The business section of the Arizona Republic today featured a real success story about a local Phoenix man, Justin Baumgartner, who in 2006 started his own company Laughing Giraffe Organics, which produces raw, vegan, organic products, including macaroons and granola.

Earning $50 a day at a local farmers market is a tough way to make a living, and it's hardly an incentive to start your own business. But it didn't deter Justin Baumgartner.

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Baumgartner said that he made about $70,000 in profits by his second year, but that it took more than farmers-market sales to do it.

In 2007, Laughing Giraffe received a $20,000 loan from Whole Foods' local producer-loan program, which provided the capital for Baumgartner to get his products into grocery stores.

His is one of 29 U.S.businesses that have received a chunk of the $10 million that Whole Foods offers annually through its local producer-loan program. "Without the loan, we wouldn't have the business - not to this extent," he said.

Launched in February 2007, the loan program is patterned after a similar Whole Foods project that supplies loans to farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

"We've made a big effort to have that support for local producers," said Jenny Brown, administrator for the loan program.

Growing local is a key part of sustainability efforts nationwide. Whole Foods traditionally has served local growers and producers by selling their goods in its markets. Arizona Whole Foods Markets features more than 50 local growers and producers from the state, including Laughing Giraffe Organics.

Brown said the loan program is a way to give additional support to those grass-roots businesses that are trying to produce natural food. The 5 to 9 percent interest earned on the loans is used to finance the program, and loans range from $1,000 to $100,000, she said.

"We recognize the unique challenges in the natural-food industry, and we can see that, sometimes, there are other things at play besides the numbers that you might see on someone's balance sheet," Brown said. "We're able to offer folks a sympathetic ear."

That's what Baumgartner needed because he couldn't get a bank loan. "If I had walked into a bank and said I wanted to make raw granola . . . " he said, laughing. "It's good to have (a lender) that is familiar with food instead of crunching numbers."

He credits the loan program with enabling him to establish a successful business. "I get very emotional when I really think about how Whole Foods and this loan have changed the course of my life," he said.

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