A recent story in the business section of the Chicago Tribune highlighted the growth of a local natural pet food business — Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company — in the wake of pet-food recalls and the melamine issue.

The good news is that companies like Evanger’s are emerging and growing, creating a more sustainable business model and alternative for consumers (Evanger’s offerings include an organic line). The challenge is in the growth part. Part of the Evanger model is buying locally, a strategy that is designed to ensure quality. But when you dig deeper under the “quality” attribute, what you get is trust. Evanger VP Joel Sher explained in the Tribune piece:

“You’ve got to know your suppliers and the kind of people they are. With the local ones, you can know as much as you want to know. You can visit them.”

That’s a very different kind of trust than, say, trusting that an FDA reference number on a supplier’s product specifications means that it really is what is says it is (one of the root issues of the melamine problem). Getting to know “the kind of people” your suppliers are is a practice that depends on all of your cognitive capabilities — your expertise, your beliefs and your emotions. And – it’s time consuming.

Wherein lies the trust dilemma. How do you scale your business rapidly when it depends on a time-consuming, very human process of developing trust?