Can Americans Eat Locally?
190 Restaurants in 26 States Challenged to Use Only Ingredients From Within a
150-Mile Radius
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Yahoo! Corporation Executive
Chef Robert Hart had a dilemma -- a few thousand hungry diners, and the threat
of no sandwich bread.
"I was stuck without a local source for yeast. So I found local apple
cider, fermented it, and made my own sourdough starter," said Hart. "This is
not just an esoteric exercise -- I want to make a terrific meal with what's
available right here in our backyard."
Hart is one of 190 chefs participating in the September 29th "Eat Local
Challenge." Palo Alto-based Bon Appetit Management Company, the national food
service provider which runs all of the restaurants, launched the challenge to
raise awareness about where the food on our plates comes from.
On Eat Local Challenge day 150,000 diners at corporate, university, and
museum restaurants from Seattle to Washington D.C. can choose to eat a 100
percent locally grown meal, made entirely of ingredients from within 150 miles
of the kitchen where they are served.
Since Chef Hart couldn't find a local source for yeast, he would have to
make his own. More broadly, while home cooks can visit farmers' markets and
seek out producers, what about chefs that cook thousands of meals a day?
The challenge, according to Bon Appetit, goes to the heart of the American
diet. Bon Appetit has been a proponent of sustainably sourced foods since
1999, when the CEO issued a mandate to buy extensively from local farmers and
artisans.
"The average item on an American dinner plate travels 1,500-2,000 miles,
leading to loss of flavor in our food, and affecting our farmers' ability to
grow a diversity of crops," said Fedele Bauccio, CEO of Bon Appetit. "At the
height of harvest season, local foods are now at their peak of flavor. We can
all keep our producers in business by buying from them, ensuring that our
local food supply remains strong."
His chefs are taking the Eat Local Challenge seriously. In Portland, Ore.,
one chef decided to find a source for local salt. There was none, so he took
his kids to the beach, gathered sea water, boiled it down, and made his own
salt. Another chef found himself driving down a country lane in hot pursuit of
a wheat combine to find a source for local wheat.
The Eat Local Challenge highlights the issue of 'food miles' -- the
distance food travels from the farm to the dining table -- which
environmentalists have described as the single most damaging factor to food
quality and the environment.
"Our long-distance food habit devours tremendous amounts of oil, reduces
food quality by necessitating the use of chemical preservatives, and makes us
vulnerable to accidental or malicious disruptions to the food supply," said
Brian Halweil, Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, an independent
research organization in Washington, D.C., and author of Eat Here: Reclaiming
Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. "As a national food service
company, Bon Appetit feeds thousands of people every day. When they take a
stand on eating locally, they send the message to other food companies that
freshness and food safety are top priorities."
For more about the Eat Local Challenge, visit: eatlocalchallenge.org
Founded in 1987 in San Francisco, Bon Appetit Management Company is an
onsite restaurant company offering full food service management, with more
than 190 restaurants and cafis in corporations, universities, and specialty
venues in 26 states. Clients include Yahoo!, the Getty Center and American
University. Bon Appetit is raising awareness of its sustainable sourcing
practices through joint programs with Environmental Defense, the Monterey Bay
Aquarium's Seafood Watch, and other organizations. To learn more, visit:
bamco.com
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