When it comes to nationwide grocery chains, with limited transparency on their supplies, of what you can control, speed might be an important factor

The article is from the comsumer's perspective. For me, someone who doing my daily / weekly shopping, time-from-harvest is the only factor I can use in a purchasing decision. I can't rely on branding, source, grower etc as all that is a crap-shoot. Even if one grower has nutritious tomatoes this year, next year they might use a different field leading to worse nutrition.

They're saying how fast the food goes from farm to table is what matters.

Doesn't matter if you grow old variety organic seeds the slow way in small batches on virgin soil if it takes 11 months for the food to get to your mouth.