Marc Green

Marc Green, of G-Mc Produce in Henderson, remembers loading and unloading vine-fresh watermelons at local grocers for his grandfather and father, including at Brookshire’s stores.

Green said a lot has changed over the years. The farm grew along with Brookshire’s as both businesses succeeded.

Now his farms produce watermelons for all but about five of Brookshire’s stores direct from farm to market on the same day. G-Mc Produce also distributes melons for the grocer from around the state and Mexico.

On Wednesday, Brookshire Grocery Co. announced Green and G-Mc Produce as its second annual “Grower of the Year” winner.

The announcement came at a luncheon honoring about 50 local growers who supplied the grocer with more than 15 million pounds of fresh produce for its 152 stores in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana last year.

The farmers grow everything from watermelons, peaches, tomatoes, berries and poinsettias.

Michael Albritton, of Pioneer, Louisiana, owner of Mack’s Tomatoes and Produce, was among 22 local growers who attended the luncheon.

Albritton grows tomatoes. His business started on a quarter-acre plot 45 years ago as a way for his father, a teacher, to make extra money. Albritton has since expanded to nine acres, where he plants about 27,000 tomato plants he grows from seeds.

Albritton said the amount of quality control and personal touch at local farms far exceeds mass grown, “corporate” produce. Each tomato is viewed and sorted by six people before they are boxed and sent to 14 Brookshire’s and Super 1 stores around West Monroe within 24 hours of being picked.

Local extension agents help him keep soil in peak condition for flavor, and family members and temporary laborers hand pick, sort and package tomatoes.

“The quality is much higher and people know it,” he said. “Quality control is about a good-looking, good-tasting tomato but it’s also why most of the bacteria outbreaks you hear about originate from big corporate farms.”

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, spoke to the growers about government encroachment through agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and regulations, such as the Clean Water Act, that hinder small farms and businesses.

Gohmert said regulations are used to control and restrict common sense utilization of private land. He said local farmers have the best interest of their consumers at heart.

He compared the government to the noble theory expressed in the Mayflower Compact, that all produce was available for the common storehouse. But the theory failed and so land was divided and each landowner produced crops.

“The new rule was ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat,’ and it worked,” he said.

Gohmert said farmers understand the concept of hard work and offered himself as a sounding board for their legislative needs or roadblocks they might face in agri-business.

Albritton said the number of small growers is declining. Most people who used to grow tomatoes for market are buying tomatoes from him.

Brookshire Grocery Co. President and CEO Rick Rayford expressed his appreciation for the farmers’ contribution to the company’s ability to offer fresh, locally-grown produce to thousands of customers.

“You are very important to our company,” Rayford said. “It’s important to our customers because of how much they desire local produce. We’re proud to offer local grown products.”