I hit some major grocery chains in the first week of August to see what was on hand. Yes, good things grow in Ontario, but clearly not garlic (the only options coming from at least 9,000 kilometres away). And, okay, there were heaping displays of Ontario peach baskets as well as lots of zukes, cukes and corn, but just a few feet further along I was back in a sea of U.S. fruit and veggies – generally two-thirds of all produce on shelves.

METRO

(Bloor and Spadina)

Of the pricier grocers visited, this is the saddest for Canadian produce, although I do see Canadian snow peas. Oops, made in China. BC blueberries do not count as local.

They actually have a whole five items described as both local and organic, but come on, don’t we have any other fruit in this province? Well, I guess you can count tomatoes as fruit. 

DIRT Why is there only one “produce of Canada” sign in a refrigerated sea of greens that can easily be found in Canada, like lettuce, cabbage, Swiss chard, kale?

WHAT METRO SAYS “Our merchandising person thought it was odd [that you found so little local produce] because we’re always getting awards for having Ontario-based produce in stores.”

Spokesperson Leslie Powers

SOBEYS

(Broadview and Mortimer)

Canadian apricots are all up in your face as you walk in the door, but behind them is a wall of American peaches, plums and more. The BC blueberries are distributed out of Florida (adding to food miles). 

Can’t seem to find much local organic, so I ask the stock person for help and we turn up two packages of energy-intensive boxed greenhouse tomatoes. I’m told by higher-ups that there’s more, but neither the staffer nor I can find it. 

DIRT What the stock person says, “It’s mostly all American.”

WHAT SOBEYS SAYS “We buy Ontario produce first. Between June and September, 95 per cent of our vegetables are Canadian. We don’t keep statistics on fruit.” 

Spokesperson Tracey Chisholm

NO FRILLS

(Carlaw and Gerrard)

While it’s import city, there is a chunk of Ontario-grown here, but you’d have to be wearing bifocals to find it –  there’s close to no buy-local signage in the store. No Frills is clearly not trying to encourage customers to go 100-mile. Plus, try finding produce that isn’t wilting before your eyes. Does California really have the world’s only organic produce?

DIRT Local fruit showing pitiful. 

WHAT NO FRILLS SAYS [See Loblaw below.]

LOBLAWS

(Lake Shore and Leslie)

The sky-high display of baskets full of Ontario peaches and plums at the door makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into your friendly neighbourhood farmers’ market. But all the rest of the fruit is from Cali. There’s a decent showing of Ontario veggies, but why are 14 out of 17 potato bins full of spuds grown south of the border?

As for local organic content: Zip, zero, zilch. I ask the stock person if I’m missing something. She scratches her head. “Er, um, no.”

DIRT It might say “Made in Ontario,” but look again. Those are American-grown vegetables under Pick Ontario Freshness banners.

WHAT LOBLAW SAYS “Year-round, 27 per cent of the produce in our stores is Canadian. Peak growing season, May to October, it’s 40 per cent. 

I imagine if there is a higher demand for local organic, demographically speaking, individual stores would increase the content.”

Spokesperson Sheri Helman

WHOLE FOODS

(Hazelton Lanes, Avenue Road and Elgin) 

About a third of the produce is local when I stop by the store the first week of August. By the second week it’s up to half. Not bad. For a “health store,” these guys do sell a lot of non-organic goods, but about 80 per cent of the local content is also certified organic. By far the best of the big chains. 

THE DIRT I somehow doubt these yellow peppers from Holland should come with the Pick Ontario Freshness label. Do we really need to be getting herbs from Colombia right now?

WHAT WHOLE FOODS SAYS “This isn’t peak harvest season for us. But right now we have 100 pieces of Ontario produce. By September, that will be up to 150. We were bringing Ontario kale in, but by the next day we couldn’t sell it because a lot of farmers don’t hydrocool [ship by refrigerated trucks].

Spokesperson Jim Empey