Added value of local food hubs

As the largest purchaser of wholesale produce in Santa Barbara County, UC Santa Barbara's residential dining services provided the perfect avenue for a pilot project incorporating local pesticide-free or certified organic produce into an institutional setting. Residential dining services at UCSB provide about 10,000 meals a day -- 2.5 million meals a year -- so the task could have been daunting. Instead, the organizers started small, adding five or six local and organic items to the salad bar. S...