How fitting is it to sit with a hundred chefs at a meeting about organic and sustainable products—while surrounded by pallets of such product, shelved and rising toward an eighteen foot ceiling? Terrifically. Our Goodness Greeness warehouse was a perfect setting for the latest meeting of the Windy City Professional Culinarians branch of the American Culinary Federation (ACF). Their topic: Organics; their attendance: One of the highest.
Together, we hosted a panel discussion that included a farm-researcher, a rancher, chefs, and the Patient Foodservice Director at Swedish Covenant Hospital. Maria Simmons, from the hospital, sat next to Michael Altenberg of Bistro Campagne. On the other side of Simmons sat the rest of the panel: Ron Doetch of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and Alan Williams of Tallgrass Beef. The discussion was opened and monitored by the Director of Foodservice Sales at Goodness Greeness, Dan Bobel.
Bobel began the evening by addressing first the chefs, asking them about the sort of clientele who are attracted to their menus. Altenberg’s restaurant attracts a different crowd of neighborhood regulars, passersby, and some destination tourists. Bistro Campagne modestly sits just southeast of Lincoln Square and presents a French cuisine menu that is astoundingly 98% organic. “But I don’t stand on a soap box and preach about organics. I want my guests to find out how good our food is and how the ambiance matches. If they begin to notice or ask about our organic ingredients, we are more than happy to inform them more.” Altenberg then goes on to appraise organics today: “It is not a matter of if organics will happen on a universal scale, but when. Less of the public thinks of organics as exclusionary or hippie. It’s getting into major grocery stores and we’re seeing and hearing about it more—we’re coming out of the organic closet.”
Simmons introduced Swedish Covenant Hospital as attracting a captive audience that is diverse and open to the health benefits of organics. One of the members asked how the hospital has adjusted their budget and Simmons answered by stating the hospital does not serve a fully organic menu because their budget has been built for incremental steps, first taking on various fruits and some dairy and soy. “Our biggest challenge has been in changing the way we write our menu.” This has been a process of growth and adaptation for the hospital.
To answer more on the costs of organics, Bobel asked Doetch and Williams to add their perspectives. Doetch heads the operations at a research-driven farm that works to educate both consumers and, more importantly, producers on the benefits and possibilities of organic biodiversity. He answered by describing the historical reliance producers have on chemicals, since the 1950’s, and the re-education smaller-scale operations face while trying to integrate the latest technologies. “Today, small family farms are spending too much money on labor. However, developments at John Deere,” Doetch informed us, “Will soon offer a full line of small-farm equipment and specialization. Another obstacle that creates extra costs, especially in the Midwest is that farmers are working apart from one another instead of together to increase their base influence.”
Williams then noted how often he hears complaints about the expensive cost of grass-fed meat. Tallgrass Beef heads up a unique, fast-growing small-rancher conglomeration that carefully monitors the growth and finish of hormone-free, grass-fed cattle. The complaints about cost, he revealed to the group, is underlined by a common misconception that it should cost less. “This misunderstanding is really about the cost of conventional. Most of us don’t realize how heavily subsidized conventional products are—and we’re the ones paying for the extra costs of chemicals so that, on the grocery shelf, our food seems cheap. If dollar-to-dollar were matched, with the extra land needed for high quality forage and the added time to finish grass-fed cattle, we would be surprised how much conventional beef is costing us.”
To wrap up, Bobel finished with an inquiry into the obstacles of organics the panel has faced. Answers ranged from a lack of access to products, difficulties transitioning to a seasonal and adaptable menu, convincing customers about the price difference, to a need for producer growth and technology development. The greatest obstacle for both the producer and foodservice end-user was identified as education. This includes consumer education about seasonality and availability, the stories behind small farmers, and the taste and health difference of organics. It also includes farmer education—that they realize the public does not necessarily want cheap food and that this growing public needs a growing supply. Williams made an interesting point that for the first time in agricultural history, people are starting to talk about one product being different than another, which is a practice that has been taboo until initiation from education on organic agriculture.
The discussion began with a tour around Goodness Greeness’s 20,000 square foot warehouse and finished with organic libation and fare from Bleeding Heart and Go-go Organics. Afterwards, the President of Windy City ACF summed up the meeting by telling us, “It was a great event. It was eye-opening, exposing everyone to the importance and possibility of using organics. We as chefs, when we think of “organic”, we tend to think of local farms and quality that might not be as good as conventional. But to see the beauty of the product sitting in your warehouse—was terrific.”
Mercedee Renz, Goodness Greeness
