The next step in the local food movement opens this weekend in — you guessed it — California. Oxbow Public Market, located in the up-and-coming city of Napa (“down valley” from the famous wine region), is a 40,000-square-foot retail space that’s shaped like a modernistic barn. Inside, mostly local vendors work out of stalls and stands, selling everything from artisan meats and cheeses to books, kitchen antiques and organic ice cream.

These type of action stations make Oxbow more farmers market than supermarket, since it emphasizes face-to-face interaction between customers and the people behind the products. But the connections get even closer in this store. Many of Oxbow’s butchers, bakers and wine makers (specifically Michael Mondavi) make what they sell on-site, and in full view for everyone to see. That includes the casks used to age the wine.

Being able to see everything might cause some queasiness for those who can’t stand the sight of a flank steak being sheared off a side of beef. On the whole, however, this is just the sort of intimacy that developer Steve Carlin envisioned when he dreamed up the idea. He’s already looking to expand in the Bay Area, and if Oxbow is a success he says he’d like to spread out along the West Coast.

Traditional supermarkets should keep an eye on Carlin and other mavericks in the industry. Their level of success may herald the future of local food retailing and, more immediately, demonstrate the value of transparency.

Food marketers are quickly becoming key players in marketing sustainability. They’ve demonstrated their own commitment by installing solar panels, bioswales and green roofs; selling wind power credit gift cards at the front end; and even getting consumers involved by promoting reusable shopping bags.

It’s getting tasty, too. One of the more edible stories to cross our desk in recent months is the partnership between supernatural retailer Whole Foods Market; Bloomsberry & Co., a creative packager of premium chocolate; and Terrapass, a carbon offset marketing firm. The brainchild of this collaboration is called Climate Change Chocolate — a product is immediate gratification not only as a food, but as a way consumers can instantly start lessening their environmental impact. It starts with the inner wrapper. Each one depicts, in graphics and words, 15 ways the buyer can reduce his or her carbon footprint. Suggestions include switching off unnecessary lights and using a clothesline instead of a dryer.

And, in case you’re in it just for the chocolate, Terrapass has got you covered. For each consumer purchase, the firm will purchase exactly 133 pounds of verified carbon offsets. Why 133? That’s the current, average per-capita share of global warming emissions Americans create each day (we don’t want to know how). Even the facilities where the chocolate is manufactured have been retooled so they’re operating carbon-neutral when they make the bars.

Whole Foods is enjoying some exclusivity with the chocolates. Participating stores are selling bars with a wind farm motif on the outer box; while other retailers can merchandise them with a footprint logo on the box. Each one retails for $4.95.

Now, if they can just invent a food that will offset the 133 pounds you stand to gain from eating all of this environmentally beneficial chocolate.

Quick-service restaurants aren’t exempt from the health and wellness movement, even if their menu offerings are the antithesis of better-for-you foods. The Big Three — McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s — have tried to include more healthful choices, with mixed results (you had only 10 months to try Wendy’s fruit salads before they were pulled).

The QSR segment rarely makes apologies for what it is; after all, not every consumer wants to eat better, all the time. But there are always new operators testing the waters, looking for a point of differentiation. In California — the birthplace of the modern fast food industry — there’s a new concept that sells only grass-fed organic beef hamburgers. Burger Lounge currently has two locations in Southern California, in La Jolla and San Diego. The menu notes that the benefits of grass-fed beef go beyond simple nutrition. There’s talk about how grass-fed helps to reduce global-warming, and balance soil fertility. Those who aren’t interested in beef can try the turkey burger, while those looking to avoid meat completely can sample the vegetarian “quinoa” burger. The menu also boasts fresh salads, hand-cut French fries and onion rings.