Chefs Collaborative

California is one of four U.S. states that allows the sale of raw milk in stores, but this January, consumers may have a difficult time finding it at their local grocery store. Earlier this month a bill was passed that would require dairy products to meet a strict limit of coliform bacteria before heading to store shelves. Local dairy farmers fear that this is the beginning of the end for the sale unpasturized milk in California.

There’s been a rising demand for raw milk in recent years due in part to an increasingly health conscious public. Proponents of raw milk argue that the live bacteria found in raw milk helps strengthen the immune system and reduce the effects of allergies, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration worries about pathogens sometimes found in unpasturized milk.

In the past year and a half, consumers have seen e-coli ridden bagged spinach, contaminated frozen seafood imported from Asia, and tainted mass produced beef patties, removed from supermarket shelves across the country. It’s understandable that food safety is on the minds of legislators across the country.

Click here to read our latest dairy related Communique. It’s udderly complex.

It was a big day at the Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough, where the Massachusetts Public Health Association held their annual meeting and the agenda included a focus on local and sustainable food. A clip was aired of King Corn, a new documentary about two guys who move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn and accompany it on its journey through the food processing world. One of the producers and stars of the film was there to talk about the impact of farm subsidies and the overproduction of starchy corn on our diets and health.

Frances Moore Lappe gave the keynote address and touched on many of the issues that concern both food lovers and public health advocates alike. For Lappe, our current industrial agricultural system is “reductive, extractive, and destructive.”The intensive use of resources like water and fossil fuels required to produce industrial meat are staggering; the public health implications from that misuse even more so.

But Lappe didn’t linger too long on meat production. It was a way of getting at her main point–that we can trace our social ills to what she calls “thin democracy;” that is, a democratic system that citizens are only peripherally engaged in. She urged us to work towards “living democracy,” where inclusion and fairness are valued and citizens have active, public lives and help to create the world we live in.

Sounds good to me. Chefs, grab your knives. Let’s start by poking more holes in the industrial food system. And while we’re at it, let’s team up with the public health community. The more, the merrier. And healthier.

On Friday September 28th, Chefs Collaborative, Edible Cape Cod, and the Zammer Hospitality Institute at Cape Cod Community College, and Dole & Bailey hosted an day long educational seminar for culinary students and local chefs as part of the Cape Land and Sea Harvest (CLASH). Chefs Collaborative executive director Melissa Kogut gave a keynote address and shared five tips for running a sustainable restaurant. See the Cape Cod Times for a feature article on the day’s events!

5 Tips for Running a Sustainable Restaurant

• Continuing Education: If you’ve struggled to choose whether or not to serve organic or local produce in your restaurant, tried to decipher the range of eco-labels on the market, or pondered the most sustainable fish to serve in your restaurant – you’re not alone. Information about sustainability changes constantly. “Learning about sustainability is an ongoing process,” says CC member chef Chris Blobaum of the Wilshire Restaurant. “You can’t do it all in one day. It’s an education.”
• Direct Relations: By developing direct relationships with farmers, food artisans, and purveyors, chefs can shorten the distance from farm to table. At Chefs Collaborative, we recently debuted an online searchable database that allows chefs and wholesale food producers to find each other, and lets consumers search for restaurants serving sustainable cuisine. It’s one way the Collaborative is helping to facilitate connections between farmers and chefs.
• Flexibility: If chefs educate themselves about what is available it is easier to plan menus, but they also must be willing to change specials or recipes when unforeseen things, such as changes in weather, crop up.
• Creativity: Developing sustainable cuisine is challenging because in a way, it limits your options. But when faced with limited options, many chefs find their creativity takes off.
• Seasonality: Cooking with the seasons has long been the mantra for those interested in sustainable cuisine and remains a central goal for our members. This can be a bonus for customers because local and seasonal food tastes better.