Chefs Collaborative

As I’ve been sifting through the vast amounts of information on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve noticed how heavy my News Feed is with major blogs and publications chock full of food policy news.  However, what I really want, is to know what you’re all up to.  What are you cooking?  What farms or chefs are you working with?  How are your sustainability efforts going?  Are there any little victories (no matter how small) or challenges (no matter how big) that you could share?

Think of me as your bulletin board.  I’m here to help funnel information.  Tell me what’s working, tell me about your events, tell me what you need help with, tell me what you want to learn about.  Let me be your shameless promoter!  It’s just another perk of membership at Chefs Collaborative.  Talk with us on Facebook or Twitter and let us help you!

Please help me give a warm welcome to some of our new members:

Mass Restaurant Association
Haley House Cafe
Falmouth Farmer’s Market
Restaurant Eugene
Morrison Healthcare Food Services
Corner Table Restaurant
Chauncey’s Garden
Porrett Homestead TLC Farm
The International
Colorado Mountain College
Starfish Brasserie
Cambridge Farmer’s Market
Amavi Restaurant

A couple of weeks ago, while down in Providence for a meeting, I briefly spoke with chef Beau Vestal of New Rivers about an exciting partnership he’s forging with a local farmer in order to source rabbits. This definitely seemed like something to follow up on so I asked Beau a few questions.

• Who is this relationship with and how did this relationship come about?

The farmer’s name is Patrick Beck and I have known Pat for years now… he is actually a purveyor of RI grass fed beef, handling sales and marketing of Treat Rock Beef in Little Compton as well as an advocate for RI Livestock Association and fighter for all things sustainable meat.  This is his first foray into the rabbit business so we are working together to get a business model up and running as well as collaborating on what chefs will be looking for as far as animal size/quality et cetera; how to market the product, delivery logistics, slaughter logistics, et cetera.

• What are the benefits of working directly with a supplier like this? Any drawbacks?

Benefits are that I am the first customer of his so getting in at the ground level gives me the chance to work closely with him in all facets…deciding the weight of the animal that goes to slaughter, experimenting with different feeds to achieve certain results, discussing slaughtering options, et cetera.

Drawbacks are ironically similar to benefits… Being a farmer new to raising this animal, there is certainly a learning curve from his end.  Is he planting the right combination of grasses and grains on his pasture to get maximum, healthy growth?  Will there be a steady supply of animals week to week or will there be lapses due to figuring out a grow/slaughter schedule?  Will the live weight correspond to useable hang weight for chefs?  Will he be able to raise the animals properly and provide a workable price point that both covers his end but is still fits into the price structure that is workable for chefs and their restaurants? Most importantly:  will the animals taste good?

• Do you see this as a long-term relationship?

I hope so.  If the animals are of a high quality and the logistics work out with regards to steady supply, price, et cetera, then of course.

• Do you expect any difference from working with heritage breed rabbits?

I have never worked with the “silver fox” breed before but research has led me to believe that it will be a leaner animal with larger hind legs and an elongated torso.  While the larger legs equals larger portion cuts and the longer torso equals larger loins and saddles, being leaner than non-heritage animals (which are already pretty damn lean) will take some creativity to ensure a juicy end result. I will experiment with brining, caul fat wrapping, we always do some braised and confit… so yes it will be an interesting and fun challenge to learn the intricacies of the silver fox… similarly with the pork heritage breeds I work with (Berkshire, Tamworth) you learn what each animal’s strengths and weaknesses are and how to go about using them to celebrate the unique traits that they have.

• What advice do you have for chefs who are looking for alternative sources for foodstuffs other than well established modes of purveyorship?

Spend the time researching and connecting with people.  Don’t rely on others to do it for you.  I know we chefs are always busy, but sourcing our ingredients is one of our main and most important jobs.  Make the connections with people, develop working relationships.  Go visit their operations.  We like to go with our cooks and interns and show them the farm/animals we use.  Looking the farmer in the eye goes a lot further than an email or a series of phone tag missed calls. Take the time, get out there. 

• What are you going to do with the rabbits?

The question might be better posed as “what aren’t you going to do with the rabbits?”  We use every last part I like to either braise, slow roast, or confit the hind legs, we have pulled the loins out whole and simply grilled or roasted them, or we have done the saddle as well, the front legs are great confit (like a rabbit chicken wing!)  We always do a lot of charcuterie whether it be sausages, terrines, crepinettes, etc… and of course we always use the offal, our favorite way is to simply skewer the liver, kidneys and hearts and marinate in Madeira and thyme and grill them over high heat, basting in butter the whole time… perfect.

• Is there anything else you would like to add?

I’m working on a Pretty Things collaboration dinner for sometime in early summer with the rabbits and their newest beer: fluffy white rabbits.  A perfect combo!  I’m thinking about doing old 18th and 19th century dishes using rabbit.  Archaic British Isle dishes that might call for hare… seems fitting in keeping with both my ethos for old, traditional, forgotten about cooking techniques, etc and Dann and Martha of Pretty Things style for brewing historically yet outside the box… stay tuned!

On Saturday afternoon, we were honored to join CC members, Chef Tim and Nancy Cushman of o ya, and Ten Speed Press in welcoming Elizabeth Andoh to Boston for a cooking demonstration and tasting based on the concepts of Kancha Cooking.

From Elizabeth’s website, “Kancha, ‘appreciation’, is an expression of gratitude for nature’s bounty and the efforts and ingenuity of those who transform those gifts into marvelous food. The spirit of kansha, deeply rooted in Japanese Buddhist philosophy, can be experienced and practiced by anyone, anywhere. Kansha encourages us to prepare nutritionally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals that avoid waste, conserve energy, and preserve and sustain our natural resources. Follow this link to the on-line culinary classroom that was created to enable all who wish to practice kansha cooking.

Regardless of one’s own cooking philosophy, ethnic background, religion or moral code, I think the concepts of Kancha cooking resonate with everyone who shows respect for food. They are also very relevant to chefs and restaurateurs who are trying to conduct a sustainable business in difficult economic times. Limiting waste (in the form of water, vegetable scraps, heating energy) defrays costs and is more environmentally friendly in the long run – and that’s something we can all get behind.

How do you save energy and resources while cooking? If you attended Elizabeth’s talk, what did you take away from it? Let us know in the comments below.

In October 2007, the USDA released guidelines for raising grass-fed beef. The American Grassfed Association (AGA) wasn’t happy.

The USDA guidelines allow beef cattle to be treated with antibiotics and hormones, confined to the indoors (for at least part of the year), and fed grain before slaughter. The AGA, a national group of producers headquartered in Denver, has a different definition of “grass fed.” Products bearing the AGA label come from livestock fed a 100% grass and grass-hay diet. There are no vague “access to pasture” clauses that allow producers to withhold cattle from pasture during the offseason. There is no “incidental supplementation” (corn feeding) permitted.  The AGA seal denotes a real grass-fed, grass-finished product.

Loose definitions, high costs, and a dearth of producers make grass-fed beef tough to source. Is it worth the effort? Only if you’re into good taste, humane animal husbandry, and the environment. (Yes, it is!).

True to its cowboy tradition, the US is today the world’s largest beef producer. Our prodigious output of beef is made possible by corn-feeding, which, as Michael Pollan says, allows cattle to gain weight quickly but results in sick animals. These animals, who evolved to eat grass, need antibiotics to stay alive on their diets of corn and other grains. This is why grain-fed beef tastes nothing like grass-fed.

Grain-fed beef is marbled with fat, from which the product derives its flavor. Grass-fed beef is leaner. Its flavor is drawn from the various grasses and flowers on which the cattle feeds. As a result, the flesh tastes meatier and mineral with a flavor approaching gaminess. Visually, grass-fed appears more robust on the plate. Moreover, it has more omega-3s, Vitamins A and E, antioxidants, less cholesterol, and other nutritional advantages over grain-fed.

According to a Union of Concerned Scientists report, beef cattle account for 2.2% of greenhouse gas emissions. The report says the, “Use of pasture management practices that improve the nutritional quality of forage crops could reduce methane emissions from pasture beef by 15 to 30 percent.” This report is corroborated by a recent USDA report. Additionally, the energy that goes into raising corn and slaughtering cattle on CAFOs isn’t expended when cattle simply graze on wild grass. The USDA report even argues that grazing cattle improve the health of pastures if managed properly.

So, it’s clear that grass-fed and finished beef has some advantages over grain-fed. But a 100% grass-fed diet is often unrealistic. Cattle may need more than grass to get through the winter—sometimes they are fed wet hay, known as balage, or a mixture of grains like corn, barley, and oats. Often, cattle are fattened on grain for a few weeks before slaughter. The aim here is to produce marbling, which, corn-feeding being the norm for so long, most consumers have come to expect. (Let’s not forget–there’s more to steak than fat content.)

Two weeks of grain-feeding is  a barely perceptible echo of what happens on a feedlot, where cattle are finished on high volumes of grain for up to six months before slaughter. Keep theses differences in mind when dialing up beef. A little grain has its place. But not as the basis for the cattle’s diet.

…the Gulf oil spill was triggered when the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig for a deep-water well called the Macondo, exploded, killing 11 men and wreaking havoc on multiple ecosystems, industries, and ways of life.

For Chefs Collaborative, a national network of chefs and other culinary professionals working on sustainable food issues, the spill was a palpable tragedy as friends and supporters in the Gulf region struggled with the uncertainty  following the spill. Would they be able to fish? Or to source local fish for the restaurants? Even if they could, would people want to eat it? A year later, much has unfolded, but uncertainty remains.

Soon after the spill, we collaborated, as part of the RAFT alliance, on a booklet drawing attention to the Gulf’s place-based foods at risk. In it, RAFT called for people to support the Gulf’s food producers during their time of uncertainty. In November, our board member Stephen Stryjewski wrote an op-ed for Zester calling for the same support: eat Gulf seafood.

But not everyone agreed. A number of consumer polls found that people were eating less seafood as a result of the spill, and that people’s view of Gulf seafood were less favorable than they’d been before the spill. And even at our own Summit in Boston last October, panelists discussing the issue differed in opinion regarding the seafood’s safety.

A year later, both the long-and-short-term effects of the spill are cloudy. A few things are certain, though. Fishermen have had a very bad year. Oysters have suffered—less as a result of the spill than from efforts made to prevent oil from mucking up their habitat. Spill or no spill, the Gulf coast is still losing acres of coastline daily. And deep-water drilling permits are still being issued.

Both fishermen and marine ecosystems are known for their adaptive abilities. What might be more worrisome when considering the impact of the Gulf spill is the demand behind those drilling permits. As Carl Safina points out in this interview with Mark Bittman, an insatiable demand for nonrenewable energy resources got us into this oily mess. And it’s unlikely to get us out.

At Chefs Collaborative, one of our principles states: “Good food begins with unpolluted air, land, and water.” Increasingly, it seems that finding clean and renewable energy solutions will go a long way in getting us there.

Thanks – and welcome – to one of Chefs Collaborative’s newest members (via our new member campaign – check it out). Scott Pampuch, Executive Chef of Corner Table in Minneapolis, Minnesota, found time in a really busy schedule to trade emails with us about what’s happening in sustainable ag in the Twin Cities, whom he considers a mentor, and what he values most. Read on to get to know Scott better, and after you finish, check out his CSK program and his deli case (a Midwesterner’s dream spread).

How did you get where you are today?

First, I got lucky and have been in the right place at the right time.  A number of people have been willing to help me. For that I am grateful.

A ton of work is the bigger reason.  By not wondering if I can or can’t do something, I don’t wonder if it will or won’t work, I just do.  Then work it out on the way.

Your cooking aesthetic in five words or less. How about style?

My nature is to just blow off this question, but the more I think about things, the more I am feeling like I am just feeding people in every way. Sustenance, energy, community, hospitality.

Your favorite childhood memory of food. How about earliest?

Making sauerkraut and grilling with my father. Eating ground cherries right out of the husk as they are warm from the sun.  Seeing my grandfather take a salt shaker and pocket knife in the garden and peel kohlrabi and eat it right there.

What’s your favorite food to work with? Favorite season?

Ramps.  Spring.  Everything to be tastes so fresh and new.  I only cook seasonal in Minnesota.

What’s your prized possession?

I do not put a lot of weight in possessions.  The only thing I prize is the ability to cook.

Whom do you consider a mentor?

A number of people I have never met.  One mainly being James Beard.  Everything I read of his, just continues to be an expression of what I have been thinking about food.

What’s happening in the sustainable food world over there in the Twin Cities? What are you most excited about?

My farmers are running out of food.  The demand has increased so much, that there is a need for more farmers and more people to be producing in a sustainable way.  That is a good problem to have.

Where do you source your food?

There is a long list of farms that I work with, most of whom I have been using for the entire time I have been open to new farms and have a growing list  I have one independently owned distributor that I use for certain things, dry goods, spices, vinegar, etc.

Tell us about Tour de Farm and Corner Table.

Well, you will have to check out the websites, because if I started talking about them, we would need about four or more pages for this interview.

www.cornertablerestaurant.com

www.tourdefarmmn.com

Corner Table was first, 7 years July 4th this year.   Tour de farm spawned out of Outstanding in the Field.  I asked permission to rip off Jim and he laughed and said, “Sure, you were the first person to ask permission.” So, we did.

We noticed that you’re on Twitter a lot. How do you use social media as a chef?

Twitter, yes, it is great to stay that connected to my customers.  It has opened up a whole new way to communicate with people around the country.  I have talked with Michael Ruhlam via Twitter and I don’t know if that would have happened otherwise.

People are always curious to look behind the curtain since the “Wizard of Oz” .  I think that certain people love the idea of what kind of work and thought goes into what we do.  It does translate for customers and money.  If you are on the mind of customers on a Friday afternoon cause you talked about what you just made or are thinking of making, you have a chance at feeding them that exact night.  It is a great way to network with other media and meet others.

Are you psyched about the Chefs Collaborative new member campaign, or what?!

Well, not sure that psyched is the right word, but I will say that I have heard about CC for some time and now more than ever we need to get together and make some things happen.

Why did you become a member of Chefs Collaborative?

Seriously, there is so much to be done in our country with food.  The only way that we are going to get anything to do is to work together to raise awareness.  It may take some time, but when James Beard, Julia Child, Pierre Franey, Jacques Pepin, Paul Bocuse and all those great chef’s out their in the great “northeast”, did they think they were changing the our countries way of looking at food?  Either way, they made great food, worked together, ate together, drank together and celebrated each others accomplishments.  They did it together.  Look what they did.

Anything you want our members and friends to know about you?

Wow, if anyone is in need of a farm in the Midwest, let me know.  If you want to talk about local and sustainable food, let me know.   Seriously, Minneapolis is a great food city and we are becoming greater by finding who we are and not trying to be any other food city in the country.

Katie at Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur, CA

Hello there!  My name is Katie Dolph and I’m the new Communications & Outreach Intern here at the Chef’s Collaborative.

A little about me:

I grew up in Reno, Nevada and moved to McMinnville, Oregon to attend Linfield College.  Linfield is in the heart of Oregon wine country, so while I was pursuing a degree in Theatre and French, I had summer jobs in vineyards, wineries, and with a wine festival.  After graduation, I continued working at Anne Amie Vineyards where I learned an incredible amount about sustainable viticulture and the art of growing my own food.  In my travels around the country, I found little pockets of enthusiasm for sustainable food and agriculture and I began to wonder how I could help those pockets grow.

Why I’m here:

It seems to me that Chefs and Winemakers are the tastemakers and trendsetters, so if they are passionate about sustainability and motivated to promote it, then it will spread like warm butter.  Eager to get involved and inform myself, I moved to Boston to pursue a Master’s Degree in Gastronomy at Boston University.

What I care about:

I’m a networker at heart.  I’m interesting in facilitating relationships – be it chefs to farmers, farmers to consumers, chefs to consumers, media to farmers… you get the idea.  I’m hoping that we can connect people all over the country that are interested in moving towards a sustainable food system by sharing information and resources and supporting one another.  I’ll be posting all kinds of goodies on Facebook and Twitter as well as the Chef’s Collaborative Blog.  Please feel free to let me know what you’re up to or what you’ve learned so that I can help spread the word! Email me at katied@chefscollaborative.org.

In The News:

This is a happenin’ time, with a great deal of debate around GMOs, the 2012 Farm Bill, major changes surrounding school lunch and much more.  Here’s what I’m reading about:

-Antibiotic Use in Hogs

-Genetically Engineered Plums

-Offshoots of the USDA’s new website

-Organic Farmers Suing Monsanto

-Nevin Cohen’s call to promote sustainability in NYC Food Initiatives

-How the new “Modernist Cuisine” relates to the sustainable food movement

As spring has been gearing up I’ve been getting in touch with farmers in the New England area. One of the most enthusiastic and nicest vegetable farmers I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with is Matt Linehan of Sparrow Arc Farm in Unity, Maine. Matt’s farm specialized in preserving food traditions and providing chefs with the highest quality heirloom vegetables. This year besides adding a second day to Boson deliveries, Matt will be bringing his fine vegetables down to New York City, if you are in Boston or New York Matt wants to hear from you. I asked Matt a few questions about farming and working with restaurants.

Why do you farm?

I farm because it is what I am good at. There are very few occupations that require you to be so many things: mechanic, salesman, laborer, manager, grower…I like growing food.

What do you see as the benefits of working with chefs and restaurants?

By far the greatest benefit to working with chefs is that no one appreciates good produce like a chef. When you bring a chef produce that is ultra clean, less than 24 hours old, and will last in their walk-in three times as long as the stuff from the wholesaler, they’re pumped! They know what they’re looking at. They don’t feel the need to bicker about the price, because they know it’s a great value. Secondly, growing for chefs has allowed me to specialize in heirloom crops. These crops are part of our history, part of what makes us unique, they hold our stories. Additionally, they taste better, are often more attractive, and are very important to the conservation of biodiversity. Giant Musselburgh Leek, Waldoboro Greenneck Turnip, Rampion, Satan’s Kiss Pepper, Reine des Glace Lettuce, Sea Kale, Black Futsu Squash, and over 100 other heirloom varieties are only grown on this farm because we love to do it and our customers support it.

What have been the biggest challenges to working with chefs and restaurants and how have you worked around these challenges?

Our biggest challenge has always been being a ” convenient” vendor. By convenient I mean having an easy, streamlined order process that works with a chef’s schedule, and a punctual delivery schedule. I’m proud to say that as our farm has grown we have developed a system that is convenient, easy, streamlined and punctual.

How do you go about establishing new networks and markets?

When I was first starting out I’d just walk into kitchens, a bag of mesclun in one hand, haricot verts in the other and ask if anyone was interested. For the last several years though we haven’t needed to do anything like that. Our customers will open new restaurants, sous chefs will move to new kitchens, and chefs we supply will tell their friends. Cooking is like farming that way, everbody knows everybody.

What are your new projects in the coming year?

Well we added a ton of new heirloom varieties, exactly what I’m keeping under wraps because it’s more fun that way. I’ll be trying out some new things in the field; transplanted beets, denser plantings of greens, more dry beans, more cornichons in the greenhouse. We’re also really upping our delivery game this year, delivering to Boston twice weekly and NYC weekly.

Do you have anything else to add, especially about building networks between farmers and chefs?

Only that really good cooks are some of the coolest people in the world, and I feel lucky to call many of our customers friends. They take something beautiful I work very hard to grow, and create something beautiful with it.

This blog post came to us from Lawrence Davis-Hollander, an ethnobotanist, former director and founder of the Eastern Native Seed Conservancy, author of Tomato: A Fresh from the Vine Cookbook, and  president of botanicalposters.com, the artwork of his wife Margo. His blogs can be found on http://botanicalposters.com/blog, http://blogs.grit.com/blogs and http://simpledailyrecipes.com.

This year, well over 2 million plants of ramps will be harvested for culinary purposes.

My first encounter with ramps took place when I was 19 on a preserve in Connecticut, where I was conducting a vegetation inventory for a summer internship with the Nature Conservancy. For a couple of weeks I tramped along side Dean, a master soil conservationist who reminded me of a younger Euell Gibbons, and his sidekick Ralph, mapping soils. Soil guys always carry a small spade and once Dean spied the ramps he exclaimed “thare’s lunch boys.” For the remainder of the days together when we were in the right habitat, Dean and I would quell the hunger gnawing our stomachs with a snack of raw ramp bulbs. Just brush off the earth and pop them in your mouth.

Since that time I have occasionally dug a few ramps in the spring, savoring their unique subtle flavor when cooked. In recent years I became concerned when I noticed how much media coverage they were getting, how many restaurants were serving them, and food stores selling them. This was no longer the occasional expert forager gathering a few ramps for a meal or two, rather the equivalent of hundreds of people out digging in a patch of ramps. I knew enough about the ecology and botany of the rich woods in which ramps grow to know this was not a good trend.

Commercial foraged samples I saw showed me that they were being harvested carelessly—baby and immature ramps were being dug right along with mature plants. In the Berkshires, where live wild food specialist Russ Cohen lives, I noticed whole patches being decimated.

If you have ever dug ramps you know that sometimes they are quite prolific, yet how long would it take to harm the population?  Unfortunately we have proved that as humans we are quite capable of over utilizing our natural resources for our own designs with too little understanding for the consequences of our actions.  Our best example in the United States is ginseng. Botanists believe ginseng was just as common as ramps are today. Yet ginseng is now virtually extinct from many woods, and generally scarce or rare today.  Ramps, like ginseng, tend to grow in some of our nicest and richest eastern woodlands, those populated by other fragile spring flowers such as Trilliums, Bloodroot, Mayapple, Blue and Black Cohosh and many others.

In talking to many botanists who have looked carefully at ramps and woodland plants there is a concern about the future of ramps due to its new found culinary cache. Harvesting was banned in Smokey Mountain National Park about ten years ago due to field studies showing that the long time traditional local harvesting practices were having a major effect upon ramp populations. As much as 90% of some patches had been harvested, which was estimated to take 100 years to recover. Patches where 25% of the population was harvested were estimated to require 10 years to recover.  Even a harvest of only 5% might take 2 years.

Anecdotal information from old time harvesters indicate that patches have been greatly diminished in the last decade, undoubtedly due to this new interest in wild ramps.

Amongst the concerns voiced by botanists are the reduction of the ability of the plants to reproduce because of over harvesting, disturbance of the woodland habitat by digging and trampling, and the resulting ability of invasive plants to spread.

Studies in Quebec led to a ban on commercial harvesting for the entire province, with only small amounts allowed to be dug for personal use.  Three states now have ramps listed as plants of special concern. While they can be cultivated it takes about 7 years to produce a mature plant. Currently the ramps on the commercial market are all wild dug.

If there is such a thing as a sustainable harvest of ramps, no one currently knows what that number is. Clearly it is under 5%.

An alternative to destroying the whole plant is utilizing the leaves. For flavor the leaves are excellent and keep refrigerated for several weeks.  Leaf harvest is currently being studied. It is not clear how sustainable that practice is. I think it’s possible if not more than 20% of a patch was harvested of leaves each year that this might be sustainable. This is only a guess.

Chefs and food purveyors can help to reverse this trend.  The contemporary mass harvesting of an entire food plant like ramps in the United States may be unprecedented.  Every botanist I have spoken with was very concerned about the current trajectory.  If you must use ramps then ask your suppliers to provide you with leaves. There may be no such thing as sustainably harvested bulbs at a commercial level.

Could we create system for regulation, or certification of sustainable or farm raised ramps? It is possible, and it raises far more questions than can be answered in the near term.

All of us need to keep asking the important questions about our food and its origins.

Curiosity will lead us to inquire about what needs to be learned, while caring will lead us to want to do the right thing in the best way, culminating in kindness—the action of caring. As we think about the common good, what works for the sake of the whole, it seems evident to me that mining ramps is not a net contribution.

I’m happy to talk with anyone about this topic. If you want to read my full article or get a copy of the Ramps Action Alert please go to http://botanicalposters.com/blog/.

On Monday evening after work I headed over to Harvard Hall, where I had the opportunity to hear Barton Seaver, a chef and National Geographic fellow speak on sustainable seafood.

Barton is not an environmentalist. He’s not an economist. He’s a humanist, who believes that the best way that we can relate to the land and water is through… dinner. Because who doesn’t think about dinner? We all do, regardless of our station. Through the preparing and passing of food, we relate our experiences, our passions and our beliefs to the people surrounding us. I think that members of the Chefs Collaborative network understand this idea very well, and that understanding comes through in the ways that we work to educate ourselves and form connections within our community. (See here, here and here for awesome examples of how people who think about dinner are making big strides to bring their customers seafood they can feel good about.)

I found myself nodding through parts of Barton’s speech, happy that he didn’t limit his talk to which fish are sustainable and which aren’t. After all, the question of sustainable seafood sourcing is more complicated than forming lists. A lot of stakeholders are involved, from the consumers, to the growers, to the harvesters – really, the issues affect everyone who eats. Understanding these issues in a broader context, in ways we can all relate to, ensures we are able to meet the existing challenges within our food system and change them for the better.