CHICAGO Sustainability is a widely held goal in the foodservice industry, with all the talk about going green, cutting “food miles” or using more organics, but the ways to achieve it are many and varied, chefs agreed during a recent meeting here.
No two operators will take the same path toward sustainability, but as long as they start moving in that direction, the American food supply and economy will benefit, said celebrity chef Rick Bayless, owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and Xoco.
Bayless delivered the opening speech at this year’s Chefs Collaborative National Summit, “Bringing Sustainability to the Table,” held Sept. 15-16 at Kendall College in Chicago. Chefs Collaborative is a national nonprofit network of chefs and suppliers that promotes a sustainable food system through advocacy, education and collaboration with the broader restaurant industry.
Bayless stressed that his preference for sustainable agriculture comes not from political activism, but as a chef and entrepreneur. Ingredients grown locally and served in season taste better, he maintained.
When he opened Frontera Grill 23 years ago, there were no farmers markets supplying fresh produce, Bayless said during his speech, because most of the local farmers lacked the investment capital to build up capacity to supply area restaurants.
So Bayless partnered with a nearby farmer of organic spinach, lending him money to build an additional greenhouse, and the farmer paid Bayless back with all the organic spinach from the new greenhouse.
Eventually, Bayless was raising funds for all sorts of farmers through this barter system. By 2003, he and his staff started the Frontera Farmer Foundation to support Midwestern farmers and build the infrastructure for a vibrant local-food system.
“What led me to local agriculture is its potential for creating community,” Bayless said. “We also are able to create an alternative economy. We live in a world that praises big business, and I don’t know why that is. But businesses that employ 50 percent of the people in this country are small, family-owned business. Why are we not holding that up as an equally viable model?”
Not only does sustainable agriculture foster small businesses, but it also gives chefs and restaurateurs the chance to mitigate climate change in small steps, other attendees said. During an educational breakout session, “Looking at our ‘Carbon Foodprint’: Food Choices and Climate Change,” panelists argued that the restaurant industry can get all Americans involved in treating the environment better by examining their food choices.
Meredith Niles, formerly of the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., said the entire U.S. food supply, from small farmers to industrial agribusiness, contributes 32 percent of the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Sustainable agriculture limits this pollution because it typically consumes less water and energy than industrial farming, and because grass-fed livestock produce less methane than grain-fed animals, for instance, she said.
Restaurants can do some small things to encourage their customers to consume food grown in a more sustainable manner, she said.
“Reducing portion sizes is an important concept,” she said. “The average American eats more than 200 pounds of meat in a year. So we have some room for reducing the amount of meat on the plate and increasing the vegetable portion.
“I’d also make a pitch for offering more vegetarian items. It offers chefs a neat opportunity to get creative with vegetarian options in their restaurants,” she said.
Niles also suggested switching the types of meat offered at restaurants, perhaps forgoing varieties of meat that are expensive and energy-intensive like grain-fed beef or lamb in favor of sustainably raised seafood, chicken or pork.
The most important thing in changing a menu to support sustainable sources of food is to communicate to the guests the environmental reasons for doing so, she said.
Another panelist, Joe McGarry, the executive chef of Bon Appétit Management Co.’s business-and-industry account at Intel in Portland, Ore., stressed the need for taking incremental steps when implementing sustainable-food programs.
“You aren’t going to make any impact with people by eliminating things and telling people what they can and can’t eat,” McGarry said. “You need to make this palatable if you want your customers to buy in. If I try to beat my customers over the head with a ‘Low-Carbon Diet,’ it’s not going to fly.”
However, Bon Appétit, the contract foodservice provider with about 400 accounts in 28 states, did introduce a Low Carbon Diet option in 2005, putting an emphasis on foods grown nearby, and its seafood choices follow the Seafood Watch list of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to prevent the procurement of over-fished species.
McGarry said the key to including sustainable-agriculture initiatives at the on-site company’s accounts is taking small steps to reduce Bon Appétit’s carbon footprint. That meant getting rid of imported bottled water and air-freighted seafood, he said, and rethinking the necessity of tropical fruits. When customers at the company’s private-university accounts balked at a reduced supply of bananas from Central America, however, the company found a suitable alternative from northern Mexico.
McGarry reiterated that incremental action is the way to make sustainable agriculture work for a diverse group of customers.
“Shock value is way overrated,” he said. “It’s about taking baby steps and remembering that this is a pleasurable experience. Customers aren’t coming to your establishment to get upset. So what I’ll leave you with is: Take it easy.”
The Chefs Collaborative National Summit also featured a speech from Ann Wright, a deputy under secretary from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as a reception at the Shedd Aquarium and a tour of the Green City Market.
Conact Mark Branau at [email protected]
