Bon Appetit Management Company Doubles Its Ranks of Local Producers

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You can almost see the farms from here.

The local food movement hasn't broken into the corporate world like a wall-crashing Tasmanian Devil just because supporting local producers is the right thing to do. There's demand for it, and companies stand to make serious scratch. A few weeks ago, sustainable food service provider Bon Appetit Management Company--the instigator of the trend, according to its own publicity--reported that it had brought in 538 new "Farm to Fork" vendors to its stable in 2010, reaching a company goal of working with 1,000 small farmers, "fishers," and "food artisans" to stock its cafes' salad bars and sandwich counters.

As you may recall, Palo Alto-based Bon Appetit aims to ensure that 20% of what's served at one of its college dining halls or museum cafes comes from producers located no more than 150 miles away. This is easy enough in the case of The Cafe at The Getty here in Los Angeles, but wouldn't a Bon Appetit-operated joint in, say, Juneau, have to work a little harder?