Business: Term Limits

“Local” and “sustainable” have joined culinary parlance, but are they part of consumers’ language yet?

By Derek Gale, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 4/15/2007

Local, sustainable, organic, grass-fed, cage-free: The food vocabulary is expanding as industry professionals and consumers become more aware of food’s journey from farm to plate. And though these terms have power to influence what is ordered and served, they may have more acceptance than real meaning to many operators and diners.

"Those words—local, organic and sustainable—are a little muddy at the moment because they are relatively new. I don’t know that there are specific definitions," says Peter Birk, executive chef at Seattle’s Ray’s Boathouse, Cafe & Catering, whose Web site promotes its use of the "finest sustainable Northwest seafood, artisan cheeses and local produce and meats."

How close must a farm be for its products to be local? Does sustainable agriculture mean only practices that replenish the land and seas, or does it also imply economic sustenance for small-operation farmers and fishermen? And do consumers see or care about such distinctions?

That’s difficult to judge, but many professionals agree with Marc Zammit, director of culinary support and development for Palo Alto, Calif.-based contractor Bon Appétit Management Co., that "people want to know where their food comes from." Knowing this, many operators are proceeding in the belief that interest in and understanding of the food chain will deepen.

"Customers are more in tune with food with integrity," adds Chris Arnold, spokesman for Denver-based Chipotle, in explaining the fast-casual chain’s commitment to naturally and sustainably raised meats. "The majority of our customers don’t yet come in because we use better ingredients, but as people become more aware, more will come because of that," he says. The chain’s goal is to create a menu using only sustainable ingredients.

Leaders of the Pack

As is often the case, college students are at the forefront of the push for local sourcing and responsible production. As Time magazine put it almost a year and a half ago, "the new activist slogan on campuses is ‘eat local.’"

That certainly holds true at Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, where Food Service Director Michael Morse began offering local produce last fall. "I had no idea how strongly students felt about it," Morse says. "I started with 10 pounds of apples. Four weeks later, I was buying 100 pounds of local produce—peppers, apples and tomatoes. The students started coming to me and thanking me for supporting local farmers."

Sustainability has campus currency as well. A recent study conducted by Philadelphia-based contractor Aramark finds that 52% of college students surveyed either have heard of sustainability or know what it means, and the concept was rated as very important by 26% of student respondents. Additionally, 15% of students said it was important to them to purchase food and menu items produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

More telling, perhaps, is that hundreds of colleges and universities are actively supporting the idea of eating locally produced food, and many have started campus farms.

One prominent campus program is the Yale Sustainable Food Project. Founded in 2001 with the assistance of Alice Waters, owner of Berkeley, Calif.’s Chez Panisse, the project stems from a belief that food cannot stand apart from agriculture, the environment or the communities where it is grown. As such, one part of the project is a widely supported Yale Farm.

As of 2006, 40% of the Yale menu is designed to incorporate local, seasonal, sustainable food in the residential colleges and commons. Student feedback affirms the depth of support for its underpinnings: In the New Haven, Conn., university’s 2005 dining-services survey, 90% of students said a further expansion of the project was important to them, and 79% reported they would eat in their residential colleges more often if sustainable food were served all the time.

Educational Alternatives

When college students graduate, they bring their beliefs and expectations about food quality with them. But many older consumers already are on board, if only because food origins are not just a classroom discussion topic.

With dining out a major component of travel, vacationing consumers learn about local foods as well as local restaurants. At Ray’s Boathouse, Birk says he gets stronger commentary about serving local food in the summertime, "when we have the tourists in."

Chef Paul Lynch of FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar in Minneapolis is one of many who proudly promote their use of local and regional foods. "We build it into the menu because I believe it produces better food, and when customers taste the food, they get it," he explains.

The restaurant’s March specials included Minnesota-raised pork in such dishes as house-cured, pecan-smoked bacon at breakfast and spice-cured pork belly braised in local beer and mustard for dinner.

FireLake plans a transition to new menu shells that better tell the restaurant’s local-sourcing story, Lynch says. "This is our philosophy, so we’re not just going to promote a few local ingredients, but [also the idea that] everything I can get my hands on, if it’s produced here in the state, I’m going to use it."

He believes that while consumers may deeply understand terms such as organic, there is stronger understanding of what it means for food to be local or regional in origin, and also how that ties into the concept of sustainability. "I think the average consumer does get it and look for it," he says.