FOREST PARK, GA — Howard Mundt, president of Harvest Brokerage Inc. on the Atlanta State Farmers Market, here, knows his industry has an edge that few others can boast.

FOREST PARK, GA — In 1969, father and son Domingo and Julio Rene Diaz opened a neighborhood grocery, Diaz Foods, in midtown Atlanta. Business boomed, and soon the Diaz family had five stores. Within a decade, the foundation had been laid for one of the larger distribution companies of Hispanic products in the United States.