Fuel for the fight: North Carolina's massive military presence provides an expanding market for fruit and vegetable producers who supply dining halls.

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Napoleon articulated what commanding officers have always known: "An army marches on its stomach." Feeding the troops has long represented an economic opportunity for farmers and food manufacturers, and in North Carolina, the market is huge. Thirty-two mess halls at just four of the states six major military installations--Fort Bragg, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base--feed more than 61,000 service personnel a day. Then there are the commissaries (essentially Department of Defense-subsidized grocery stores open to active-duty military personnel, their dependents and veterans) at those bases and at Marine Corps Air Station New River that welcome more than 10,000 customers a day.

Keeping soldiers fed is a big business, but it's difficult to pinpoint exactly how much of the DOD's $48 billion annual economic impact on the state is related to agricultural and food products because the department uses a network of preferred vendors to feed the troops. "We're always trying to grow our defense contracts," says Scott Dorney, executive director of the N.C. Military Business Center in Fayetteville. "But we can't control how or where they buy. Food is generally not treated like other items in procurement. You wouldn't want to fill out a contract every time you need a dozen eggs."

The military is responsible for at least tens of millions of dollars flowing into the state's farms and food production centers, says Joe Sanderson, assistant director of marketing for the N.C. Department of Agriculture. Approximately $6.5 million goes to roughly 20 Tar Heel produce growers who supply commissaries in the service region of Military Produce Group, says Randy Brittain, director of procurement for the Virginia Beach, Va.-based firm that holds the contract for 94 commissaries, mostly along the East Coast. Although MPG makes an effort to supply commissaries with locally grown produce, it doesn't always work that way, he says. In order to fulfill its orders quickly and efficiently, "tomatoes from a farmer in North Carolina could end up at commissaries anywhere from Florida to Maine."

Curtis Smith, owner of T.C. Smith Produce Farm Inc. in Lenoir County, says he's glad to have the...