Say you’re standing in your local grocery store in Peterborough looking at two kinds of apples. An organic apple from British Columbia and a conventional apple from Northumberland County. Which do you prefer? If you’re like me, you prefer the locally grown fruit. Most people do.

People like to know they are helping a local family farm. More importantly, the consumer has self-interest in mind. There’s something comforting in knowing exactly where your food is coming from. "I like being able to see the face of the man who grows my lettuce," an Ottawa woman told me, after explaining why she bought shares in a local farm, in return for receiving fresh vegetables each week. It has become such a selling point to see the "face of the man" that in some stores you can see pinned up photos of who grew what may be part of your next meal and the name of the closest town where he or she lives.

Meantime, the market for "local" is heating up. "Local" is now the "new organic," writes Time magazine’s John Cloud, who opines about his own desire for both organic and local. But he admits: "I would still rather know the person who collects my eggs or grows my lettuce or picks my apples than buy 100 per cent organic eggs or lettuce or apples from an anonymous megafarm at the supermarket. Choosing local when I can makes me feel more rooted, and (in part because of that feeling, no doubt) local food tasted better."

There are claims that organic and local foods are more nutritional and that conventional foods cause cancer. Of course, if they were true, we’d all be eating organic. But what you can count on, most of the time, is that locally grown food is fresh and, therefore, lasts longer in your refrigerator. But it’s the connection to farmer and land that drives people to buy local, within about 100 miles (thanks to the American concept "100-mile diet"), creating a viable niche market for new arrivals in the business. Here are two examples:

Ontario Farmers Markets director Robert Chorney says that all the pieces have come together making direct sales to consumers a trend now about one year old. "The average distance of food from food to fork in Ontario is 2,500 kilometres," Chorney said. "People don’t want that."

The arrival of this consumer trend was years in coming. Bette-Jean Crews started a humble farm gate fruit and vegetable stand in Northumberland County in the 1980s. She’s seen the family business expand every year but "now it’s growing faster" and she thanks this uptick in consumer awareness. "I used to say I could educate 1,000 people a year at my own farm about buying directly," she said. But she doesn’t have to do the educating anymore. Consumers are with her now on this one.

As the new "organic," local food is the new comfort food. It’s always a happy moment after the question asked is, "Where did the corn come from?" and Crews points to the field across the road.

"I really don’t think it’s a fad," Crews added. "Consumers know more about food safety and are more environmentally conscious. Part of it is traceablity. You can look the guy in the eye who grew it. It’s good to be among the lucky people who can address that market."

Lucky indeed. And there’s more room for growth. As a concept, the 100-mile diet is just getting started.