Utah's own makes the difference for state's homegrown products.

Time once was that the breakfast meal was comprised of eggs gathered from the chicken coop out back, the bacon came from a a pig you'd raised and slaughtered and the hash browns were made from potatoes grown in your field. If you didn't raise dairy or beef cattle, your neighbor did, so you always knew where your food came from.

These days, though, a garden tucked in the corner of the yard is the closest many Utahns get to home-grown freshness. For all they know, the eggs they ate for breakfast may have come from China (and it's entirely possible that they did.)

With the shift from a rural to a more urban economy, Utah has also seen a decline in agricultural lands. In 1960, 13.6 million acres were devoted to farmland, according to the Utah Tomorrow 2000 Report. Today, that number has dropped to 11.7 million, according to the national Farmland Information Center.

Nevertheless, agriculture remains a billion dollar industry in the Beehive State. Utah ranks second nationwide in tart cherry production, third in apricot production and sixth in sheep. In 2005, agriculture brought $1.3 billion to the state, according to the 2007 Economic Report to the Governor. With value-added food products such as ice cream and sausage, that amount grows to $3 billion, according to the Utah Department of Agriculture & Food (UDAF).

To help support this vital industry and to aid consumers in obtaining good quality food, the UDAF began the Utah's Own program in 2002 with a $45,000 grant from the Federal Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More recently the program has been funded by the state Legislature.

When Utah's Own began asking state residents to name companies producing agricultural products in the Beehive State, few people knew what Utah's Own was, let alone were able to name one or two locally produced products, says Seth Winterton, UDAF deputy director of marketing. But, "we've gone from a 30 percent awareness to a 70 percent awareness. Now when we're in stores and we announce that we'll giveaway a basket of local products to the first person who can name five Utah's Own companies, people come storming to the front of the store."

Better Taste, Cleaner Environment

Building a local food culture means educating consumers about the benefits of buying local, including environmental issues, economic impacts and quality. Gov. Jon Huntsman has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020, and eating local can help Utahns reach that goal. Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a diet based on food shipped across the country.

Consuming Utah's Own products also benefits the local environment by helping to preserve open space and Utah's farm heritage. Winterton explains, "We've turned our agricultural land into rooftops and asphalt, and our farmland is disappearing. I have 110 acres in Summit County that I use to run cattle. If we don't support our local farmers, we'll lose our agricultural land."

Merv Weeks of Weeks Berries of Paradise agrees. "It bothers me when I see prime land developed. I think it's a crime. If it stays in farming, you can have a yield year after year. If it's developed, that's gone. But people have got to wake up and say, 'Are we going to buy from China, or are we going to buy locally produced?"'

Many people in the Utah's Own program seek out products that taste better than their mass produced competition. "We feel if you want high quality, you have to pay special attention, like with Grandma's old recipe," says Phil Rowley of South Ridge Farms in Santaquin. "It helps that people understand we're a working farm. But high quality and carefully made-that is what people want in a specialty item."

As far as taste is concerned, Weeks stacks his berries against store-bought ones and proclaims them winners. "One reason you get more flavor is we have cool nights and warm days. If you grow in a mountain climate ... it pumps flavor in our fruits and vegetables.

They taste better. Our berries-we can't get the quantity, but we can get quality. I'd like people to look at what's grown locally. They might wake up to how good it tastes."

Strengthening the Economy

When consumers buy Utah's Ownproducts, they also support the local economy. The Utah's Own Website-www.utahsown.org - notes that every dollar spent on Utah products adds four to six dollars spent on products from out-of-state means only 15 cents remain in the community. This may seem counterintuitive, but consider that when you buy local products, you are supporting businesses, which hire people within the community, from farm workers and truckers to accountants and attorneys; when you buy local you are helping create jobs and enhance the tax base.

This multiplier effect of purchasing local products is one primary reason for the Utah's Own program, says Richard Sparks, Utah's Own deputy director. "If you spend a dollar at Lehi Roller Mills, a large percentage of that dollar goes to the employees, who spend that, and those taxes go to build schools. It's just like spending an extra five or six dollars. But if you buy a national brand we lose that benefit."

Utahns also reap rewards, he adds. "The consumer gets a greater variety of products and fresher food. Food generally travels 1,500 miles. That's an industry standard. And they're helping their friends and neighbors be successful, and helping to maintain the economic vitality of their community."

When Utah's Own began in 2002, it had 10 local companies as members. In December, Sparks signed up number 201. One of the most prominent of these members is Meadow Gold, which has both a liquid milk and an ice cream novelty production facility in Utah. Meadow Gold will use the Utah's Own logo in their promotions, which include not only radio and television ads but also participation in popular events such as the Days of 47 Rodeo.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Now with Meadow Gold on board with the Utah's Own program, we can better promote Utah milk to Utah consumers," said Jed Christenson, director of the UDAF marketing and development division, in a press release announcing the collaboration. "We anticipate it will be a real shot in the arm for Utah dairies." More than 90 percent of the milk products made by Meadow Gold come from Utah dairies. Purchasing Meadow Gold not only helps agriculture, but other businesses in the food supply chain.

FatBoy, another local company that keeps Utah's cows working, now requires six tankers of milk each week at its production facility in Richmond, says Kerry Smith, president of FatBoy Sales and Marketing.

Kerry and his wife, Gayle Smith, credit Utah's Own with helping build their brand as one that is committed to the state.

Even before they learned of the program, they made every effort to use Utah products in FatBoy ice cream novelties, Gayle says, and now the Utah's Own label alerts consumers to this.

"The reason we clicked so much with Utah's Own was, we didn't know about it, but it was already our thought process," Gayle says. "With our company, we want to pour those resources back into our own state so that we can have our own family, children and grandchildren around us and be a piece of that."

Like Sparks, Kerry sees how supporting local companies helps the state's economy. "If a person buys a package of FatBoy or any other Utah product, it touches every person in the state. You've got the bar, the flavoring, trucking, tires, gasoline, refineries, magazines we advertise in, newspapers - I bet you that FatBoy enriches every person in the entire state of Utah." Adds Christensen, "It's easy to see when you buy a FatBoy ice cream sandwich, you aren't just benefiting Kerry Smith and his employees, but dozens of other businesses as well. When they all prosper, more jobs are created and more taxes are paid. The results are better schools, improved roads and a higher quality of life."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

How Utah's Own Helps

"From a business perspective, Utah's Own helps local products compete with national brands for shelf space," Kerry says, "as well as providing extra reach for a company's advertising dollar."

The Utah's Own marketing strategy allows its member companies to participate in advertising campaigns. Funding from Utah's Own is combined with money from its member companies as well as organizations such as Associated Foods, so they are they are able to better leverage advertising, Sparks says.

The program advertises on radio and television and in print. It sponsors a cooking show on television and offers grocery store demonstrations that feature local products.

Paul Colosimo attributes a large part of his company's success to its participation in the Utah's Own program because of its advertising reach.

"One of the great things about Utah's Own is that they do allow, fairly inexpensively, an advertising program for fledgling companies like mine," he says. "One of the things I'm faced with is just getting the message out."

His message, he says, is "I'm the local brand. Why people should buy it is because it tastes better. It's better quality because I'm not [producing] a whole hog sausage, I'm [producing] a select cut. And it's locally made. It's the environmental choice, it's the economic choice, it's the taste choice."