Bon Appétit

Lessons Learned in School Food Service Spur Documentary

There is nothing more fun to watch than a well made documentary. No really. I'm not kidding. Anyone who had the great pleasure of seeing King Corn with me at a special screening in San Francisco on Monday night would definitely agree. This film about two recent college graduates moving to Greene, Iowa to farm one acre of corn was laugh out loud funny and thought provoking. What more could you ask for in a movie?

The film's "stars" Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis are both witty and inquisitive as they navigate the industrialized food system in hopes of learning why they are "made of corn" (a fact they learn after having a hair analysis). Corn is in our meat (fed to cows in CAFOs), drinks (I believe it's Harvard professor Walter Willett who says in the movie that soda isn't a beverage, its "liquid candy"), used to sweeten everything from bread to marinara, and, well you name it, just about everything else. Ian and Curt follow a conventional farming path and use fertilizers and pesticides. They also play a lot of stick ball as the actual farming took a total of less than two hours of work. Yeah, that's right, two hours over many months. The rest of today's corn farmer's time is spent applying for government subsidies, watching the commodities market and other less "romantic" things than our vision of working the land.

I got a chance to speak with the filmmakers and learned that they were involved with the Sustainable Food Project at Yale. This is a great example of how food can play an integral role in the education process of a student. At Bon Appetit Management Company we see ourselves as educators not just food service providers. The chefs and managers who work at our college and university accounts try to teach their guests about how food choices affect their community, environment and personal well being. In fact, we created a whole website to help them - www.CircleofResponsibility.com. As much as possible, our people get out of the cafes and into classrooms with events like the Save Seafood Tour and go wherever people are talking about food issues - even to the dirt itself like with this new community garden project at Hamilton College.

Food has the rare power to teach us about hard science and real community. King Corn definitely proves that.

- Maisie Greenawalt, Director of Communication & Strategic Initiatives

Sustainabilty Movement is Burning the Candle at Both Ends

I had the pleasure of speaking about sustainability to two very different groups this week. On Monday I addressed a set of business executives who work for companies that have signed the United Nations Global Compact - "a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption." On Wednesday I took part in Santa Clara University's Sustainability Day and sat on a panel with other Silicon Valley organizations interested in green business.

The coupling of both events left me with a feeling of great optimism. The sustainability movement is burning the candle at both ends in a very positive way. On one end, the biggest of businesses, multi-nationals, are looking for sustainable business solutions. Are they doing this because they understand the dire state of our planet or to be able to market to LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) consumers? I'm not sure I care as long as the companies are making real changes in their operations (did anyone else read Business Week's cover story called Little Green Lies? It includes a searing indictment of renewable energy credits and how corporations are using them to hide increases in CO2 emissions. It reinforced my confidence that our Low Carbon Diet approach to reducing emissions in the food system is the right thing to do).

On the other end of the candle, young people are engaged. I got asked great questions about the complexity of the issues (e.g. organic versus local produce) and how students can be a part of the solution (e.g. do we have internship opportunities?).

With our brightest minds both at corporations and colleges focused on sustainability, the candle of hope is burning brightly.

Side note - also on the Santa Clara University panel was a representative from d.light, a company working to bring affordable lighting solutions to rural households. Two billion people in the world currently live without electricity and many use kerosene which is dim, dangerous, polluting and expensive. d.light had some great ideas. I was very impressed.

- Maisie Greenawalt, Director of Communications & Strategic Initiatives

You Are How You Eat

An interesting poll from Grist.org asks its readers about an environmentalist's food choices. Yesterday, more than 1,500 people had voted and the results were as follows:

"An environmentalist should be..."

• a vegetarian (12%)
• a vegan (29%)
• mindful but not rigid about diet (47%)
• concerned with things other than food (12%)

I just checked back today and surprisingly, the scales have tipped a bit. Of 1,760 people, 35% thought that environmentalists should be vegan and 43% thought they should be mindful but not rigid. Although my vote is included in the mindful category (everything in moderation), I'm pretty fascinated by the poll results.

No longer does "environmentalism" mean just "saving trees"; it also encompasses animal welfare, climate change, food. I think our Low Carbon Diet comes at an opportune time as more and more people connect food choices with environmental impact.

I wonder what people think dietitians should eat...I know I like to indulge in a brownie once in a while!  :)

--Katherine Kwon, MS, RD

Communications Project Manager

The Magic of California Big Ag...How to Make Small Flavors Disappear!

Someone has just brought me a lovely head of Traviso from her CSA box. This is one of my favorite greens and sadly enough the first thought that came to my mind was...how soon before this flavor disappears in California?

At the risk of sounding like an alarmist, I'm afraid that we might be on teh edge of losing wonderful flavors like this from our plates...flavors that for years have been slowly brought back and nurtured through the small and creative family farmer. Americans are finally rediscovering what spinach or tomato or apples should taste like. The have discovered new flavors in greens like Deer Tongue, Curly Endive, Arugula and Traviso. Today, these flavors are being threatened by the magic of well intentioned but unbendable California Big Ag. The Western Growers Association recently implemented a uniform set of growing standards called Leafy Greens Handles Agreement in their effort to recover from the spinach E.coli 0157 outbreak of 2006. This is very well intentioned. The standards are mandatory for farmers who sell to more than 100 handlers that hae signed on to the Agreement. At issue is the fact that this Agreement could become law. When it does, new farming production standards will be mandatory for all leafy green grwoers, including small farmers, that could undo decades of flavor devlopment and sustainable practices. And, that's where the Ageement just doesn't make sense.

The safety of the food we serveshould always be a priority. But the "catch-all" approach of the Agreement applies production standards to producers other than those who process (pre-cut/bagged) leafy greens. It includes the small sell-direct farmers who have no connection to the processed industry and are least likely to be the cause of any major outbreak. The Community Alliance of Family Farmers (CAFF) has recently analyzed data provided by the FDA that greatly supports this. It shows that since 1999, 80% of E.coli 0157 outbreaks in leafy greens in California hae been traced to processed bagged salad. The source for the balance of thesecases (20%) could not be identified because of lack of traceability records. The data also reveals that 98.5% of the reported illnesses were also traced o processed greens. THese products have a higher potential for contamination becaus of centralized washing and packaging of mixed produce rom different farms. Pre-cut salads are then placed into saled plastic bags, which may create an ideal environment for bacterial growth if not kept cold at all times. The Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement should focus on these higher-risk producers and not the traditional sell-direct farmers of fresh greens.

There have been several attempts by CAFF to encourage the Western Growers Association to change their definitions so tat the Agreement would be limited to growers of processd leafy greens and not growers of fresh leafy greens. Western Growers refused to budge on this. One CAFF grower in the Salinas Valley was already told by his buyer that he couldn't sell them any product from fields that had been fertilize with organic compost! Others have been told to start pulling wildlife habitat. Of bigger concerns: this could become the start of a nationwide movement (other states are considering adopting a similar plan) and domino to other crops like tomatoes, etc, etc! A rampant loss of flavor based on marketing interests and not scientific data.

The attached letter (Download LGSLetter.pdf) simply asks Western Growers to redefine "leafy greens" and the growers that produce them. But it also send a message that you are concerned about their direct impact on the future of flavor and sustainable farming practices. If you are a chef or restaurateur doing business with members of the Western Growers, let them know you are especially concerned about the Agreement and how it could affect your menus and business.

If we can work our magic, maybe we can make the impacts of this Agreement disappear! Fax those letters to Kira Pascoe at CAFF (650) 521-0185! For a fact sheet on the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, click here (Download LGFactSheet.pdf).

marc zammit, director of culinary support and development 

This is one of my favorite photos...a farmer from the Salinas Valley offering up Deer Tongue Lettuce and challenging us to taste the difference..."because you won't find a flavor like this in our grocery stores." Hopefully for us eaters and future eaters, Deer Tongue Lettuce and other delicious greens will be around for us to enjoy for many years to come.