Unbelievable...Burger King has seen the writing on the wall and is the first, major fast food company to say they would start buying pork and eggs from producers who use progressive animal welfare practices. What a concept. Although their inital change will only affect 2% of their purchasing, that is a huge impact when you consider how much they buy in a year. Their producers will have to wake up and start thinking about changing their farming practices, or else...
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/burger_king.html
McDonald's, wake up. This could be the beginning of your end. But according to this article in the NY Times, McDonalds has already awoken.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/business/28burger.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
At Princeton's Food, Ethics and the Environment conference earlier this year, a representative from McDonalds told the audience that McDonald's could only affect the first tier supplier in their buying structure. I was able to speak to this and commented to the gentleman who was sitting like a lamb in a den of wolves (bad pun, but everyone in the room was a foodie with sustainability on their mind, not Big Macs) that it was disengenuous for McDonalds to claim that they could not affect the food chain. I stated that it was BECAUSE of companies like McDonalds, whose budgets dwarfed some countries' economies, that the state of agriculture was as it was today. What I didn't say was this...the only reason McDonalds makes so much money is because their food is cheap. Their impact on the economy of scale has been the driving force behind cheap, well traveled, over processed food. If it were expensive, nobody would buy it.
The politics of food and the consumer's purse string power are having an effect on the food supply. And not a moment too late.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/burger-king-boards-the-an_b_44526.html
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Community Food Security Coalition Farm to Cafeteria Conference
The strength of the movement to bring local, farm fresh food into cafeterias across the country was evidenced by the enthusiasm, passion and attendance at the conference this past weekend in Baltimore sponsored by the Community Food Security Coalition http://www.foodsecurity.org/2007conf/ .
It is going to take me a few days to digest what I learned from the people who spoke and the folks I was able to meet and speak to personally. For one, this is a movement whose time is now. With the signing of the 2007 Farm Bill just around the corner, there will be progress made, hopefully, in funding programs that support the move toward real food, grown locally, delivered within a distance that uses as little energy as needed and pays the farmer a fair price.
There is too much energy wasted moving the food supply across this country. Our distribution systems have gotten so large that food is traveling across the country when products being grown locally are readily available in season but ignored by the economy of scale that now prevails in the food supply.
We need to find solutions to create a two-tiered distribution of food, so that smaller producers can have access to end users that are close to their farms and distribution methods do not add exorbitant costs to product sold in smaller units.
I have faith that the time has come for this to happen.
It is going to take me a few days to digest what I learned from the people who spoke and the folks I was able to meet and speak to personally. For one, this is a movement whose time is now. With the signing of the 2007 Farm Bill just around the corner, there will be progress made, hopefully, in funding programs that support the move toward real food, grown locally, delivered within a distance that uses as little energy as needed and pays the farmer a fair price.
There is too much energy wasted moving the food supply across this country. Our distribution systems have gotten so large that food is traveling across the country when products being grown locally are readily available in season but ignored by the economy of scale that now prevails in the food supply.
We need to find solutions to create a two-tiered distribution of food, so that smaller producers can have access to end users that are close to their farms and distribution methods do not add exorbitant costs to product sold in smaller units.
I have faith that the time has come for this to happen.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Where This Is Leading
An effort that is almost two years in the making is underway to bring New Jersey grown produce into New Jersey schools. This blog will serve as a resource for people to communicate throughout the state about this potential program. What better way for New Jersey farms to remain viable than to sell to the state's local schools who feed children every day?
Here in the Garden State, we are communicating with food processors who understand the importance of good food and who are willing to help us develop products that will sell to kids in the lunchroom, but will taste good!! We are developing recipes that will highlight New Jersey's premium crops, using the best of our season and making products the lunchrooms around the state can use as is or turn into mouthwatering soups, sauces and other items.
If you have a recipe you think can be turned into a food service size quantity product that kids would like, and it has vegetables that New Jersey farms grow, please contact us and let us know about it. We'll even name it after you!
If you're a farmer thinking of growing for this program, contact us to talk about what crops you grow, your pricing, distribution issues and thoughts. There are farmer grants available that we are looking in to for value-added production.
If you're a food processor who already has relationships with farms, we want to hear from you about how you purchase your produce and what products you make value-added.And if you're a food service director in any New Jersey school district, contact us now to help us help you understand your school's ability to work outside the confines of your food service contract.
We are striving to move away from the food service company control of school lunch choice and we promise to bring more local food options back into the school lunch programs in the state. Eventually, we hope to set up a B2B link here that will list farmers, processors, school districts, food service companies and distributors for a system that will be established through this program. It can only be a win-win situation for the local agricultural economy, the schools, the kids and the evolution of school food back to a more basic place where real food rules.
There is a lot to be done and it won't change overnight. But stick with us as we make these changes happen and help us along the way with your comments and suggestions.
Here in the Garden State, we are communicating with food processors who understand the importance of good food and who are willing to help us develop products that will sell to kids in the lunchroom, but will taste good!! We are developing recipes that will highlight New Jersey's premium crops, using the best of our season and making products the lunchrooms around the state can use as is or turn into mouthwatering soups, sauces and other items.
If you have a recipe you think can be turned into a food service size quantity product that kids would like, and it has vegetables that New Jersey farms grow, please contact us and let us know about it. We'll even name it after you!
If you're a farmer thinking of growing for this program, contact us to talk about what crops you grow, your pricing, distribution issues and thoughts. There are farmer grants available that we are looking in to for value-added production.
If you're a food processor who already has relationships with farms, we want to hear from you about how you purchase your produce and what products you make value-added.And if you're a food service director in any New Jersey school district, contact us now to help us help you understand your school's ability to work outside the confines of your food service contract.
We are striving to move away from the food service company control of school lunch choice and we promise to bring more local food options back into the school lunch programs in the state. Eventually, we hope to set up a B2B link here that will list farmers, processors, school districts, food service companies and distributors for a system that will be established through this program. It can only be a win-win situation for the local agricultural economy, the schools, the kids and the evolution of school food back to a more basic place where real food rules.
There is a lot to be done and it won't change overnight. But stick with us as we make these changes happen and help us along the way with your comments and suggestions.
Envisioning a Different Lunch Program World
How did we get here? When did we get rid of all the kitchens that cooked food from scratch and how will we ever go back? This is not an easy problem to solve. The evolution of the school lunch food industry is a tale that is hard to understand and incomprehensible to the average person looking to make sense of the food their child eats at school. USDA commodities dump cheap agricultural products into the school food system, virtually free food that is sometimes fresh and healthy, sometimes not. It would be interesting to see how much cheese is passed onto the schools in the commodities program--cheese, cheese everywhere.
School lunch contracts can involve government refunds for the number of students who "participate" in the school lunch program, making selling those meals a priority so that budgets can be met. And like most capitalistic markets, the cheaper the food that is bought, the more the profit that is made by the school and the food service provider so there is no incentive to sell BETTER food that might cost more. Until now.
Parents around the country are stepping up to do the research to find out how their school food service systems work. So are chefs, nutritionists and self-made activists of all walks of life. Many companies in this industry are realizing the trend toward healthier eating includes institutional food, especially where children are concerned and are proactively looking for ways to progress with this effort. Any food service provider who doesn't get this soon, will probably be asked not to have a contract renewed within the next five years if the grassroots efforts around the country continue as they have been.
Alice Waters, Toni Liquori, Ann Cooper. Google these women and see what they've done. Jamie Oliver in the UK. Lunch programs in Rome. These are the warriors in this revolution. Children need to eat food that is made as close to its natural state as is possible. So do adults. With patience, time and a good amount of brainstorming, we'll figure out how to move school food to a new future. The lunchlady promises it. Sending your kid to school with a brown bag lunch won't change what's ailing us as a society. It takes a community to make change happen. Join us.
School lunch contracts can involve government refunds for the number of students who "participate" in the school lunch program, making selling those meals a priority so that budgets can be met. And like most capitalistic markets, the cheaper the food that is bought, the more the profit that is made by the school and the food service provider so there is no incentive to sell BETTER food that might cost more. Until now.
Parents around the country are stepping up to do the research to find out how their school food service systems work. So are chefs, nutritionists and self-made activists of all walks of life. Many companies in this industry are realizing the trend toward healthier eating includes institutional food, especially where children are concerned and are proactively looking for ways to progress with this effort. Any food service provider who doesn't get this soon, will probably be asked not to have a contract renewed within the next five years if the grassroots efforts around the country continue as they have been.
Alice Waters, Toni Liquori, Ann Cooper. Google these women and see what they've done. Jamie Oliver in the UK. Lunch programs in Rome. These are the warriors in this revolution. Children need to eat food that is made as close to its natural state as is possible. So do adults. With patience, time and a good amount of brainstorming, we'll figure out how to move school food to a new future. The lunchlady promises it. Sending your kid to school with a brown bag lunch won't change what's ailing us as a society. It takes a community to make change happen. Join us.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Captain Vegetable!
Why don't we resurrect Captain Vegetable from Sesame Street to sell vegetables to kids in schools?
New York Schools Rethink the Lunchline
Chefs in New York City schools are on the front lines of revamping school food. 850,000 meals per day. That's a lot of cooking...
http://www.wnbc.com/video/9787896/index.html#
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1421&issue=dec_05#
http://www.food-management.com/article/15469
http://www.wnbc.com/video/9787896/index.html#
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1421&issue=dec_05#
http://www.food-management.com/article/15469
Son of West Windsor Documents History of Development- www.losinggroundmovie.com
Take a look at the story of development in New Jersey through a film made by Michael Levine, a native of West Windsor, who mourns the loss of farmland in the Garden State with his film "Losing Ground". The New York Times wrote a story about the movie and Michael's journey making the film: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/05njcol.html?ex=1173416400&en=58cd47588789b467&ei=5070
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