There is official word that Tony Caputo’s Market and Deli has been selected for a ‘Best Retailer of the Year’ Award given by the North American Specialty Food Trade Association (NASFT).

Each year, in order to identify candidates, the NASFT asks more than 2,500 supplier members to nominate retailers. Candidates must submit comprehensive portfolios including photographs, store facts, articles, menus, newsletters, press kits, training manuals and letters from customers. This information was then evaluated by a panel of former award winners, manufacturers, distributors and journalists, who select the winners. Often no more than a handful of these best retailer awards are given each year.

As I suggested in my endorsement letter which reflects the various article posts that have been regularly featured in this blog, Caputo’s is an eminently qualified candidate for the award:

“As a customer who is highly tuned into the aspects of retail marketing, I have seen how the Caputo family engages everybody in cultivating a truly company-wide culture of excellence where everybody is equally mindful about the larger mission of a local food enterprise that is sustainable, accessible, and affordable and that celebrates why truly fresh, environmentally responsible ingredients comprise the cornerstone of outstanding cuisine.

“I also appreciate how the store and its employees have maintained the ideals of a strong price value-quality paradigm during a volatile economy. Whether it be the gourmet foodie or the thrifty consumer who is enthusiastic about supporting a locally-owned business and enjoying great food, Caputo’s employees work consistently hard to give customers a meaningful opportunity to support independent food producers who are as passionate about nurturing the sustainability of their enterprises as they are about providing wholesome nutritious goods exceptional in quality and surprisingly reasonable in price.”

In late June, the NASFT will hold its 55th Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. It’s an immense exhibition, featuring 2,300 exhibitors, 140,000 products, and 24,000 attendees representing more than 75 nations.

Matt Caputo also was quoted in a March 31 article in the Wall Street Journal concerning the April 23 deadline for punitive duties — 300 percent on Roquefort cheese from France and 100 percent on most other food imports — stemming from a trade dispute between the United States and the European Union over an EU ban on imports of American beef treated with hormones.

The money quote:

“‘The ultimate loser is the consumer,’ said Matt Caputo, owner of Caputo’s, a specialty-food retailer in Salt Lake City that specializes in Italian and Southern European products. Mr. Caputo, who recently ordered a year’s worth of chocolates and 10 times his usual volume of Italian mineral waters in anticipation of higher prices, said he has collected more than 600 signatures on a petition protesting the tariffs that he plans to send to the White House.”

The media have tended to ignore the larger ramifications of the trade and tariff dispute, and have focused on what some might take as a trivializing context about the possible disappearance of higher-priced gourmet food items from the shelves and cases of such food retailers as Caputo’s.

The dispute reflects a deeper philosophical difference of agricultural economy. The European Union does not allow the use of hormones in its cattle production and it has sanctioned the importing of hormone-treated beef since the late 1980s. More significantly, it is a debate about the validity of agricultural practices such as those embodied so eloquently and strongly in Michael Pollan’s books, especially The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And, in fact, an increasing number of American entrepreneurs and local farmers have picked up on the EU’s signals. In Utah, as in other states, there are many small family farmers who don’t use artificial hormones on their animals. The results are manifest in the products that are among the numerous reasons why Caputo’s is being recognized globally as a leader in food retailing.

So, the tariff debate has been terribly mischaracterized as being only of interest for the elitist gourmand or well-heeled foodie. The import and export of foods reflect a shifting paradigm about what it means to have truly fresh, sustainable food. In fact, especially now in a challenging economy that demands enterprise and disruptive innovation, it underscores the growing recognition, even here in the United States, that consumers realize major benefits by purchasing their milk, meat, produce, and cheese from locally-owned, sustainable farms (precisely like those overseas) and by supporting a system that ensures the health and welfare of the farm animals, and protects consumers and their families from potential health risks associated with food treated — and contaminated — with hormones, insecticides, pesticides, and synthetic growth accelerants.