Local farmers in the Chicagoland are seeing more demand for their fruits and vegetables, and a family-owned farm in the northwestern suburbs said sales have doubled for them since the outbreak began.
Nic Geudtner and his family started Living Roots Farm eight months ago, growing over 500 pounds of food per week.
“Everything we do is still alive and on the roots so when you buy from us you’re getting a live plant,” he explained.
The owner and operator of the aeroponic farm in Fox Lake told NBC Chicago they’re increasing production by another 20% in response to the recent outbreak.
“Since the parasite break out, we’ve had crazy demands, people are finding us,” he said. “Everybody wants to know where their food comes from.”
Geudtner noticed more and more customers are coming into their retail space, including area chefs looking to source for their kitchens and restaurants.
“I think it’s a culmination of a lot of things, people want to know who’s growing their good, they want to know where it’s being grown, they want to know what kind of practices are being done, they want to know if it actually has nutrient content,” he said.
As federal health investigators work to pinpoint the exact source of the outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce, Geudtner believes this could lead to more food waste in the meantime.
“They don’t really have concrete answers for anybody, which I think unfortunately is going to cause a lot of waste in the food system because people aren’t going to know what’s good or what’s bad,” he said.
While they don’t grow iceberg lettuce, Geudtner said they grow other greens, herbs, edible flowers and microgreens year around in their controlled facility.
“We’re really just trying to bring the community here and let them know that the grocery stores are not the only option,” he said. “We all deserve better food, better nutrients, and having it be local is such a big benefit.’
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