Bon Appétit

Sustainability: It's not just a buzzword, it's a lifestyle

About ten days ago, I had the honor of speaking on a panel called “Organic on the Green: Conversations with College Aged Consumers” at the All Things Organic Conference and Trade Show. The honor was two-fold because #1, the panel was named after the blog I started last summer, and #2, I was joined by Maisie Greenawalt, the Vice President of Bon Appétit Management Company. The purpose of the panel was to facilitate “a conversation with college-aged organic consumers” in order to allow the organic industry to hear what the younger generation looks for in organic products.

 

Like most college students, the only presentations I have done have been to about 25 fellow students and a professor who I hoped to impress for “the A”. Needless to say, in preparation for the panel, I had done research until I was blue in the face, practiced to anyone with two ears, and created note cards that were organized, highlighted, and color coded. However, as soon as I got up to the podium, I became aware that I was being given a unique opportunity to speak to the organic industry, the big players in this sustainable food game, for students all around the country who are passionate about this topic. 

 

I discussed how important I consider organic to be, but how its message is being lost on the younger generation. Sustainable food is not merely a topic of interest to college students, but a lifestyle, a community, and a set of ideals to which many of us aspire. The organic industry has traditionally directed its marketing to mothers and families. But to miss out on the tremendous purchasing power and zealousness of the college student is to ignore one of the most important segments of the population in terms of sustainable food.
 

After the panel, as I walked around the trade show floor admiring the booths of hundreds of organic companies that had come to the show, I began thinking about how thankful I am to be a student in this particular place and at this particular time. Sure, our country has plenty of issues to work out, and as a senior in college, the job market could be better. But students in 2009 must be optimistic about the tremendous ability we have to change the course of agriculture in our country. Our purchasing power is tremendous on campuses alone, and the fact that a company like Bon Appétit Management Company exists is proof enough that we have come a long way from the dining hall that served sloppy joes and mystery meat. So, as I boarded my flight in Chicago, I smiled, thinking about what my children might say about the conventional and processed food so prevalent in our country today. My hope is that because of the work of fellow student sustainable foodies, the next generation will be saying “you really ate that?!,” with the same tone of disbelief I used when I discovered that my mother used a sun reflector and baby oil to get a tan when she was my age.

- Nina Merrill, Student Intern

A Summer with Bon Appétit

We're happy to welcome Nina Merrill as our intern this summer at the Bon Appétit Management Company corporate office. It's only her second week and already she has jumped right in with much enthusiasm and has contributed great ideas. Here's Nina's story about how she became interested in college food service and how she crossed paths with Bon Appétit:

As a senior at a university in upstate New York, I have experienced firsthand the direct impact campus food service has on students’ lives.  I grew up with a mother who professed the importance of local and organic food at every opportunity (I was that kid on the playground that you never wanted to trade lunches with…thank you, Mom).   So, with that background in mind, during my freshman year, my body was quite simply shocked by all the chemicals and pesticides that I was unconsciously ingesting from the lunch line (not a Bon Appétit café).  This change of diet resulted in debilitating migraine headaches that left me out of commission for days at a time…not exactly the ideal first semester of college if you ask me.  I took that semester off to recoup and pledged to always eat local and organic from that point forward (which meant weekly, hour-long trips to the nearest “sustainable” supermarket in the boonies of upstate New York).  In my very firm opinion, no student’s physical or mental health should ever be jeopardized because of their school’s meal plan requirement! Since then, I have become passionate about helping to enhance sustainable food options on college campuses nationwide.

 

Last summer, while interning at the Organic Trade Association (OTA), I developed the Organic on the Green blog, which aims to offer sustainably-minded students an arena to discuss their organic campus initiatives.  Every week for the last year, a different student has written an essay about a topic of his or her choice, subjects ranging from beginning a student-run garden to starting a CSA to composting in the dining halls.  I also authored the Taste the Change: How to Go Organic on Campus Guide, published in early 2009 for the Organic Institute.  This publication brings together many of the ideas discussed on the blog and hopes to offer suggestions and stories to inspire students to become organic campus advocates.  It was through the cultivation of the blog and student guide that I was introduced to the amazing work of Bon Appétit Management Company. 

 

While doing research for these projects, I had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of individuals from colleges and universities all around the country.  It only took a few days to notice something really interesting; students from Bon Appétit schools were having an entirely different dining experience than those students who were eating food provided by other companies.  Time and time again, I listened to them rave about the food at their universities, talking about how Bon Appétit really listened to their ideas and how “sustainability” was the company’s mantra, not some gimmicky PR move.  To say that I was jealous of their experiences would truly be an understatement.  I just knew that I had to become a part of this innovative company. 

 

So, with this passion and excitement in mind, I moved from New York to California, from snow to sun, to intern with Bon Appétit for the summer!  While today is only my fourth day, I can truly say that Bon Appétit really walks the walk.  Everyone here lives and breathes the company’s mission of sustainability, from the compostable cups and fair trade coffee in the break room to the granola and trail mix on tap I find myself presently tempted by.  I am amazed at how such a large company can feel like such a small, warm, and welcoming family, and from what students I have spoken to have told me, this feeling comes through in the food served at their cafés (maybe I’ll even get to go and get my first taste at a local Bon Appétit café: hint, hint).  I am thrilled to be here, and look forward to updating you periodically on my summer internship experiences in Palo Alto.

What does socio-diversity have to do with sustainable seafood?

Among environmentalists we hear a lot about the importance of maintaining biodiversity in a given forest or fishery, but less about maintaining the variety of skills and jobs within a specific community. That’s starting to change.

As marine scientists, fishermen and regulators debate what is ‘sustainable seafood’ and advocates work to promote understanding of the importance of buying seafood that is plentiful and harvested with non-damaging gear, many people are beginning to realize that who is catching fish may have a lot to do with maintaining responsible levels in the sea. There is evidence to suggest that maintaining a class of fishermen who depend on the bounty of a given area helps preserve natural resources.

Recently I spoke at a forum at Google in Mountain View where Environmental Defense Fund announced the creation of a California Fisheries Fund, designed to support the economic viability of smaller fishing vessels. Bravo EDF!

Read more here.

- Helene York, Director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

USF Celebrates Low Carbon Diet Day!

Last week the University of San Francisco (USF) celebrated Bon Appétit Management Company's 2nd annual Low Carbon Diet Day with an early kick-off event (Low Carbon Diet Day is April 22^nd) at The Market Café. We were onsite to taste all the delicious food and see first-hand how a café that feeds a whopping 8,000 hungry students each day serves up first-rate climate-friendly fare.

 

Chef Success

In just a few short years, Executive Chef Jon Hall and his team of talented chefs have excelled in incorporating the Low Carbon Diet commitments into their daily-changing menus. One of their many achievements towards this end is the reduction of beef consumption by half! And this wasn't accomplished by taking beef off the menus. Instead, Jon created flavorful, enticing dishes that were alternatives to beef and attracted students to lower carbon options. This success, combined with other Bon Appétit commitments, like sourcing all of their produce from North America and cutting down on food waste, makes USF’s culinary staff true Low Carbon Diet leaders.  When we visited, it was wonderful to witness the culinary team spend the lunch hour in the café mingling with students, answering questions, and seeing which of their creations the students were most excited to dig into (the first-of-the-season roasted asparagus was a big hit). 

 

 

A Farm Stand for the Students

Every few weeks the USF Bon Appétit team arranges for several local farms and artisan food purveyors to come into the café and set up a mini-farmers’ market where students can taste and buy farm-fresh produce. On Low Carbon Diet Day special guests included a third-generation citrus farmer on hand to juice generous cups of organic orange juice, across from a stand displaying overflowing baskets of heirloom vegetables, which the chefs expertly prepared for lunch and the students stocked up on for their own culinary endeavors at home.  There was also one farmer who brought bags of multicolored heirloom potatoes, another who sold a dozen varieties of honey, and one artisan who offered up some very snack-worthy brittle made with local, organic nuts.

 

 

Low Carbon Menu Highlights

No question, the cheeseburger is quintessential college cuisine, but it also features two of the biggest carbon-culprits – beef and cheese.  So what’s the grill master to do?  The USF team didn’t miss a beat and served up mouthwatering turkey burgers (made with local, Diestel turkey) topped with creamy California avocado to a long line of eager customers.  And while cheese pizza might normally be a shoe in for most-popular nosh, we’d argue that the cheese-less, hand-tossed Hoisin pork pizza would give its dairy-counterpart a run for its money.  Surprising to many, rice has a significant carbon footprint. The creative chefs replaced rice with nutty, whole-grain quinoa, which we enjoyed tucked into a burrito with black beans and local, sustainably farm-raised tilapia. 

 

Pop Quiz! 

Our day at USF showed us that important learning happens inside and outside of the classroom.  That’s why we’re so excited about our new Facebook Low Carbon Diet Quiz.  Are you carbon-savvy?  Know the eco-friendly way to stuff a burrito or select a soup? Now anyone can test their smarts and challenge their friends with the first socially-networked Low Carbon Diet Quiz. 

 

What’s Next

It certainly wasn’t a challenge to clean our plates, but we did notice that, as students finished their lunches, if any food was untouched, not a speck went to waste – there were five composting bins, two recycling bins, and just one lone trash bin posted at the exit.  Overall, the USF team’s serious commitment to tackling climate change with each and every delectable plate left us well-fed and inspired.  We eagerly await the Low Carbon Diet Day celebrations at the many other participating college and university cafés on April 22^nd such as American University, Case Western Reserve University, Dominican University of California, Goucher College, Hamilton College, Lewis & Clark College, Macalester College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern College, Oberlin College, St. Olaf College, University of Redlands, Washington University in St. Louis, Whitman College, Woodbury University, and others!

 

-Katherine Kwon, Communications Project Manager

 

(p.s. these great photos are from Scott Chernis Photography)

 

Advances in the Science of Climate Change

Last weekend I joined six academics on a panel at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The focus of our talks was on emerging science of the food system’s contribution to climate change – and my role was to talk about how Bon Appétit Management Company has been implementing science in every day practice through our Low Carbon Diet program. I give a lot of talks on this subject, but don’t write that much. A recent exception is the piece I wrote for Sustainable Industries Journal:

In November 2005, when I persuaded Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation’s forward-thinking board to let me develop a program that would shed light on the food system’s connection to climate change, An Inconvenient Truth hadn’t been released, a majority of Americans thought climate change was hocus pocus, and the distance food traveled was assumed to be the food system’s most serious contributor to global warming. We’ve come a long way in three years toward understanding that climate change is occurring and acknowledging its true causes.

Curiously, though, we still refuse to recognize that food is an enormous contributor to climate change. It’s as if we don’t want it to be. 

Distributed among all its component parts, the food system represents one-third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions but most analysts have yet to take it seriously. They should. Although individuals may forego buying extra “stuff” during the economic downturn, we’re not eating appreciably less. If anything, the food system’s percentage as a contributing factor will likely rise.

Analysts might be forgiven for miscalculating the food system’s contribution because it is extremely hard to measure. Government statistics don’t help much. Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, divide sectors somewhat arbitrarily – transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture, for example – while the food system spans all three, and more. When the U.S. pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, our obligation to measure emissions was dismissed, making a harder task even more difficult. 

But even a dedicated effort to measure emissions would need a particularly robust accounting method to characterize the food system’s contribution to climate change. We’d have to move beyond simply counting carbon dioxide and factor in much more potent greenhouse gases that the food system produces in abundance, including methane and nitrous oxide. We’d also have to assign responsibility for domestic demand of foods produced abroad and delivered by various speedy (read: highly emitting) modes of transportation. If we weren’t buying hothouse-grown tomatoes and air-freighted asparagus in winter, would producers in other countries make them?

To paraphrase common wisdom, the devil is in the methodology details.

Nowhere is methodology more debated than when it comes to consumption of meat, and beef in particular. A 2006 study released by the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization reported in detail how the livestock sector is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gases. The report used an expansive methodology, measuring, for example, forest land turned over to grazing that previously absorbed atmospheric carbon.

As with anything published by the UN, the study has become a catalyst for conservative critics who see it as fodder for groups intent upon limiting personal food choices. One such commentator wrote: “If livestock production disappeared tomorrow, wouldn’t we just be transporting more tofu around?” The writer obviously failed to note that methane emissions from ruminant animals’ digestive systems and the deforested land needed to raise the animals are by far the most significant source of emissions from the meat industry, not transportation or promotion of a specific diet.

Commentators on the left often miss the point as well. When PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) announced last month that it  used Carbon Trust methodology to measure the emissions associated with Tropicana orange juice, the first comment in a popular environmental blog was not praise for the company’s proactive use of rigorous transparent tools, but a question about how Tropicana compared with organic orange juice. Different juice options just aren’t the issue. Nuances won’t address food's significant climate change impacts.

Ninety-eight percent of Americans eat meat, and very few meat eaters don’t eat beef. A similarly high percentage eats cheese and other dairy items, all products of ruminant cows, goats and sheep that naturally belch methane (and release some methane through their waste). While some activists offer veganism as the answer, I’m persuaded that this plea will only change the habits of few and turn off the many who need to embrace the idea of eating less livestock products.
 
Consider this fact: If all the meat eaters in North America eliminated meat one day each week, it would do more than tripling the number of vegetarians. The same effect would occur if meat eaters simply reduced their portion sizes by 15 percent. But is 15 percent enough?

If our goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, then clearly the answer is no. But consumers’ willingness to change their personal food choices is only one necessary step.

The food system is not environmentally benign. It’s time to stop subsidizing cheap feed and water and regarding animal waste as an uncontrollable byproduct. Today, food seems off limits in the climate debate, not because of methodology concerns but because food is emotional stuff and we’re uncomfortable with having our personal choices questioned. But this isn’t really about personal choices; it’s about public responsibility.

It’s also time to become accustomed to thinking of meat and cheese as “special food” rather than simply as lunch and dinner. While that represents a special challenge for food producers, for the rest of us, there’s no better place to start than with catered corporate meetings, or what we choose for dinner tonight.   

- Helene York, Director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

Calling All Student Activists

 

Okay, I admit it, I wasn't a politically active student. I was involved in many clubs and student organizations but they were all focused on my own career development or social life. Thankfully, today's young adults are more globally-minded (maybe it's the difference between the group-focused millennial generation and my cynical gen x attitude).

Almost every week I hear from a student at a non-Bon Appetit school trying to "green" their college's dining hall. I suggest questions they can respectfully ask their food service provider but tread a fine line as, out of professional courtesy, I don't want to be seen as stepping on another food company's toes.

The Organic Trade Association must be getting the same inquiries I am so they've come up with a great answer. Through the Organic Agriculture and Products Education Institute they've released the "nation’s first guide for students who want to bring organic dining to campus." It's a fantastic resource with strategies, tips and examples of inspiring success stories. While the title focuses on "organics," it's really a how-to guide for any student interested in sustainability. 

So, if you're a more active student than I was and wondering how to have a fruitful conversation with your food service provider or what role you can play in making change on your campus, here's a great place to start. 

- Maisie Greenawalt, Vice President  

Sea Changes Are Happening

Gulls beckon as they swoop down over Bodega Bay, hoping to find lunch in the water or among diner’s crumbs. I watch them as I’m standing on one of the few areas of the California coastline that still has an active fishing community. It is smaller than it once was, but there are no trawlers in sight unlike bigger ports to the south. Small fishermen rule here, pulling in seasonal catches of native small fish that coexist with shellfish farms nearby. “There is local seafood, if you know where to get it,” says Monterey Fish Co president Paul Johnson, a Seafood Watch advisory board member and seafood supplier to many Bon Appétit accounts. He understates his point. You not only need to know where to get it, but from whom.

Over the past 35 years, it has become far more likely that the seafood we eat was taken from the sea by enormous ships that drag nets along the ocean’s floor and catch everything in the net’s way. Many vessels are also factories, filleting and freezing portions that are sold to international trading companies who deliver to national distribution systems and then to mega-marts. There is no “story” associated with this seafood, and the small fisherman, like the small farmer, is a diminishing breed. Most suppliers, just getting their hands around sustainability ratings, don’t yet have this issue on their radar (if they ever will). Unfortunately, nor do most NGOs concerned with seafood sustainability. Fortunately, this is beginning to change, as “local food” makes inroads with seafood as well.

One of our chefs wrote me recently, after evaluating a prospective new seafood supplier who told him there was “no local seafood anymore.” The chef was discouraged but not convinced. Could we “adopt” a fishery and buy “everything that comes in off their boats”? he asked.  Now, more than before, this seems to be within the realm of possibility.   

 

-Helene York, Director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

Is ‘Large-Scale Organic’ An Oxymoron?

The Sacramento Bee reported news last week that caught my attention (and raised my ire): for up to seven years, many large-scale organic farming operations used an approved fertilizer on their organic crop land that was effective and inexpensive. A state investigation caught the product’s manufacturer spiking it with ammonium sulfate, however, a synthetic fertilizer banned by organic regulations. As a result, some of California's 2006 harvest of organic fruits, nuts and vegetables wasn't really organic, and that may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Synthetic fertilizers are disallowed by regulators because they decrease natural soil fertility and can significantly pollute waterways. They are produced using an enormous amount of fossil-fuel energy – not a ‘natural’ source like fish by-products. No farms lost their organic certification since they didn’t know they were using the chemical. Consumers, however, were duped. And a new concern was raised about large-scale organic farms.

Is this case simply an example of a dishonest business practice or the result of other forces as well? Farmers favor liquid fertilizers for cool weather crops like strawberries, salad greens and cabbages, but usage is widespread because the demand for unblemished fresh produce continues apace. Mid-sized and large-scale farmers face a lot of pressure to deliver robust harvests at competitive costs for a growing market of organic label-conscious consumers. Once a luxury for two months a year, plump red strawberries now appear on catering plates and breakfast bars every day, courtesy of big farms.

Modern agriculture's huge, chemical-dependent fields have largely replaced the small diversified farms fertilized with biological additives such as compost, manure and cover crops. As a result, the term “large-scale organic farming operations” may actually be nonsensical. Can a large-scale farming be truly organic? Can a non-diversified farm actually practice good land and water stewardship? While this report is disturbing, I’m reminded why Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork program emphasizes “small-scale,” “owner-operated” and “diversified” farms and generally ignores labels in favor of relationships with food producers.

- Helene S. York, Director, Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

Students rally for Most Vegetarian-Friendly College title

In my role here at Bon Appetit, I focus on communications to the customers who eat in our cafés. It’s always interesting to me when we hear back from these customers about the issues that motivate and inspire them. This year, students at American University and Wesleyan University were loud and clear as they rallied for their cafés to be awarded the Most Vegetarian-Friendly College for 2008.

For the third year in a row, Peta2, the youth division of the animal rights organization PETA, has awarded the title of Most Vegetarian-Friendly College to the winner of an online election. Students at both American and Wesleyan were active in their support for their cafés – they displayed banners and posters and got the word out to get their fellow students to vote. In the end, American University won this year’s title, as a result of unprecedented levels of voting.

The voting was conducted in a series of rounds, with a system of elimination that whittled down the pool from 32 finalists to a final vote-off between two schools. I thought it was a particularly notable achievement that the final two contenders, American and Wesleyan, were both Bon Appétit schools. It seems that whether it’s spicy seitan in miso broth with noodles at American or barbecued tempeh wraps at Wesleyan, offering varied and extensive vegan and vegetarian dishes is one issue that certainly gets people motivated!

- Brad Thompson, Field Marketing Manager

Eat Local Challenge: Deepening community, curriculum, consciousness

A month ago, we challenged all of our chefs to prepare a meal consisting entirely of ingredients from within 150 miles of their café (read Maisie’s post for details of the event). As I collect the great stories about our fourth annual Eat Local Challenge (ELC), I continue to be inspired by the creativity and passion of our chefs and managers. They really do go all out.

What also struck me about these stories was the depth of sustainability efforts that are taking place at our accounts nationwide. Many of our chefs and managers particularly at college campuses have developed unique programs with student groups and academic departments to teach real-world/hands-on strategies for putting sustainability into practice. Bon Appétit’s Eat Local Challenge is an occasion for education and discussion – as covered here by the Christian Science Monitor -- bringing students and faculty into conversation with local producers, farmers and chefs on food security, biodiversity, local economies and community. I think that the more interdisciplinary sustainability becomes, the greater the impact and reach it will have in the long run. Integrating Bon Appétit’s sustainable food purchasing practices with the school’s student-run garden, for example, creates the opportunity for students to experience food from beginning to end (growing, harvesting, selling, eating, composting).

Here are several ELC stories I’d like to share with you about Bon Appétit partnerships at colleges and universities across the country. I hope you find them just as inspiring as I do.

Seattle University in Seattle, WA: Executive Chef Jim Cooley and Sous Chef Shannon Wilson created an Eat Local Menu using herbs from Seattle University’s organic herb garden. Seattle University composts 25 tons of food waste each year - collected by Bon Appétit staff in the kitchen – which then fertilizes the University’s gardens and grounds.

Whittier College in Whittier, CA: Eat Local Challenge day provided hands-on research for sociology professor Sal Johnston’s students, who surveyed fellow students’ level of appreciation for local sourcing and its benefits to local economies. The class also gathered data on wasted food. 

St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN: The student-run garden STOGROW harvested produce for the event. Students from the Bon Appétit - Student Coalition (BASC) manned an information table, providing background on local vendors, and showed diners Bon Appétit’s online Low Carbon Diet Calculator tying the importance of eating locally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH: Students spoke with Carl Bowman, co-owner of Bowman and Landes Turkey, as they enjoyed stuffed all-natural, free-range turkey breast with cornbread dressing, and a rainbow tomato relish. “The Shrimp Lover’s Dream” dish featured shrimp prepared four different ways, sourced from local shrimp nursery Calala’s Water Haven.

Hamilton College in Hamilton, NY: Students from the Science, Culture, & Politics of Food class talked to their classmates about their 1812 Garden on campus. In this garden you’ll only find food that was grown for consumption in upstate New York in 1812, the year Hamilton College was founded. Local community group the Madison County Cooperative Extension created maps of local farms supplying food for ELC day.

Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO: The student garden provided butternut squash for soup on ELC day. The Colorado Springs Gazette quoted students who pointed out the benefits of Bon Appétit’s local sourcing to the local economy and dietary health.

University of San Francisco in San Francisco, CA: The student garden project provided produce for the event. The .35 cents charged for each to-go container used at USF’s cafes helps fund the USF garden project.

Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH:  Honey from bees visiting Oberlin College’s lush gardens sweetened Eat Local Challenge dishes like apple crisp.

Partnerships between Bon Appétit chefs, students, faculty and universities demonstrate an inspiring and effective team effort for campus sustainability. Linda Robson, Finance and Administration Fellow for Energy Studies at Case Western Reserve University, commented that “Case Western Reserve’s sustainability efforts are greatly enhanced by our partnership with Bon Appétit.”  We’d return the compliment – our work for a sustainable future is very much furthered by strong partnerships with students, faculty, and universities. Marc Marelich, General Manager at Willamette University states it eloquently: “With the involvement of the greater Willamette Community we can make a significant difference in our efforts to become more sustainable. Education is the key to our success and we all must make every effort to inform, inspire and ignite the local food and sustainability movement in our communities.”

- Katherine Kwon, Communications Project Manager