FROM EAT HERE TO EATING LOCAL AT WHOLE FOODS

Brian Halweil, Worldwatch Institute Senior Researcher and author of Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, reflects on the little victories that serve as a source of inspiration in his work in this month's First Person. "Although we at Worldwatch may not always know exactly how our work is being used, we do get glimpses now and then, and they give us reason and hope to keep on with it."

After the New York Times published Halweil's op-ed encouraging natural foods supermarket chain Whole Foods to stock more locally produced foods, an executive he had interviewed for the piece (who was initially reluctant to make such commitments) was later quoted in the Times saying the recently opened Union Square store in Manhattan plans to buy up to 20 percent of its produce from farmers in the tri-state region. "That was a pleasant surprise," writes Halweil. "I harbored no illusions that my op-ed prompted the change of heart; buying local draws customers into stores and Whole Foods is a smart company. Maybe the op-ed just reminded them that the writing is on the wall." Halweil later got an e-mail from the president of a large Long Island distributor specializing in local produce, who noted that Whole Foods had contacted him after the release of Halweil's op-ed and requested that he develop a program for them to procure more Long Island-grown produce.

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