Column As the farm-to-table movement grows, so does farmwashing. What can we do about it?

I have always been pulled to restaurants that promote a farm-to-table ethos. What’s better than making a connection between the food that you are eating and the people who produced it?

So when Vanity Fair recently ran an article titled “Is It Time to Table Farm-to-Table?” I immediately thought, “of course not!” But as I read the article, I realized that journalist Corby Kummer was talking about tabling farm-to-table not because of the concept behind it, but because of how it’s currently practiced. Kummer writes, “It feels particularly misleading when excessive earnestness is a cover for fatally unimaginative, formulaic food.”

Personally, I would rather take unimaginative food that is made from seasonal, local ingredients than a crazy meal made with ingredients sourced from all ends of the earth. However, if a chef can’t take those seasonal, local ingredients and do them justice, it’s disrespect for the producer that took time and energy into growing them in the first place. The ingredients deserve to be valued. But the point here is that the branding and marketing value of declaring a farm-to-table operation is more valuable than actually making good food. “It’s time, then, to retire ‘farm-to-table,'” writes Kummer. “The term has been drained of any real meaning it may have once had.”

He’s right. Farm-to-table has gone the way of other terms that have become so popular that the things they definitions seek to separate themselves from end up appropriating them. Like Domino’s and “artisan pizza.” Kummer gives a nod to “farmwashing” which nowadays can be found in a variety of supermarkets and fast food chains. Like greenwashing, farmwashing is companies focusing on a marketing message that implies that they are small scale, environmentally minded, and really care about the people who grew their food. You’ve seen the huge posters in the grocery aisle, the happy farmer with a big smile, holding a bundle of kale or whatever the trendy green du jour is. McDonald’s nailed this one with their “From Here” campaign. Because fast food is the new locavore frontier, right?

There’s one thing that we tend to overlook: farm-to-table isn’t a modern concept. It’s how we used to eat. As such, farm-to-table as a trend is a response to an over industrialized system that has made mass-produced food from far away the norm, and real food from close to home a luxury. Farm-to-table shouldn’t be a trend, it should just be how we live, in fact, it’s exactly what we used to do only a few generations ago.

We need farm-to-table, in the sense that we need more direct relationships between consumers, chefs and producers, ensuring that we put value on independent production and ensure that we support a sustainable food system. But what we don’t need is farm-t0-table in the trendy sense, as a concept that larger, industrial scale stores and restaurant chains can appropriate and make their own, entirely diluting the message in the process.

When you buy your vegetables from a farmer, or take part in a CSA, take that produce home and make a meal, you too are technically doing a farm-to-table meal. But you don’t need to call it that. It’s simply eating and preparing real food.

Some of the best “farm-to-table” restaurants that I have ever been to are the ones that haven’t flaunted it. They just sourced good ingredients and cooked it well, because that was the right thing to do. The same goes for eating at home. Real ingredients, real food. No processed microwavable dinners, no fast food. Because as many marketing dollars as the fast food chain puts into telling you that your French fry was made from a locally sourced potato, we do not need to be going in the direction of more French fries.

We need to be going in the direction of a more sustainable, and just food system. One that makes real food accessible to everyone, not just the 1 percent.

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Image: Andrew Malone

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Of course chocolate making is always a love story. But this one goes much deeper.

One look at Jael and Dan Rattigan and you know: these two are madly, hopelessly, ridiculously utterly SMITTEN with each other. Good thing, too. They live, work, and parent together in a veritable whirlwind of activity that would make most of us dizzy. We should mention that they own French Broad Chocolates, producing some of the most revered chocolate in the country. Needless to say, we’re a little smitten with THEM! Their story is a beautiful amalgam of all the things they love: community, sustainability, chocolate making and each other.

The Rattigans seem like a love at first sight kind of couple. “Well,” Jael laughs, “it was something at first sight!”  The basic synopsis reads thus: Dan was catering at Jael’s brother’s wedding, there was an evening full of flirty glances, eyelash batting, and an overt “you’re cute!” from Dan, with the romantic crescendo of Jael coming in for a kiss at night’s end. Then, Dan says, “I asked her in. Cooking for people has always been the way I express my feelings, and I thought my best chance with this lady would be a one-two punch of homemade farm-to-table food and Ella Fitzgerald on the stereo.” Swoon!

Jael & Dan set up shop in Asheville, North Carolina several years ago, by way of Costa Rica where they owned a cafe, Bread & Chocolate. “We were searching for a place to settle, belong and dig deep roots. We found it. Our community of friends and colleagues is so amazing, our business is thriving, and our kids are happy.” The original vision was to make chocolates at home and sell them at local markets, but financial reality set in and the French Broad Chocolate Lounge was born.

“Supporting our local farmers is still imperative to our company values.  We seek to use all suitable ingredients that are grown in our foodshed…and we’ve made the commitment that if we can’t find it locally, we’ll try to find it direct from farmers or producers. If we can’t find it locally or direct, that’s when we rely on third party certification, such as organic or fair trade. Our definition of sustainability includes the environmental impact and growing practices, of course, but equally as important to us, is that our dollars fairly compensate the people involved in producing it (from farmer to server).”

When asked why they’ve been so successful in love, community and chocolate, Jael thinks the answer is simple: “We believe in living in a state of generosity.”

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Celebratory summer dinners that allows guests to learn where their food comes from. 

An organic dinner of farm raised ingredients. A table full of jovial guests and local wine. A summer night to appreciate good food and where it comes from. There’s a lot of talk about farm-to-table, and most of us living in high paced atmospheres have a tendency to romanticize pastoral images of happy cows and organic tomato plants. “If only I could be a farmer,” we think, forgetting the hardships that go into devoting a life to agricultural production. But part of having a better appreciation for what we eat, means having a better connection to where it comes from, and at the simplest level, that means eating there.

That’s the idea behind Plate & Pitchfork, an Oregon based business that helps people have a better of understanding of food and where it comes from, by serving it to them in the same place that it’s sourced. Hosting farm dinners, Plate & Pitchfork founder Erika Polmar puts consumers and purveyors together, in the ultimate farm-to-table experience.

As we met for coffee (locally roasted of course) it was clear that Polmar is passionate about what she does. She’s a believer in good food, and the multiple benefits that come from local food: social, environmental, health, economic, gastronomic. Not only does she organize these farm dinners, she also works with four local food-focused nonprofits in the Portland area to ensure that everyone has access to fresh ingredients and that they know where it’s coming from. Farmers Ending Hunger, Oregon Tilth’s Organic Education Center, Foodworks Farm, and the Sauvie Island Center all benefit from Plate & Pitchfork, allowing them to reinvest in the community.

With no formal training, her food background is merely personal. Once in product marketing and development for tech companies, a season of winery work during harvest eventually put her in a place where things made sense. She relates a story of standing in a field, hazelnut orchard and vines on the other, and thinking to herself “this feels good.”

She took that feeling and ran with it, putting the puzzle pieces together and eventually founding Plate & Pitchfork to celebrate the food grown in her Pacific Northwest backyard. Nowadays, she’s immersed in the world of food, coordinating with chefs, farmers and wine makers, an industry that according to Polmar is very welcoming. “Everyone is so open and collaborative, it didn’t matter that I didn’t know anything about food.”

Making the connection between what we eat and where are our food comes from seems like a simple task, but most of us have a severe disconnect to what we put in our bodies. Consider this: In 1930, 20 percent of Americans owed their livelihoods to farming, nowadays it’s closer to 2 percent. It’s no surprise that we’re disconnected. But why is getting the general public to focus on good food such a difficult thing?

“I think food has gotten a little too precious,” Polmar says, implying that often in the food world we have our expectations set too high and in turn push people away from the main task at hand: good, simple food for everyone. As she puts it, there’s kale and quinoa on one hand and a McDonald’s burger on the other but nothing in between. “There’s nothing bad about pulling beans out of the freezer,” says Polmar.

“Food has become such a topic of discussion, but none of us are that educated about it.” But it’s something we all deal with, and when it comes to the complicated world of politics, it plays a role as a common denominator; everyone has to eat.

Taking the idea of education, Polmar puts her guests not only at the hands of professionals, but also in a setting that is conducive to conversation. From farmers to chefs, they’re all there to engage guests in a meaningful way, which in turn sparks an educational component. “You meet all these people that are experts… instead of having the person next to you say ‘oh well I read about that in the New York Times.'”

There’s no one upping at Plate & Pitchfork, no ego, the thing that often gives the higher end food industry, and the locavore movement as a whole, a bad rap. “Everyone comes down a notch,” says Polmar, “there’s something about the community breaking bread together.”

Polmar has an all encompassing attitude, knowing fully well that multi course meals in an idyllic setting aren’t accessible to everyone. But that’s not necessarily her end goal. One of the main instigators behind launching Plate & Pitchfork was Polmar reading a statistic about how few high school students knew where their food came from.

“If we can get mom and dad to our dinners then we are creating the next generation of diners,” says Polmar. And if she can do that, then she’s being successful. “Paper profit doesn’t mean a damn thing to me,” says Polmar. A positive effect on her community however, is, and that’s what she hopes Plate & Pitchfork will continue to do.

Check out the Plate & Pitchfork schedule and sign up for your own farm dinner here. 

Images: Plate & Pitchfork

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From farm, to table.

The farm-to-table movement has been around for ages, even before locavore was named Word of the Year. But in recent years, it’s gained serious momentum, especially in urban areas. Yuppies are going vegetarian and joining CSAs, and it seems like everywhere you look there’s a new artisanal cheese maker or organic pomegranate purveyor.

But it’s one thing to hear about where your food comes from. It’s a whole other to see where it comes from. These photos of farms, farming, gardens, and crops showcase the beauty of agriculture, both here in the United States and abroad. Eat them up.

(above) Sussex County, New Jersey, USA

British Columbia, Canada

Washington, USA

Vinschgau, Italy

Pennsylvania, USA

Bourrou, France

Villach, Austria

Ross County, Ohio, USA

Oostzaan, The Netherlands

Oakland, California, USA

France

Hungary

Hesse, Germany

Wuppertal, Germany

San Rafael, California, USA

Astoria, Oregon, USA

Fowler, Indiana, USA

Shizuoka, Japan

Caledon, Ontario, Canada

United Kingdom

Vietnam

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Rushcutters Bay, Australia

Piketon, Ohio, USA

Japan

The Cotswolds, England

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Manthralaya, India

Ventura County, California, USA

Napa Valley, California

SEE ALSO:

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40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

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40 Photos from Flea Markets Around the World

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The post 30 Gorgeous Photos of Farming and Agriculture appeared first on EcoSalon.

Happiness, it turns out, is a slice of grilled pound cake. Put pound cake on a grill and it comes off looking like a dainty steak and smelling just like a toasted marshmallow. Top it with ice cream made from organic local strawberries and you have a nice neat pile of eco-friendly foodie bliss. In fact, such bliss comes in all shapes and sizes at Knife & Fork, an out-of-the-way upscale farm-to-table eatery in tiny Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Chef Nathan Allen, who studied at Johnson & Wales and received his cooking comeuppance in L.A., opened the restaurant last July with his wife, Wendy Gardner. While residents of nearby Asheville, N.C., have a dozen or so fine farm-to-table restaurants to choose from, this one is well worth the hour’s drive across the mountains.

A friend and I were heading north from Asheville through the Blue Ridge Mountains, winding our way up to Boone, a college town named for Daniel Boone. Even when you live in the mountains like I do, Boone feels lofty. At 3,300 feet, it’s simply higher than all the towns around it. In fact, it’s higher than any town east of the Mississippi. From many points on the campus of Appalachian State University, you can survey the Blue Ridge high country and its layer upon layer of smoky blue slopes.

If you’re lucky enough to land in this scenic corner of North Carolina, take U.S. Route 221 through the Pisgah National Forest and stop off at roadside farm stands. In spring and summer, they sell local veggies and flowers, plus quirky southern items like boiled peanuts, sourwood honey and wild, onion-like ramps. A smattering of ramps stole the show in my Knife & Fork entrée, a flatbread dish with bacon and two sunny-side-up eggs, laid that morning by the chef’s own chickens.

In rural Appalachia, gourmet eateries are few and far between. (And environmentally-minded restaurateurs are even farther between.) But digging into my plate at a diamond-in-the-rough green restaurant like Knife & Fork, I found the food to be as good or better than any I’d had at white-tablecloth restaurants in big coastal cities. And the scenery on the drive to get there, was hard to beat.

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