Chefs Collaborative

Videos are up from the Washington Post’s Future of Food Conference.  To echo what Melissa wrote about the conference, there are inspiring talks given by many leading figures in the food movement.  What struck me most was what Gary Hirschberg (CEO of Stonyfield Farms) said about the power of consumer choice.  As chefs, you are consumers of the first order and you have a level of visibility that allows you to guide and educate your customers in their choices.

An excellent example of customer education is Boston-area Chef Jose Duarte, who has made it his mission to educate his customers.  While QR codes silk screened with squid ink onto plates may not be for everyone (even though it’s REALLY cool!), there are lots of ways to educate your customers.

I’m starting a thread on the Chefs Collaborative Facebook page for members to brainstorm methods for engaging customers. What do you put on your menus?  How do your waiters explain the foods you serve?  Are there key phrases or points that seem to click for people?  Let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t.  What is practical for you and why?  Same goes for farmers: how do you educate your customers at the market?  I would love to see discussion from members all over the country – that way we get a real diverse array of ideas.  Join in!

If you have been following along on our blog at all, you will know that we recently endeavored on a new direction here at Chefs Collaborative, to develop the nascent local networks we have around the country. It is our hope to cultivate stronger networks that can help to further goals of local, sustainable, delicious. Our ad hoc pilot programs are in Rhode Island, where we’ve started to work on issues of meat sourcing and composting, as noted here, and the New Hampshire Seacoast. We’ll be headed up to Portsmouth this month to meet with chefs and help to establish the network and what they would like to focus on. In the meantime we are pleased to introduce out Local Leader, Evan Mallett.

Evan Mallett is the chef of Black Trumpet, a four-year-old bistro in Portsmouth, NH that he owns with his wife, Denise.  The restaurant, named after Evan’s favorite local foraged mushroom, has always reflected the Malletts’ love of community and has received numerous awards and nationwide recognition.  In 2011, Evan was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best Chef – Northeast.

After working at restaurants in Washington, DC in the early nineties, Evan spent a few years writing about food and restaurants for Boston-based publications.  He relocated to the Seacoast area in 1998, and has been cooking ever since.  A Chefs Collaborative member since 2008, Evan spearheaded the Heirloom Harvest Project in his area, which–through the help of Chefs Collaborative and other organizations–led to the creation of the successful and inspirational Barn Dinner at Meadow’s Mirth Farm in Stratham.  Evan has remained steadfastly dedicated for over a decade to sourcing local foods from farmers, fishers and friends.  When he’s not in the kitchen, Evan pretends to unwind by gardening and foraging.  He is also the proud Dad of two conscientious and omnivorous children.

From my desk overlooking my front yard, I can see my freshly planted raised bed, sitting in some afternoon shade–hopefully not too much for the germinating seeds and the transplants taking root. I’m looking forward to a summer and fall filled with meals made from my own peas, spinach, kale, peppers, herbs and more.

What I already know is that turning my lawn into a place where I grow food is gratifying. And I haven’t even harvested anything yet. It’s gratifying because I know that soon I’ll be able to save a little money on groceries—or in my case, redirect the money to higher-quality food. Being out in the yard with a shovel means I see a lot more of my neighbors, and they are curious about my project. So we talk. Talking with the neighbors is good. And having a direct, physical connection to my food—I feel lucky for that. But here’s what I wonder: can my garden change the food system?

In a piece on Civil Eats last week, Dan Imhoff suggested that small acts like this: raising your own vegetables, cooking meals from scratch, can be the sparks that ultimately engage people in food system reform. From the direct and tangible to the sprawling and complex—once we stake our ground as food citizens, we might as well take a crack at participating in reform that goes beyond our own dinner tables.

At the Chefs Collaborative summit this coming October in New Orleans, Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group will join us to talk about the role chefs can play in the 2012 Farm Bill. Certainly chefs have an influential role to play—whether on the local level through their support of sustainable food production, or on the national level, by adding their voices to those calling for subsidy reform—a move that could reallocate billions of dollars toward sound food production practices that bolster, rather than undermine, public and environmental health.

In the coming months, we’ll be spotlighting Farm Bill politics in our work.  As food citizens, we’re committed to helping push for change—so we’re looking to ignite the spark in others—whether it starts online, in a restaurant, or in a garden. What do you think? Can a garden change the food system?

—Leigh Belanger, Chefs Collaborative program director

We’ve all heard the saying “sharing is caring,” but now it’s being taken to a whole new level.  With the explosion of information technology and the magnitude of globalization, it is simultaneously easier than ever and harder than ever to connect with other people.

In the food world, globalization has  affected our food preferences, the way we produce, source and consume ingredients, and the way we get our information about food.  Many people working in food feel that this has led to the erosion of personal connection and degrading environmental practices, and we’ve risen to the occasion as champions of human connection and the preservation of the environment.

Some critics of food system localization argue that mass production and large scale provide lower costs that help feed the masses, and that “local food” is elitist.  However, as David Roberts of Grist points out, information sharing and collaborative consumption are eliminating the middle man, lowering costs, and connecting people through a new sense of trust like never before.  The food world is revolutionizing collaborative consumption.  By using information technology, we can connect need with goods, services, and information rapidly and effectively.

Urban agriculture is an excellent way of using space that would otherwise lay fallow, through community gardens, programs like Shared Earth, and a public re-evaluation of available space.  Organizations like Market Mobile connect small producers with local chefs and restaurants, mimicking traditional economies of scale.  Even smart phone apps can help connect consumers with farmer’s markets and act as a reference guide for seasonal produce.

At Chefs Collaborative, we are part of this collaborative revolution.  We are cultivating our community to share information and foster a more sustainable food system.  The more farmers and chefs we can reach, the more effective we can be in shifting food practices.  Help us by drawing in your friends and neighbors and building our membership to build a better food system.

How are you sharing information and resources?  Have any apps up your sleeves?  Tell us how you’re collaborating to change consumption.

By Melissa Kogut, Executive Director, Chefs Collaborative

“We need to take some very brave steps to address our food system.”
– Prince Charles at “The Future of Food” Conference at Georgetown University, May 4, 2011

Yesterday, I joined 700 leaders and activists from the sustainable food, organics and environmental movements, policy makers, students and members of the media for the Washington Post “The Future of Food” conference at Georgetown University.  There were many stars of this conference but the main event (if the level of security is a measure) was Prince Charles – His Royal Highness.

I knew that Prince Charles had a passion for sustainable agriculture but I was struck by the inspiring, passionate, smart, all-encompassing speech he made emphasizing that the current system of centralized agriculture is depleting our natural resources around the world, and we need to do something – fast!

Putting the issue of a sustainable food system into an international context, he started with the very basic – “according to the Oxford Dictionary, sustainability means keeping something going continuously,” and built his case from there.  He outlined the evidence for a food system in crisis – food insecurity, depleted water supplies, degraded soil, dwindling supplies of fossil fuel… “There are necessary limits to what the earth can do, he said.”

He culminated his talk by saying that the true cost of food production needs to be part of the bottom line – an accounting for sustainability, and with a call to action for the United States, which clearly bears the brunt of responsibility, to find alternatives to business as usual.

The lineup of speakers was impressive, including Eric Schlosser (“Organics is a matter of life and death” for the farmers doing the harvesting and the poor and working people who most need a new food system.), Greg Asbed, of Imokolee Workers, (“If you want to make changes in the food system, look at corporations.”), Marion Nestle (The most revolutionary thing people can do is to teach kids to cook) – and many more!

The surprise guest, Secretary Tom Vilsack, addressed the Farm Bill and said the debate is going to be difficult.  Alluding to the financial crises and the importance of the Farm Bill for supporting all kinds of production, he added “as we make choices about deficit reduction we can’t simply cut our way out of a deficit.”  During some of the most controversial moments of the conference, he responded to audience questions about his positions on GMOs and labeling as well as the use of antibiotics in animal production.   He said that he looks at both sides of the GMO debate like his sons – “I love them both,” and that he wants both sides to come up with a solution together.  Many in the audience were not satisfied, including one woman who said, “one of your sons is a bully.”  Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farm, who is actively advocating for GMO labeling and consumer choice, pointed out that it is a milestone that Vilsack is bringing organics and industry into the same room together to talk.

U.S. Senator Jon Tester and a third generation family farmer from Montana closed out the day with inspiring remarks about the importance of our work.

Check out the Washington Post article about the conference.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/prince-charles-attends-future-of-food-conference-at-georgetown/2011/05/04/AF5m1UqF_story.html

As always, we welcome your feedback. Be in touch via Facebook and Twitter, or leave your comments below.

Because cattle are reared on corn in beef factories.

You’ve read Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. You’ve seen “Food, Inc.” and the pictures in”CAFO.” Let’s take a brief tour of the beef industry, even if you’ve been on one before.

By “conventional beef,” I refer to an unconventional agricultural product. Against the 10,000 years humans have kept domesticated cattle, our present relationship with bovines is anomalous, a sliver of the swath. We used to live among our livestock and today, for the most part, we live away from them.

By conventional beef, I mean industrial beef. I mean the meat into which factory-farmed beef cattle are processed. I mean the new beef we now deem conventional because we know little else. There are other ways of rearing beef. These new methods are not conventional but exceptional.

Cheap beef begins with corn subsidies. Under the Farm Bill, the US government subsidizes corn more lucratively than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006, corn growers received more than $50 billion in subsidies. Without these outside assets, corn would cost more to grow than it could command at market. This would spell ruin for processed foods, many of which consist of multiple corn-based ingredients.

Corn subsidies lower the price of conventional beef. Corn feed costs less than grass. With grass, farmers need to employ a livestock rotation system. Farmers also need ample pasture. Corn enables concentration. (The cornfields are elsewhere.) It also fattens cattle to slaughter weight in 14 to 16 months, which allows cattle to be processed more quickly.

Corn, however, doesn’t tell the whole story. The industrial model–large scale, high volume, and automated–curbs the cost of production to pennies. It costs more to pasture-rotate than feed cattle by machine. It costs more for a human to butcher a cow than a robot. The industrial model allows big beef to operate with efficiency. The corporate model affords the luxuries of lobbyists and revolving door friendships with government.

Perhaps most of all, conventional beef is easy to sell. Fast food and grocery store chains require high-volume shipments of beef. They turn to conventional beef, which industrial producers can supply in quantity for the lowest price. It’s hard for a niche market beef producers to find consistent buyers. For producers of conventional beef, the buyers are lined up.

Even within our anomalous sliver of the past 10,000 years, beef production has increased. In 1950, Americans ate 44 pounds of beef per capita. By 2007, we were eating 66 pounds per person. Such an increase speaks to the changed nature of our relationship to cattle. It takes consumer demand, industry, technology, corporation, and government to make a Big Mac cheaper than a salad.