Camilo Mondragon, who runs a small farm in Watsonville, has never heard of Nate Beriau. But Mr. Beriau, a chef at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, goes out of his way to buy fresh strawberries from Mr. Mondragon.
"They taste great," Mr. Beriau says. "I want a strawberry that tastes like a strawberry."
Mr. Mondragon and Mr. Beriau are two links in a fragile new supply chain known as the San Francisco Foodshed Project, which was launched in July by several nonprofits and business groups to connect small, local farmers with diners within a few hours' drive. The effort is part of a burgeoning movement nationwide in which nonprofits and businesses are trying to find viable models for distributing food locally.
In the Foodshed program, a few dozen farms sell their produce via Ben and Annie Ratto, a husband-and-wife team who act as middlemen between farms and food distributors. Those distributors, including L.A. Specialty Produce Co.'s San Francisco branch and FreshPoint Inc., pick up produce from small farms at the Rattos' warehouse in Oakland and deliver it to customers. Mr. Ratto and the distributors each charge a markup—typically 10% to 15% for Mr. Ratto, while the distributors add a charge, currently $5 per case of produce.
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