Chefs Collaborative

The FDA declared on January 15 that cloned animals were safe to eat. After studying the chemical makeup of beef, pork and milk from clones, FDA scientists determined that they didn’t differ from food already for sale in the US. Cloned meat and milk are “as safe as food we eat every day,” says the FDA. The agency also ruled that the identification of cloned food would not be necessary, which prompted Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) to introduce legislation requiring labeling on cloned products.

Chefs around the country wondered why cloning was necessary, although to read the FDA report, it appears to be a cost- and labor-saving device. Cloned cow offspring, for example, can be designed to produce vast quantities of milk without the time and attention spent in traditional agriculture.

“In the kitchen, that’s what we call cutting corners,” said Daniel Bojorquez, chef de cuisine of Sel de la Terre in Natick, Massachusetts. “There are long-term consequences,” said Bojorquez, reflecting on how pure-bred animals often exhibit erratic behavior and vulnerabilities to disease. “I don’t know why they don’t just do it the natural way.” Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place in Portland, Oregon also expressed serious doubt. He felt that labeling was imperative, so that customers could make a clear decision about what they were eating.

Aidan Davin of Stillman’s Farm in Hardwick, Massachusetts, echoed Bojorquez’s concerns. He had just delivered pigs to Sel de la Terre the day before we spoke. “I don’t know about the whole idea. Pigs reproduce pretty easily. I just let them do what they do. They’re more than happy to!”

Davin remembered the big hog breeders he knew, mostly in the South, who kept the hogs enclosed because they were not disease-resistant. “There’s no hybrid vigor,” he explained. “It’s a weaker strain in the end. If you introduce different blood lines, you get a better animal.” Paley wondered what would happen when cloned animals “intermingled” with regular animals. To some farmers, it seems that cloning might take that pure-bred vulnerability one step further, even while disease resistance appears be a reason for cloning in the first place.

Annie Cuggino of Veritable Quandary in Portland, Oregon wanted the government to help small farmers, whose competitive edge might be hurt by the FDA decision. Cuggino also acknowledged the current strong consumer awareness about food. Customers practically interrogate her about the specific origins of what Veritable Quandary serves, as do those at Paley’s Place. “People are really sophisticated about food’s origins now,” she said, admitting that the FDA report seemed out of step with the active farm-to-table movement.

Industrial farming is powerful, she acknowledges, “but something positive must be happening, because if Costco and Burgerville are including local and seasonal items, that tells you something.”

In light of the FDA’s decision, and a voluntary ban on clones in the food supply that the USDA requested farmers to continue, the relationship of trust between farmers, restaurants and consumers is of vital importance.

The chefs and farmers I spoke to agreed that the risks of cloning were potentially devastating, and the benefit unclear. Said Cuggino: “I wish that we would keep our eye on the ball, promote the farmers’ markets, help the small farmers to be competitive, and help the farmers do it right. Given the choice, I hope that people will choose a [sustainable] alternative,” even if it costs more. “That’s where our voice is, how we spend our money. Where we put our money speaks volumes, and that’s empowering.”

This week’s 60 Minutes report on the ecological, social, and economic impacts of the growing global demand for sushi showed how a natural resource like bluefin tuna can go from being sustainably caught and managed for centuries to being overfished, its population put at risk of extinction, within decades–all because it’s something people like to eat. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, industrial fishing boats work with spotter planes that fly above the Mediterranean looking for schools of migratory bluefin. The boats, using a type of gear called purse seines, can catch up to 3,000 fish with each cast of the net. These fish are typically frozen at sea and held in deep freeze until they’re sold and shipped all over the world, winding up in grocery store sushi or casual sushi joints. Watch the video when you visit the CBS site.

On his blog, Blue Ocean Institute founder Carl Safina writes that “archeological evidence shows that people have been fishing bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean for 9,000 years.” Within the past 40 years, bluefin stocks have collapsed all over the world, and according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, populations of Atlantic tuna have declined by 90% since the 1970’s. And they’re taking fishermen’s livelihoods with them. While the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas works to figure out the best policy for restoring and managing the bluefin populations, concerned chefs can continue educating their customers, asking questions of their purveyors, and diversifying demand for underutilized seafood species, like this.

Wild-caught or farm-raised? Imported or domestic? These questions and more in our shrimp communique:

It was a wild way to break in the New Year, sharing local game and fish with hunters who donated their venison, pronghorn antelope backstrap and javelina “pork roasts” to their friends at the Cattle Baron in Flagstaff, Arizona. As we were sitting waiting for the first meat to come out of the roasting pit, I began to daydream about whether such an event would have even been “on my screen” some twenty years ago, as the local foods movement was first taking root.

Back before the founding of Chefs Collaborative, there were only 60 CSAs in the entire country, and some 1755 farmers markets; today there are more than 1700 CSAs and nearly 4400 farmers markets blessing our cities, towns, and rural landscapes. Over the last few years, there has been a 22% annual increase in local food sales in or near the communities where it was produced. Local food sales in the U.S. now top $5 billion a year, up from $2 billion/year in 2000. The many “local food challenges” are tangibly helping family farmers stay on the land, and attracting others to take up farming. In Oregon alone, the number of farms has grown from 26,700 in 1974, to more than 40,000 today. Books like Joan Gussow’s This Organic Life; Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors; Brian Halweil’s Eat Here; Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma; Barbara Kingsolver and Steve Hopp’s Animal, Vegetable and Miracle; Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon’s Plenty; and my own Coming Home to Eat have certainly helped inspire more folks to eat locally. However, the real work has been done on the farm and in the kitchen.

When Chefs Collaborative was founded in the mid-90’s, it took on the tasks of getting Americans “to celebrate local foods” and to work for “a more sustainable food supply that supports local economies.” On both counts, I believe we can firmly conclude its chefs have played the pivotal role in seeing that both of these tasks have been accomplished. This last year, not only did local foods hit the cover of Time magazine, but “locavore” was honored as the new word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. There is still much to be done to deepen what it means to eat locally; to revive locally-unique heritage foods currently at risk; and to ensure “fair trade” among those unique products (such as wild salmon, maple syrup, wild rice, Buckeye chickens, heirloom apples and ramps) that move between regions. Chefs Collaborative’s involvement in the Renewing America’s Food Traditions initiative has also been essential to moving these efforts along as well.

2008 is no time to rest on our laurels, since Walmart and McDonalds, like rust, never sleep. But it is a fitting time to congratulate those who have played a role in bringing local foods back from a marginalized place in our society to a more secure and esteemed place. If we never stop to assess our progress and celebrate our successes, we may never see just how much can be done by dedicated individuals and communities taking modest but persistent steps toward our shared dreams.