St. John’s Bread and Life, Brooklyn’s largest emergency food service provider, revolutionizes the way those in need “shop” for food, by creating a Digital Choice Food Pantry that guests access using an electronic card and point system. Designed to offer the dignity of choice, something overlooked at most food pantries, guests use touch-screen technology to fill their basket, using more points for non-healthy food than for healthy items, to encourage nutritious selections. Bread and Life’s use of computer terminals is at the forefront of providing dignified options for the poor and recently took the model one step further by allowing users to key in special health needs, (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or HIV) that restricts certain choices and presents food that adheres to their diets.
This commitment to improve overall client health by presenting the best food choices based on nutritious needs is a trail blazing idea that even high-end restaurants have yet to tap. All this in addition to providing over 1300 daily hot meals and services, impacts over 25,000 guests annually.
In talking to people about why they buy or would consider buying locally-grown product, I consistently hear four main reasons:
I cook. Locally grown food simply tastes better.
I support my community, including farmers.
I want to eat healthier and locally grown food has more nutrients.
I’m scared about the overuse of pesticides on conventionally grown produce. I feel more comfortable buying from a farmer I know.
The interesting thing is that I used to think of the buyers profiled above as distinct groups: health conscious buyers distinct from foodies distinct from people advocating food justice.
Give Me a Reason to Buy Locally
But the reality is that you can start at any one point above, and within a short period of time—sometimes days, sometimes months—slide right into another. Care about taste most? Great! But then it’s harder to spray pesticides on the berries you grow in your garden or spray that toxic cleanser you use on your kitchen counter.
Like to support local farmers? Hurray! And you know what? It turns out their food tastes amazing. Funny how food tastes so much better when it was dug out of the ground that morning. With something like a tomato it’s not even a fair fight when you try local vs. a tomato that is picked “dead green” and shipped 1,500 miles.
Big CPG (that’s consumer packaged goods to you and me) companies didn’t focus on green for the longest time. Not big enough they said. Not enough scale. A niche market. Now everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon.
But before that word “ green” gets completely mangled beyond recognition, there is real cause for hope. Imagine that Hellman’s is coming out with a mayonnaise using cage-free eggs. Okay, that’s not local, but it will have an impact on growing practices. Next McDonalds will be featuring organic beef. Actually there was a rumor that was going to happen last year.
“The mother of slow food.” “The founder of ground-breaking Chez Panisse in Berkeley.” “The biggest influence on food and how it’s sourced and prepared in America since Julia Child.” That’s a significant legacy that Alice Waters, a spirited revolutionary, carries with grace and a deft sense of humor.
Almost a year ago, I heard Alice Waters speak to—and apparently hold in thrall—a packed hall at the tony Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. I was certain that everyone, from students and faculty to farmers from Sheffield, MA to Millertonm, NY residents, heard her call to action. Charge the barricades! Go local! Boy, was I wrong.
Leaders of the food revolution: 17-year old Sam Levin of Project Sprout, Alice Waters and farmer Dominic Palumbo
The Alice Waters Story
Waters first learned about the importance of food in people’s lives while studying in Paris. Eating food together, she saw, “encouraged conversation and closeness.”
For Waters, food should be a “form of sustenance, not just fuel.” She brought that winning recipe to the opening of Chez Panisse in 1971. Her unstoppable search for great tasting, quality ingredients led her to forage for the best sources of cheese, fruits and vegetables, meat and fish in the Bay area. In the process she created a community of 85 sustainable producers that support and nourish her restaurant to this day. read on
We’ve been nominated for a Slow Money award as a business that supports local economies, local farmers and sustainable agriculture and business practices. Please consider casting your votes for Local Orbit. And share the link with your friends. Thank you! (and thank you whoever nominated us – it’s a nice mystery)
Most farmers who work farmer’s markets and farms stands are proud of what they produce. And many want to tell just how they do it.
There’s the grass-fed beef farmer who firmly believes you don’t need to use grain to finish beef cattle. Or another farmer who collects stinging nettles with gloves to provide greens early in the season.
Then again I never returned to the farm stand where the farmer talked glowingly about the power of Roundup, a herbicide that’s toxic to wildlife. I understand that it makes his job easier, but today there are a multitude of great alternatives.
Be Curious and Polite
Best not to turn the questions for farmers into an interrogation. Show your curiosity. Slow down. Listen and learn. Chat as you shop. Other shoppers nearby might pick up a thing or two. If the market isn’t too crowded, start slowly.
“Beautiful day. So how’s the season been going for you this year?” Sometimes better to start with “is there anything here you’re particularly proud of? Anything unusual?”
“When did you pick this fruit or vegetable? Is it ready to eat today? How do I store it?” Chefs will tell you that berries picked after a heavy rain are worthless. This year’s peaches were particularly insipid for the same reason. Some items like winter squash can last for months if stored correctly.
“Are you able to use organic or sustainable principles on the farm?” It’s so easy to ask “is this organic” but the fact is many farmers do not have the time and in some cases the money for organic certification. That doesn’t mean they don’t follow those very same principles on the farm.
“Does this produce come from your farm?” Small farms can grow an amazing amount of food but it is unlikely that they will have fruit trees and kale growing on the same patch. But that’s okay if your farmer gets produce from growers they know. It’s very likely they can talk about their neighbors’ practices. read on
I was quite sure of myself, telling him that the way he had been doing things
for 50 years was all wrong.
From guest contributor Rebecca Noffsinger: My grandfather, Howard Wing, with his three children: my aunts Norma (the blond on the left) and Martha (the braids on the right), and my father Paul Wing on his father's lap steering.
I put my first organic garden in several years ago. My plans were pretty ambitious, so my father agreed to help on groundbreaking day. He drove 120 miles from our family’s small dairy farm to bring the rototiller and bales of straw I needed. We spent the day working together.
We butted heads a little bit. He is firmly planted in the conventional farming world, with its nutrient rations and chemical controls. Now as Dad helped spread bone meal and greensand on the fresh soil in my yard, there was some grumbling going on. Where are you going to get your nitrogen without any N-P-K? Are you sure you don’t want to Roundup to get rid of weeds?
And with a new convert’s hubris I explained to him the reasoning and science behind going chemical-free. I was quite sure of myself, telling him that the way he had been doing things for 50 years was all wrong. After a while Dad quieted down.
As we were spreading the groundcover seed, he said thoughtfully, “My dad used to plant buckwheat,” and told me what he could remember of how my grandfather farmed when my father was a child. read on
Want to feed the world? Let’s start by asking: How are we going to feed ourselves?
Or better, How can we create conditions that enable every community to feed itself?
Dan Barber shares the story of Veta La Palma, a 27,000 acre fish farm in Spain that has “completely reversed the ecological destruction” created by a large cattle farming operation that preceded it. It’s an amazing story about repairing environmental damage while building a profitable business that produces great tasting fish.
And, Barber posits, “it’s a recipe for the future of good food.” Watch. Renew your flagging optimism.
I had the pleasure of attending the Michigan Organic Food and Farming Conference last weekend and was inspired by the vision and integrity of farmers I met who’ve built successful businesses, as well new farmers who are just starting out. Highlights included an intergenerational panel that addressed needs and resources for incubating new farmers, a session on creative strategies for farmland acquisition, and a panel about Michigan Thumb Organics (MTO).
MTO is a cooperative of experienced farmers whose individual members sell organic commodities crops like soy and corn. They’ve come together to expand and diversify sustainable local food production. Check out Chris Bedford’s video for their story.
The conversation about fixing our food system continues to move further into the mainstream. Last week, Oprah did a great show on Food 101 with Michael Pollan on Food Rules, Alicia Silverstone on changing her diet (including a funny exchange on poop), and excerpts from Food, Inc.
[UPDATE 2/4/10 - looks like Harpo Productions took the videos off YouTube and are making the Food 101 show available on DVD. A shame they won't allow this information to be distributed more freely, but at least they did produce great content. You can get more info on the Oprah site.
Just wondering - do you think Food, Inc. will get a share of the revenue from DVD sales of this episode that include excerpts from the film? Sure - they get great PR, but still..... ]
Here’s video from YouTube, in 5 parts. No additional commentary needed!
Mark Bittman posted a good piece by Russ Parsons. It addresses conflicting perspectives in the increasingly audible conversation about building a better food system. Parsons proposes a set of shared principles to anchor serious discussion about our shared problem. While I question the 20th century “agricultural miracle” to which he refers, and not everyone in either “camp” views the issues in such extremes, the article, published in the LA Times earlier this week, bears re-posting here.
Let’s not join one of the armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other.
The issues facing agriculture today are much more complicated than lining up behind labels such as “local” and “organic.” (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
One of the more pleasing developments of the last decade has been the long-overdue beginning of a national conversation about food — not just the arcane techniques used to prepare it and the luxurious restaurants in which it is served, but, much more important, how it is grown and produced. The only problem is that so far it hasn’t been much of a conversation. Instead, what we have are two armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other (sound familiar?).
On the one side, the hard-line aggies seem convinced that a bunch of know-nothing urbanites want to send them back to Stone Age farming techniques. On the other side, there’s a tendency by agricultural reformers to lump together all farms (or at least those that aren’t purely organic, hemp-clad mom-and-pop operations) as thoughtless ravagers of the environment.
Well, at least we’re thinking about it, so I suppose that’s a start. But the issues we’re facing are not going to go away, and they are too important to be left to the ideologues. What I’d like to see happen in the next decade is a more constructive give-and-take, the start of a true conversation.
With that goal in mind, I’d like to propose a few ground rules that might help move us into the next phase — fundamental principles that both sides should be able to agree on.
