Bon Appétit

Lessons from the old grove: Industrial and humane agriculture do not mix well

University of Redlands students trying Old Grove oranges and other treats dipped in Cordillera fair trade chocolate at Stories from the Fields

By Vera Chang, West Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

Industrial-scale agriculture often exacts a steep human cost. That was one of the lessons I learned last week from farmer Bob Knight and farmworker Marco Franco of the Inland Orange Conservancy, Bon Appétit at the University of Redland’s first Farm to Fork partner. They were the guest speakers at one of our Stories from the Fields events, held at the University Club.

What is "industrial agriculture," exactly? For citrus farmers, it means growing at a scale and price suitable for the global market. Oranges are simply commodities: the bigger, shinier, and more perfectly rotund, the better. Flavor, locality, agricultural and labor practices, and the story of where that food came from and who was involved are regarded secondarily, if at all. So-called "old groves," which house citrus trees as old as 100 years, are rare today. And while these groves produce some of the most intensely flavorful fruits I’ve tasted, old-grove farmers have great trouble selling their fruit. Why? Cosmetic reasons: size and shape.

Sunkist, the world’s leading citrus supplier, is a not-for-profit cooperative, but some of its farmers still receive incredibly low prices for their fruit. (As I discussed in an earlier post, whereas supermarkets charge roughly $100 for an orange "field box," or 55 pounds of oranges, Sunkist farmers in the Redlands area commonly receive just $1.) When Sunkist comes to a grove to pick, they “won’t tell you what price you’re going to get in advance," Bob explained. "Assuming that you did make some money, they won’t pay you until three months later. And sometimes they don’t even pay you. Instead, they’ll send you a bill that says that the revenue of selling those oranges was not enough to cover the cost of picking and packing the oranges, and so you owe them money. But they don’t tell you that in advance.”

Living the Free Range Life at Legacy Manor Farm

By Carolina Fojo, East Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

In this video, Katherine Ecker gives me a tour of Legacy Manor Farm, where animals don't just roam the pasture, they roam the driveway, the house...and anywhere they want! One hen insists on laying her eggs in the back of Katherine's car, and the Eckers have woken up to find a horse standing on their front porch.

As part of our Farm to Fork program begun in 1999, Bon Appétit Management Company purchases fresh, seasonal produce from small, local farmers around the country. We recently celebrated the milestone of 1,000 such suppliers. As a Fellow for Bon Appétit, I get to travel to these different farms and learn about the joys and challenges farmers today face — and share their stories.

Butchering, filleting, and cooking up a storm at the Northern California Chefs Exchange

By Helene York, Director, Strategic Initiatives

Above: Grilled radicchio, three kinds of local potatoes, and spigarelli broccoli.

It’s a rare Saturday when I get my bones out of bed at 5:45 a.m. or anything close to that. But last weekend was Bon Appétit's semi-annual Northern California Chefs Exchange, where 40 to 50 really talented chefs get together to learn, laugh, and do what they do best: cook great food from scratch. The aromatic, house-made chai at Cisco Systems in San Jose helped start the morning off nicely.

Photo by Cara Brechle

Then, Santa Clara University Chef David Anderson (above) gave a terrific tutorial on how to carve a 200-pound pig. He had sourced the pig from a local farm, Douglas Ranch outside of Hollister, CA, and was determined to let everyone know that only 2 pounds – just 1 percent of the animal! – make up the tenderloin. And because that's what most restaurant chefs tend to order, the rest often goes to animal feed. Holding up the belly, rear leg, and sides in turn, he identified where bacon, prosciutto, and ribs come from.

Thinking about hunger, farm workers, and women in the fields

By Vera Chang, West Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

The Oxfam Hunger Banquet is the only banquet I’ve ever attended where I was served just rice and water.

The banquet, held March 7 at Seattle University, makes the inequalities of our world vividly clear in order to raise awareness about the experience of hunger and get people thinking and talking about how to take action to fight poverty.

Guests are assigned to different income tiers via lottery as they enter the room; the tiers represent the statistical breakdown of incomes worldwide. So the 70 people assigned as “low income” got rice and water; the 50 “middle income” folks got rice, beans, and water; and the lucky 12 assigned as “high income” dined (with china and linens) on Caesar salad, pasta Bolognese, and tiramisu, accompanied by assorted beverages.

It's an unusual catering menu for Bon Appétit at Seattle University, which has been donating the food for this event for the past 10 years. This is one of the rare times when fewer than half of our Bon Appétit guests are invited to enjoy a prepared-from-scratch meal that showcases seasonal, local flavors, and our chefs’ culinary expertise.

I drew a “low income” ticket and ate my rice in solidarity with the sea of cross-legged participants eating on the floor. I’m used to three-plus hardy meals a day that include fresh produce, whole grains, and proteins. My stomach growled in complaint. I hoped that the microphones didn't pick up on it. I thought about how hard it must be to get accustomed to hunger. 

There are more than 900 million people in the world who experience hunger, according to Oxfam. Though women produce most of the world’s food as planters and harvesters, they are often the hungriest and bear the brunt of multiple kinds of inequality. In the United States, the food chain is built on the backs those who are food-insecure. Vulnerable and marginalized with few protections and low wages, farm work is often characterized by worker abuse and a lack of health safeguards or worker safety practices.

Creative Growers Organic Farm is just your average innovator

By Vera Chang, West Coast Fellow for Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation

 
As West Coast Fellow, I’ve been traveling to some of Bon Appétit’s 1,000 Farm to Fork partners to understand their on-the-ground practices and challenges. I met farmer David Hoyle in between attending the Food Justice Conference in Eugene and presenting Stories from the Fields, about farm worker issues, at Lewis & Clark College. Dave and I chatted for a while in the rain on his farm, Creative Growers, tucked away in the back roads of Noti, Oregon.