic Program for help. No response.

6. Online directories. I used the directory at Local Harvest and the Eat Well Guide, both which allow you to search by item and location. No luck.

7. People in the know. The San Diego Farm Bureau couldn't help. I sent an email to the southwestern region Forager at Whole Foods, a newly created position that I heard about on the Whole Foods podcast. Foragers are devoted to tracking down local sources in their region for stock in their area stores. No response. A phone call to the chair of the Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, Tony Azevedo, did not yield any suggestions either.

8. Organic certifying agencies. I contacted the California Certified Organic Farmers Association, a third-party certifying organization that provides a directory of organic farms in the U.S. (not just California). I exchanged several emails with the San Diego/L.A. regional contact, but she confirmed that there are no organic dairies in San Diego, although there is one in Downey (near L.A.) called Rockview Farms.

Los Angeles is further than I had hoped to go, but I gave them a call anyway. They are not a strictly organic operation, although they do produce an organic line called GoodHeart Organics. According to the customer service agent I spoke to at Rockview, Trader Joe’s in the San Diego area carries their organic milk, but a call my closest Trader Joe’s came up with only Rockview chocolate milk. I tried another Trader Joe’s and spoke to someone who told me that the manifest that comes with the Trader Joe’s brand organic milk delivery says Rockview Farms on it.

I dropped Trader Joe’s corporate an email to confirm that Rockview Farms supplies their Trader Joe’s brand organic milk in the San Diego stores, but the response I received was cryptic at best:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Trader Joe's. We are sorry that we cannot forward the vendor information to you. The organic milk is a private label product sold exclusively by Trader Joe's and all recipes, formulations and contact information are kept strictly confidential, per our contract agreement with the manufacturer.

We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause and appreciate your understanding in this matter. Please be assured that Trader Joe's organic milk is sourced from a local dairy farm.

Thank you for your time and thank you for shopping at Trader Joe's.

Nearly a month and a half in, and my best leads turning up empty, I have decided to take Trader Joe’s word on it – and the word of Rockview Farms – that there is local, organic milk in those bottles. My biggest concern is that Trader Joe’s could switch vendors without me ever knowing. I'll just need to check back regularly with Rockview Farms to see exactly where I can buy their milk in San Diego.

Truthfully, I'd rather support companies such as the Strauss Family Creamery, but my loyalty is to the organic AND local for the time being. The search continues, and I may very well turn up a dairy closer to the Strauss example. For now, Rockview Farms will do the job.

[Update: see my follow-up post with what I found out later about Trader Joe's and Rockview Farms that made me change my mind here]

Eat Local: Everywhere water, yet no fish to be found!

“They’re from the U.S.A.,” the Vons seafood manager said to me, her eyebrows raised in an expression akin to alarm. I had simply asked if anything they stocked was local catch. “I mean,” I said as she looked blankly at me, “was it caught here in San Diego?” (and added a small smile of encouragement.) “They’re from the U.S.A.,” she repeated again, though dismissively this time and turned her back to me to restock the shrimp display. “Um, thanks.” Right. I had assumed, but now knew for certain, that my neighborhood Vons was not going to be my source. The entire U.S.A. can hardly be considered local. Sigh.

I had decided to start my search for local seafood at the most conventional, convenient spots and see where it took me. Since seafood caught in the wild cannot be considered organic (only those grown on farms can be certified), I set some broad rules for my seafood purchases: they must be locally caught and they must be caught in a sustainable way. In most cases, that would mean pole-caught or hand-line fished, both methods which eliminate the use of nets. Many dolphins and fish species are caught unnecessarily in nets, contributing to overfishing.

My search continued on to The Fish Market – less a fish market than a sit-down restaurant that serves seafood. Nevertheless, I knew they had a selection of unprepared fish, and since they were close to my home, I tried them next. The 17-year old behind the counter with a bad hair cut (but stylishly layered polos, nevertheless) also gave me a blank stare when I asked him about local catch (this was becoming a pattern), so I asked if he had any ideas. “Try our larger branch downtown.” And then he threw in a comment about how I was going to have a hard time. He didn’t care to explain when I asked for more details.

I dialed the downtown branch with some hesitation. I had begun to lose my sureness, so when the man on the other end told me that they stock halibut and white sea bass (both caught locally), I was relieved. He couldn’t tell me anything about how they’d been caught, however.

Whole Foods was my next try. They have a seafood sustainability statement that seemed pretty solid, but would they stock local catch? Back to the phone I went.

Jared of the seafood department, gave me the same line, “You’re going to have a tough time.” But he followed it up with two suggestions: Point Loma Seafoods and American Tuna. My hopes were revived! He also explained that the reason local seafood is scarce is because, firstly, the halibut industry down here is in steep competition with the halibut industry in Alaska (and not exactly winning), and secondly, the sea bass availability can be sketchy because of the difficulty of catching bass of legal size. He said, in no uncertain terms, if I wanted to eat seafood caught locally, I was going to be eating a LOT of canned tuna. Both Whole Foods and Jimbo’s Naturally stock American Tuna, which is pole caught. I bought one can to try it, but at over $5 for 6 ounces, it clearly is not going to be an economical solution.

I called Point Loma Seafoods after Whole Foods. They had some yellow-tail and some white sea bass available. They also had some Mexican shrimp (caught off Baja) and often stock halibut. Diversity – check. Sustainable fishing practices – unknown.

Catalina Offshore Products, a distributor I found online, was my last try, and there I finally found success. They specialize in local catch which is line-caught (once again saving those dolphins). The company is based here in San Diego. I intend to place an order this week to pick up at their warehouse (a privilege given to locals). I’ll let you know how it goes!