Digging Deeper into the Farm-to-Table Movement
As the farm-to-table movement grows in popularity, so too does the need to dig deep into what farm-to-table truly means. Although it’s easy to write off the farm-to-table descriptive as meaningless given just how many restaurants have slapped that moniker across their menus, farm-to-table can be more than an elderflower cocktail coupled with a Berkshire pork bao bun.
My experiences learning from diverse folks within the farm-to-table movement has taught me that this trend has the power to transform our fractured food system. Over the last seven years, I have traversed the farm-to-table movement from coast-to-coast as a farmer, community organizer, and event coordinator. In New York, I worked in events at a high-end farm-to-table restaurant and in the fields at an expansive urban farm. In San Diego, I coordinated ugly veg culinary events in collaboration with local farmers. And in Portland, I farmed for a supper club where I was nearly fired for not cleaning radishes thoroughly enough. I have sifted compost, studied permaculture, savored nourishing suppers, and failed at saving seed. Mostly, however, I have listened. To the land, and to my teachers.
I have no real claim on being a farmer or chef. I’m a hobby gardener, haphazard homecook, and perpetual student. But I’m lucky to have learned from some truly amazing chefs and farmers in the last couple of years. It’s in that spirit that I want to offer three frameworks that have helped me find meaning in the farm-to-table movement.
SUPPORT SOIL-CONSCIOUS COOKING
A true farm-to-table menu is driven by the needs of the farmer first. Too often, demand for one kind of vegetable, fruit, flower, or herb over another pushes farmers to grow what will sell to a restaurant and not what will heal their farm. Throughout my work in farm-to-table restaurants, I’ve been inspired by those chefs who listen to their local farmers to better understand what a farmer needs to sow — and in turn what a chef needs to buy — to nurture a regenerative farm.
Regenerative farming means tending to the land through practices such as polyculture, plant stacking, crop rotation, composting, and conservation tillage that foster a resilient agricultural ecosystem and rebuild our precious topsoil. In our current climate, this is vital. In the last 150 years, we have lost more than half of the topsoil on the planet through pesticide-intensive and monoculture agricultural practices (1). Regenerative farming is an antidote to Big Ag that places the power to grow, heal, and regenerate in the hands of the farmer and not in corporations. And by supporting farmers who are working to revitalize our topsoil, we’re also improving the quality of our food. Healthy topsoil, rich in nutrients and minerals, is what makes the food we grow so damn good.
From integrating soil-nourishing cover crops such as barley, spelt, and rye into dishes, to designing a menu that reflects what’s growing on the farm that week, there are a million and one ways for chefs to cultivate a “soil-conscious” cuisine. We can support healthy soil in our own homes too by choosing to buy diverse and biodynamically-grown grains, fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
UNDERSTAND THE TRUE COST OF FOOD
Given the artificially low prices that pepper supermarket shelves, it’s understandable that many of us might balk during our first trip through the farmers’ market. Especially for those of us who have never worked on a farm, it can be hard to appreciate the heart and hard work that goes into growing a single apple.
The value of food is skewed in our current system. Even though food is a basic need, most of us don’t want to spend too much of our paycheck on our groceries. And although biodynamic farming is essential for the sustainability of our environment, there are very few subsidies available to support small-scale organic growers. Part of the reason that conventionally grown produce is so cheap is because of government subsidies that incentivize many farmers to grow monoculture crops (such as soy and corn) to make a quick profit (2). By and large, our government doesn’t invest in regenerative farming practices because these tools for rebuilding the soil take time — and in our capitalist culture, there’s no space for natural growth.
The true cost of food, however, accounts for labor, ecological impact, and energy. Although this means that farm-to-table fare doesn’t come dirt cheap, accounting for the true cost of food doesn’t necessarily mean spending your month’s salary on a single meal. You can find affordable farm-fresh meals at many community-powered farmers’ markets throughout NYC (I especially love East New York Farms’ Market) and when you support purveyors of imperfect produce, you help farmers get paid for the hard work they pour into every plant — the pretty and the not-so-pretty!
THINK WHOLE SYSTEMS CHANGE
To my thinking, a farm-to-table restaurant that makes meat, fish, and dairy the center of every dish isn’t really farm-to-table. Eating as much meat, fish, and dairy as the U.S. does is fundamentally unsustainable for the health of our planet (3). Although it’s true that animal agriculture can have a regenerative impact on our ecosystems — consider the role of bison herds in restoring the prairie (4) — meat, fish, and dairy should be used sparingly and with deep intention. It’s important then, for a farm-to-table purveyor to consider the whole system when designing a menu. From how the produce that they source is packaged to how their kitchen works with food waste, rooting the farm-to-table vision in reality is about taking a big picture approach to every prepared plate.
Take packaging for example. Our cultural dependence on disposable petroleum-based plastics is accelerating climate change by continuing to finance fossil fuel corporations. Climate change, in turn, is destroying arable land and creating erratic weather that makes the daily lives of farmers much harder. For a farm-to-table restaurant to support farmers, chefs have to really think about what products are healing our planet — and what products are harming it. Using spices, oils, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains packaged in paper and glass instead of plastic is such a simple switch. But if every chef were to refuse to use products packaged in petroleum-based plastics, the impact on the health of our planet would be profound.
Thinking about food waste is also an integral part of looking at the whole system. More than 50% of the produce we grow in the U.S. is trashed each year (5). And wasted food doesn’t just compost in a landfill; it releases methane, one of the most toxic greenhouse gases. To remedy this, chefs can compost food scraps and get creative in the kitchen by cultivating “root-to-stem” and/or “nose-to-tail” techniques that make use of the whole animal or whole plant. WastED, Dan Barber’s pop-up supper series, is a beautiful example of how working with what we have can be just as delicious!
At its heart, a whole systems approach means acknowledging that everything is interconnected. No restaurant or farm or market exists in isolation. If we want to support small farms and biodynamic growers, every one of us needs to reflect on how what we eat, grow, and cook relates to the health of our planet.
As I have learned and continue to learn over the course of my years traversing the farm-to-table movement, farm-to-table isn’t about purity or perfection (nothing ever will be!). This movement is truly a practice; a dynamic dialogue between farmer, chef, and consumer that asks us to deepen our understanding of what the farmer needs to grow, the land needs to heal, and the chef needs to cook to support an agricultural landscape that can truly feed every living creature — from the earthworm tangled in a palmful of compost to the family savoring a special dinner together.
1. Freeman, Kathlee. “Dirt in Danger: How Soil Around the World Is Threatened — Food Tank.”Food Tank, 16 Nov. 2016, foodtank.com/news/2015/01/dirt-in-danger-how-soil-around-the-world-is-threatened/.
2. “Umbra on the Cost of Organics.” Grist, 22 May 2006, grist.org/article/costs/.
3. Kunzig, Robert. “Carnivore’s Dilemma.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/meat/.
4. Barth, Brian. “Bison: The American Prairie’s First Farmers.” Modern Farmer, 6 Jan. 2017, modernfarmer.com/2016/09/bison-prairie/.
5. Chandler, Adam. “Why Americans Lead the World in Food Waste.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 15 July 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/american-food-waste/491513/.
