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January 03. 2015 12:01AM Our view: Food that fits us Talk is cheap, but if the words we hear from the Haggen grocery chain are accurate, the company will be a welcome addition to Ashland, and growing evidence that the "buy local" movement has legs. Haggen Foods, based in Bellingham, Wash., in December announced that it was acquiring 164 current Safeway and Albertsons stores in the West, including 20 in Oregon. Described as the "largest independent" grocery chain in the Pacific Northwest, it got considerably larger in the acquisition, growing from 18 to 164 stores. Among its new sites is the current Safeway store at 585 Siskiyou Blvd. in Ashland. (The store sales were required as an anti-trust measure after Safeway and Albertsons merged.) Haggen is hardly a mom-and-pop grocery, but it goes to great lengths to tout its local connections.  Among its website statements is this: "We work hard to source our produce from hyper-local farmers whenever possible — that means stocking our produce department with the fruits and vegetables grown close to each of our neighborhood stores." It backs that up with a list of 60 local producers from Oregon and Washington, with a number of organic and family operations listed. Also scattered throughout its promotional materials are references to organic, non-GMO and gluten-free, things that will be embraced by a significant portion of local shoppers. Ashland's existing grocers have figured out that community members value locally grown — and naturally grown — foods. It appears that Haggen also figured that out in its previous markets, making it likely a good fit for this community.   http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150103/OPINION/150109970 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->