Local Produce

The local paper (pardon the irony) has an article on local produce.  To those of us in the produce business, especially on the brokerage side, the term local has always been a sticky concept.  When my grandfather farmed on Long Island in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, all produce, like politics was local.  Then the farmers in Salinas, Ca. figured out how to ship lettuce across the county.  Since then, the consumer has had a tough time finding out how local their produce really is.   Even my "local" farmers market has a couple of carpetbaggers who buy wholesale produce in Albany and pass it off as local.   As a grower busting my back to pick, wash and trundle my produce to the market on Sat. morning it is somewhat disheartening to see these foreigner veggies get passed off as local when they were probably harvested 3-4 days previously.  Vermont seems to have the best handle on the situation, calling nothing local unless it was harvested within 30 miles of  the market, or within the state.