Farm to Fable: A Times investigation into Tampa Bay's local food scene

If you eat food, you are being lied to every day.

The food supply chain is vast and so complicated, from farm-to-table restaurants to farmers markets. Everywhere you look, you see the claims: "sustainable," "naturally raised," "organic," "non-GMO," "fair trade," "responsibly grown." Restaurants have reached new levels of hyperbole.

How do you know the Dover sole on your plate is Dover sole? Only that the restaurateur said so. And how can you be sure the strawberries your toddler is gobbling are free of pesticides? Only because the vendor at the farmers market said so.

Your purchases are unverifiable unless you drive to that farm or track back through a restaurant's distributors and ask for invoices.

Our restaurant critic Laura Reiley did. Her conclusion? Just about everyone tells tales.

At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you're being fed fiction

Tampa Bay farmers markets are lacking in just one thing: Local farmers

How to tell if your 'local' food is actually local