granted that there are a lot of variables, beginning with the fact that the USA Today article was nearly 2 years old. And yes obviously the US supermarket chains do use far more domestically grown fruits and vegetables than the WalMarts and Aldis. However this actually comes right back to the central question ... how many American will continue to pay (or will be able to afford to pay) a premium price for US grown fruits and vegetables ? It is that premium price that supports the continued profitability of higher production cost US growers. In point of fact, many commercial US growers 'gave up the ship' in 2008 ... particularly tomato growers. In further point of fact, many US growers are going to be forced to 'give up the ship' in 2009 as their borrowing costs to fertilize, seed, and pesticide have risen tremendously while the world market price of their crop has declined.I find the bigger supermakrkets use in-season foods from nearby their local areas, while places like Walmart, Aldi, etc do import a lot regardless of the season. It's a scale factor for them





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