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New Yorkers buy a lot of food. From restaurants
to farmers' markets, there are plenty of outlets geared to serve people
looking for fresh, organic, seasonal, and above all, local food.
How do producers, sellers, and buyers of locally produced food find
each other in the urban jungle? That's the job taken on by Earth Pledge's
Farm to Table Initiative, whose website, FarmToTable.org,
is the definitive way for New York area consumers to link to their local
food systems.
Buying local has many benefits including great quality, fresh picked
taste, boosting the local economy and supporting local, independent
farmers, and contributing towards the preservation of open space. New
York City has a lot of people and a lot of purchasing power, so when
New Yorkers buy locally, we can make a big difference in protecting
our regional environment while improving our health and eating more
delicious food. FarmToTable.org educates consumers about why buying
local food is so important and where to find it—along with food
and environmental news from all over the world.
Collage spoke with Nicole Mason, Farm to Table Initiative Coordinator,
to learn more about this effort.
When did Earth Pledge start up the Farm to
Table Initiative? Why was it created?
Earth Pledge founded its sustainable agriculture and cuisine program
in 1995 by hosting a series of high profile dinners focused on using
local, sustainable foods, working with farmers. In 1999 Earth Pledge
published the Sustainable Cuisine White Papers, now in its third printing.
In an effort to expand the mission of promoting local agriculture and
cuisine, Farmtotable.org was founded in November 2001. It was clear
that many city-based consumers wanted locally grown food, but didn't
always know where to look for it. So, Farm to Table was set up to make
a connection between producers, sellers, and buyers. FarmtoTable.org
has been the anchor of our initiative, but we also offer sustainable
cuisine cooking classes, educational workshops for farmers and consumers,
and coordinate work sessions on local farms.
How did you get involved?
I studied International Agriculture and Development at Cornell University,
then researched organic agriculture in New Zealand on a grant from the
Department of Horticulture at Cornell. I came to New York where I worked
briefly at the New York Botanical Garden. I've always been interested
in agriculture and our food supply, so I joined Earth Pledge about five
months ago to work on the Farm to Table Initiative.
What's
happened since its founding?
The Farm to Table site has been the link between consumers and the local
food systems—restaurants, farmers and producers, farmers' markets,
and CSA's (ed. note: Community Supported Agriculture, an arrangement
with a local farm where customers can buy seasonal "shares" which entitle
them to weekly food deliveries). Our site is a one-stop educational
and communication link for those consumers.
Now we're taking on a new niche: we're expanding to include a business-to-business
function. Farmtotable.org will be a database clearinghouse for farmers,
chefs, and supermarket managers to connect with food brokers, wholesalers
and distributors. There's a lot of information out there, but it's scattered
and difficult to find, we want to make it easy for companies and schools
to transition to using healthier, local foods.
How does Farm to Table appeal directly to youth?
We work with students—I'm helping a high school senior whose project
is to locate local produce sources for his school's salad bar in the
cafeteria. We try to design our site to be attractive, easy to use,
and useful to students by posting lots of articles, news, and other
educational information. Our B-to-B (business-to-business) project will
target schools, and other institutions. In fact, the idea of having
a business-to-business component of FarmToTable.org was conceived by
Beth Collins, Executive Sous Chef at the Ross School on Long Island,
who realized through her work how challenging it is to source local
food ingredients in her school's cafeteria.
Are you able to help New York City supermarkets
find local food?
One of our projects is with Whole Foods Market, which has nine stores
in the Tri-State area. We're helping them figure out how to get more
local produce on their shelves. We've coordinated work sessions for
Whole Food employees, we've hosted meetings with regional produce buyers,
and we've taken sales associates to farms to meet farmers and see how
their food is grown. Like a lot of New Yorkers, many of them had never
seen a farm and had no idea what goes into growing food but we are helping
change that.
Does everybody get the idea about why sourcing locally is important?
Once we explain the benefits, people get excited about supporting
their local farms.
For more info: www.farmtotable.org
www.earthpledge.org
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