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It might come from Mexico or Peru, or it could even come across the Atlantic Ocean from South Africa. It’s the fresh produce in the grocery store that makes its way into your home and into your diet.

For the first time, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University has launched a program on its Web site that allows consumers to see where fresh fruits and vegetables come from. However, this new Web-based tool might not provide enough information for knowledge-hungry consumers.

“The questions that consumers are asking are varied,” said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center. “It’s not just where (the produce) came from, but how is it grown, is it fresher, safer? And we don’t have the answers to a lot of those questions, and that’s where we need more research.”

This has been especially true in recent months when food contamination cases have spanned the nation. Moreover, some consumers have been spoiled by select grocers who already provide this information about the fresh produce they sell, and therefore are demanding it from other grocers.

Pirog said Minnesota-based Cub Foods, which has a store in Ames, provides the country or state of origin on the produce displays in its stores. Also, some grocery stores in the Kansas City area, such as the Hen House Market, have an entire brand that is dedicated to foods that come from within a four-state area in the Midwest.

“Consumers are looking for more transparency in the food system,” Pirog said. Displaying the origins of the food creates that transparency.

Hy-Vee Inc. has taken on a new initiative that will increase its food system transparency and increase the availability of information about where its produce comes from.

Hy-Vee said it acted on this idea based on two growing demands from consumers: knowing where their food is grown, and supporting the environment by purchasing local goods, which reduces transportation and related use of fuel.

One part of Hy-Vee’s initiative is displaying pictures of the farming families who provide fresh produce to its stores. These pictures are placed on large metal displays that stand approximately three to four feet tall.

“It makes a connection – that picture – showing that farmer and his wife and their kids; it helps them make that connection,” said Doug Riley, Hy-Vee’s assistant vice president of produce operations. “It may not be a face-to-face meeting, but they actually get to see the person that grew the produce that they are going to be consuming.”

This connection is what a lot of consumers are seeking, Pirog and Riley said.

“We are seeing an increase in the information being provided by retailers for fresh whole items,” Pirog said. “You need that information when the consumer isn’t making a direct transaction with the grower, which most of the food we purchase is.”

Pirog also said that more grocery stores are utilizing signs that state the origin, or in Hy-Vee’s case, show a picture of the family, as marketing tools, even though retailers aren’t required to post any sort of information regarding the origins of fresh produce.

“There is the cost factor, but then there is the potential marketing factor,” Pirog said. “More of the retailers, the biggest being Wal-Mart, to your regional Hy-Vee and Dahl’s, are saying, ‘What ways can we differentiate our stores? What values and services can we provide to bring customers into our store?’ – and this would be one of them.”

Looking beyond the marketing factor, Riley said that most of Hy-Vee’s stores have always purchased from local farmers.

“We’ve always encouraged our stores to buy from our local folks,” Riley said. And there are “two big things that come along with that. One, you’re keeping your money local for local farmers. Transportation costs are astronomical, so anything we can do to cut down on transport costs are great. And two, customers feel better about buying local. They feel it is safer, and they just have a great feeling about supporting their local communities and local farmers and really enjoy supporting their local economy.”

Hy-Vee has even started filling a warehouse with locally grown produce for its stores to order from. The warehouse is available for any store that wishes to buy local produce to sell, but doesn’t have the means to make contacts with local farmers.

Hy-Vee works directly with Capital City Fruit Co. Inc. of Norwalk, which then works directly with local farmers. Capital City will receive an order from Hy-Vee requesting specific amounts of certain produce, and Capital City then calls its farmers and tells them how much product is in demand, Riley said.

However, even with this system in place, Hy-Vee still doesn’t have complete control over its produce.

“It’s hard to regulate a local farmer,” Riley said. “We don’t have a person go out and do food safety testing or anything like that, but all of our farmers are very cognizant about what is going on in the industry.”

This awareness is important when trying to provide a more transparent system, but when it comes down to it, “implementing a more transparent system simply comes down to who wants to foot the bill,” Pirog said. “Everything in the supply chain costs someone money.”

Pirog said the technology and the information are available to put a program in place that would provide information about fresh produce. He said it wouldn’t be difficult to obtain that information because most grocery stores’ wholesalers know where their shipments come from.

“There’s technology to be able to do that tracking and consumers are certainly demanding that,” Pirog said. “And when asked that question, most consumers do want to have that information. The question is how that cost should be passed on.”