Bread Rising

Impact Investments: An emerging asset class.

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:53:00 +0000

Eating Trends for 2011 According to Allrecipes.com

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Allrecipes.com 11 Trends for 2011 Measuring Cup Report

View more documents from Allrecipes.com.

My MBA in a nutshell [by www.jpemery.com]

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:48:00 +0000

Dec. 3, Food and Finance Update: Schedule free meetings with buyers and service providers

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:57:00 +0000

As part of the Food and Finance Summit, Cascade Harvest Coalition and its partners are bringing in service providers and buyers for you to meet. Come early on December 3rd to sign up for one-on-one consultations. Meeting time is limited and will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. Below you will find descriptions of some of our guests.

Diane Dempster, Charlie's Produce

I have worked at Charlies Produce for over 20 years. I am currently the Organic Commodity Manager, and manage the Farmer's Own program. Before that, I worked for Farmers Wholesale Cooperative, which was a grower coop in Olympia, and another grower Co-op in Salem, Oregon. I served on the Washington States' Organic Advisory Board for nine years, when the organic laws were being written. I have also been on the Board of Tilth Producers for over 20 years, and am the current President. I serve on the Boards of the PCC Farmland Trust, and on the Regional Food Policy Council.

Mark Bowman, Enterprise Cascadia

Mark Bowman was raised on a working in farm in California's Central Valley. It makes sense, therefore, that he likes to focus his services with Enterprise Cascadia on our region's agricultural community.

Since 1995 the Enterprise Cascadia team has delivered non-bank investment capital and expert services in new ways to rural people and places experiencing the end of a long tradition of prosperity based on resource abundance. Starting in 2007, these same investment and consulting products were extended to urban communities like Seattle and Portland. Enterprise's products are designed to accelerate the emergence of new traditions for achieving and sustaining prosperity from natural resources.

Enterprise has:

invested $60 million in 400 business, social and civic ventures that represent new strategies for economic security and ecological health;
provided over 200 clients with expert advice in matters concerning business strategy, non-profit organizational capacity, new product development, and real estate development;
and made capital investments and services affecting more than 3,058 jobs, and leveraged an additional $255 million in investment by others.

Jon Kroman, Kroman Law
Jon Kroman recently established his own law practice after 28 years with a downtown Seattle firm, including over 20 years as a partner. His experience as a business lawyer includes advice and deliverables supporting clients in their important relationships with other organizations, individuals and governmental authorities. He helps clients organize both for-profit and nonprofit entities, including internal relationships among stakeholders. For many years, Jon has been heavily involved with sustainability in the regional business and nonprofit community. A central element of Jon's transition to his own practice is the opportunity to provide cost-effective professional support to small and medium sized companies defined by products, services and practices reflecting a commitment to social and environmental responsibility, including through the production of healthy food in our local economies. Jon offers rates associated with virtually no overhead and greater flexibility on fee arrangements. For more information, see www.kromanlaw.com

Denise Breyley and Harvindar Singh, Whole Foods

Denise and Harv will be available by appointment to meet with producers. In addition to raw agricultural product they are always looking for value added products of all varieties, from jams and cheeses to ciders and wines. They are even interested in bath and beauty products.

Whether you are a seasoned professional or an amateur with a good idea, please sign up and bring a sample.

Jeremy Vrablik, F.C. Bloxom Company

F.C. Bloxom is a local family owned produce distributor in the Seattle area. We're always looking for new partnerships to be able to promote responsible and sustainable agriculture.

Kate Dean, Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative
The Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative is a network of organizations in Jefferson County working to preserve farmland through both conventional means and through enterprise development. Working from the premise that farmland is best preserved by remaining productive, profitable and sustainable, the Collaborative works with landowner and business clients to find creative ways to help their operations succeed. Examples of this include securing funding for conservation easements, connecting landowners with local investors, assisting in alternative leasing arrangements, leveraging environmental services funding and more. Kate Dean has worked with the Collaborative since 2007, after being a farmer and value-added producer in the organic food world since 1994.

We look forward to seeing you. Please remember that pre-registration is mandatory.

Sincerely,

Alex Moore
Cascade Harvest Coalition

NewSeed highlights investment opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:54:00 +0000

Agriculture 2.0 Investment Opportunities

-- Vive Nano (Toronto, Ontario)

-- PlantForm Corporation (Toronto, Ontario)

-- Agrisoma Biosciences (Ottawa, Ontario)

-- Titan Clean Energy Projects (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

-- Radient Technologies (Edmonton, Alberta)

-- GrowSafe Systems (Airdrie, Alberta)

-- Prevtec Microbia (Montreal, Quebec)

-- Advanced Animal Diagnostics (Durham, North Carolina)

-- Converted Organics/TerraSphere (Boston, Massachusetts)

-- Enginuity Energy (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania)

-- Oberon FMR (Boulder, Colorado)

Washington's 1st Ever Food and Finance Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:18:00 +0000

On December 3, I am hosting a Food and Finance Summit as part of Cascade Harvest Coalition's Farm-to-Table Trade Meeting series. Farmers, investors, chefs, distributors, restaurateurs, wine makers, processors, and anyone else who has a stake in the Peninsula food system, come prepared to make new sales, meet vendors, and raise money to grow your business.

Registration is required for this limited space event.

Slow Money's Executive Director Ari Derfel will lead off the day with a survey of Food Financing projects from around the nation.

A recent subject of the Wall Street Journal and an export product of the Olympic Penisula, Harvindar Singh returns to share his experiences as a Whole Foods 'Forager' and Producer Loan program representative.

The Food and Finance Summit is sponsored by:

Whatcom Innovates: Another microloan program for food businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Just moments ago I received an email announcing a microloan program for Whatcom and Skagit County farmers. The 'Farm Fund' is administered by Community Food Coop and sponsored by the Whatcom Community Foundation and has already funded 7 projects this year. Each microloan is between $2,000 and $5,000 in value at 3% interest.

Loan applicants are graded across traditional and non-traditional criteria including Environmental Stewardship, Social Impact, and Business Plan. To learn more, visit: http://www.communityfood.coop/community/FarmFund.html

Do humans and monkeys share irrational tendencies?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Laurie Santos explains how, when given the opportunity, monkeys make the same irrational financial choices as humans. Loss aversion, she argues, was burned into our human psyche millions of years ago.

A Model for Direct Lending - Local Investing Opportunities Network

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:57:00 +0000

Two years ago James Frazier and a group of Jefferson County residents did something that was at once fundamental and radical; they began lending money to community businesses. They lent to Organic farmers and goat dairymen, cottage real estate developers, and schools. The project became the Local Investing Opportunities Network or LION.

LION loans range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and pay modest earnings of 5-7%. The group avoids SEC scrutiny by forming community first and transactions second in accordance with the Nonpublic Offering Exemption.

When asked during a recent interview about the risk of default, James answered, "That has never, ever happened here. If investors make the effort to get to know the businesses they’re investing in, it creates community."

HumanLinks Foundation - Sustainable Farmer Loan Fund

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:22:00 +0000

The HumanLinks Foundation Loan Program is administered by Banner Bank. The program offers small loans ($2.5K-$25K) at low interest rates (3%) to sustainable farmers in Washington state. While not new, the deployment model is worth exploring (see Equal Exchange's CD program).

The HumanLinks Foundation creates a private label CD. The bank uses the CD's principal as a loan loss reserve and its accrued interest to cover administrative costs. The beauty of using a CD to back loans is twofold. By providing a loan loss reserve, socially motivated investors encourage banks to take risks on targeted populations that would not otherwise qualify for a traditional loan. This method also allows non-accredited community members to become lenders.

Some fairly specific strategies for financing the PNW food system

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Farmland

Farmland prices are depressed and developers and other prospectors are racing to purchase land for future development. Increasingly, private organizations are seeing financial opportunity in an otherwise NGO-dominated space. Conservation can cast profits through the transfer of development rights (TDR) and conversion to Organic. TDR is becoming a hot space.

Companies such as Agro-Ecological Investment Management and Farmland LP are taking advantage of several converging trends including the long term growth in farmland value, strong consumer demand for Organic, and the current demand for stable investments. This relatively low risk, highly collateralized program could be complimented by a suite of investments. Refer to pages 16 and 17 in the Vermont Slow Money Model to see how they envision a suite of programs, from standard loans to private equity to real estate (it reminds me of RSF Social Finance's strategy of building diverse programming).

Farmland transition organizations (e.g. PCC Farmland Trust and Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC)) have been working with TDRs for decades. The industry, however, is becoming more dynamic given recent policy changes and new cap and trade markets are emerging for development rights. A similar example can be found in the water industry, where the Deschutes River Conservancy and others are developing active markets for ecosystem services.

TDRs Guide Development away from Farmland

Value Chain

The growth of many Puget Sound protein and row crop producers is limited by a paucity of processing facilities in the region.[1] Could New Market Tax Credits be leveraged by entrepreneurs to develop mobile and community-based processing facilities in rural areas?

Small Business Loan Funds

The Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund, PVGrows, and a half dozen partner organizations are making small loans of up to $50,000 at 8% to beginning food businesses for infrastructure development. They are also developing another loan fund for more mature food businesses, a micro-equity fund ($150K and less), and a community capital fund similar to Slow Money initiatives across the US (other examples in NC and VT).

Recently RSF Social Finance launched its newest program, the Food & Agriculture PRI Fund. The program offers non-secured (loan loss reserve will accumulate over time) loans to non-profits and private enterprises in the food and beverage industry with a focus ventures that remove barriers to distribution. Foundations with a minimum of $100,000 to invest receive 1% per annum. Loan recipients are awarded a minimum of $50,000 at 6%.

Whole Foods has a $10M Local Producer Loan Fund that offers $1,000 to $100,000 loans to a diverse array of food businesses. The loans are offered at low interest rates and Whole Foods boasts a streamlined loan origination process.

Food Technology

This spring I travelled to Palo Alto, CA with hundreds of other entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and financiers to attend the Sustainable Ag 2.0 conference put on by New Seed Advisors[2]. The conference highlighted technology and its ability to support sustainability and profit growth. The genius of highlighting technology in the Silicon Valley is that it brings in an entirely new kind of investor and pot of money to the agriculture industry. Smart phone apps, water saving devices, and Organic pesticides are often high growth, proprietary opportunities. That said, we must be honest about the relative paucity of high growth opportunities in the food and beverage industry. Will investors who are introduced through high growth propositions stick around to learn about moderate and slow growth ventures?

Close to the Consumer

Access and Affordability

11% of US households, 12-20% of Puget Sound residents are food insecure.[3][4][5] One of the major causes of food insecurity in an urban context is proximity to retail stores that serve healthy food and beverages. The city of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development was recently awarded $40M in NMTC and $24M from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The NMTCs are to be directed towards “commercial and mixed-use projects in neighborhoods exhibiting economic distress.” I believe that this could include the construction and/or renovation of national grocery retail stores in low income communities. $1.1 million of Center for Disease Control and Prevention funds “will be dedicated to providing business incentives to increase the amount of healthy food available through retail outlets in under-served communities.”

Financing Grocery Stores

The Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) is a collaboration of The Reinvestment Fund, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Food Trust, and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC). FFFI has sourced $120M in funds from TRF’s Core Loan Fund, the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private investors. The funds are deployed as grants and loans to small merchants and real estate developers with plans for increasing access to healthy foods and beverages in low income communities. The bulk of FFFI’s loans have gone to small and mid-sized retailers in low-income areas for infrastructure improvements.

TRF uses a proprietary market value analysis (MVA) approach that places real estate opportunities within a statistical framework. The data is useful when approaching potential investors from public and private sectors.

[1] http://www.agbizcenter.org/FilesUploaded/file/Final%20Carolyn%20Foundation%20Report_12_16_08.pdf

[2] New Seed Advisors is developing an equity fund as well as negotiating direct investments on behalf of individual investors.

[3] http://faculty.washington.edu/bborn/PoENeighborhoodReport.pdf

[4] http://www.trfund.com/resource/downloads/policypubs/TRF_CDFI_SupermarketStudy.pdf

[5] More information on food insecurity in U.S. http://frac.org/data/

Key Players in the Food and Finance Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:07:00 +0000

This is an expanded version of the list I posted while building Slow Money NW's site.

40 Billion

Angel Capital Association

Cascade Harvest Coalition

Community Development Venture Capital Alliance

Crowdfunding

Cutting Edge Capital

Farm Power NW

Fast Mobile Transactions

Grow Food

Healthy Corner Stores Network

Humanlinks Foundation

Investors’ Circle

Jefferson Land Trust of WSU Landworks

Katovich Law Group

Lincolnway Energy

Local Investment Opportunities Network (LION)

Mercy Corps NW

Mission Markets

New Seed Advisors

Northwest Agriculture Business Center

Northwest Farm Credit Services

Open Prairie Ventures

PRI Makers Network

Refugee Resettlement Office

ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia

ShoreBank Pacific

Slow Money National

Slow Money NW

Social Venture Partners

Sustainable Connections

Tangerine Solar

The Carrot Project

The Reinvestment Fund

Whole Foods Producer Loan Program

No More Free Wi-Fi - Dismantling Community - Hurting Brand

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:49:00 +0000

6 Strategies for Building a Better Restaurant Brand

The newest Hartman brief on strengthening your restaurant's brand begins by noting the importance of creating a community space where customers feel welcome to hold meetings. As an example, Hartman highlights free Wi-Fi service. My local coffee shop, Zoka Coffee Roasters in Green Lake, is an amazing gathering space. People have different places to sit - couches, group tables, nooks and crannies - and a nice cork board for community postings. The baristas are friendly and knowledgeable and the music is diverse but not esoteric. And there used to be free Wi-Fi. Last week Zoka decided to put limitations on internet access. In order to log in to their server, you now have to get a receipt at the register with a code. The code is valid for 2 hours, after which you are unceremoniously booted off the web.

I asked a barista about the policy change. She told me that they made the change to reduce the server load and make sure that folks aren't just hanging around without buying anything. The server issue extended outside of the cafe's walls; it turns out that neighbors and neighboring businesses were using the service everyday. The high traffic was crashing the modem and impacting page load speeds.

So now I go every evening (I'm in my final week of an MBA program) and diligently make a purchase every 2 hours. The place is lonely though as some of my more frugal classmates have opted to jump ship to other cafes that offer free Wi-Fi. Also, each time I get a code it comes on a little receipt. I've noticed that the receipts get scattered everywhere in the cafe. It is an unsightly reminder (not to mention wasteful) of my new, more financial relationship with my community coffee house.

How Chris Dodd's Bill Might Restrict Start-up Funding

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:36:00 +0000

I'm sure you've heard by now about credit default swaps and how hedge funds like Magnatar made a killing. They worked with banks to pool risky assets and then insured the riskiest (and cheapest) classes in each portfolio. At the same time, they took out big bets against the whole portfolio. Essentially, they were partnering with banks to create assets they knew to be extremely volatile with the expectation that when they failed, they would make billions. The bankers, in turn, sold the risky assets to ill-informed clients and collected millions in service fees (great piece at This American Life).

So now there is a battle royale going on over a piece of legislation called The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The Republican senate officially blocked the measure today, but it is widely speculated that the reform will be passed by the senate as early as next week. While I favor increased oversight of derivatives markets, I am concerned about how other parts of the reform bill will affect small business. In particular, Chris Dodd's bill could impair the ability of entrepreneurs to secure funding from angel investors in a few key ways:

"It would require that start-ups seeking angel investments file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and endure a 120-day review."
It would "remove a federal pre-emption that prevents start-ups and investors from being subject to 50 different state regulators."
It changes the definition of accredited investors from $1M to $2.3M in net worth or $250K to $450K in annual income. This would exclude a great number of investors from being qualified to participate in small equity deals.

Angel investors have a significant positive impact our our nation's economy. "In 2008, angels invested some $19B in more than 55,000 companies. On April 21, the Angel Capital Association submitted two amendments to Congressman Dodd and he is reportedly taking the issues they raise seriously.

Please send a message to Chris Dodd's office in support of small business growth in America.

Study shows that farmworkers hold the most common 'green collar' job

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:36:00 +0000

I posted this earlier today at www.cascadeharvest.org.

Former White House advisor, Van Jones, popularized the phrase 'green collar jobs'. His vision is to bring job training and employment opportunities to urban America through a national focus on energy retrofits. While Van's message is spot on, many of my colleagues have lamented that agriculture doesn't get enough recognition for the green collar jobs it creates.

Last month, the Washington State Employment Security Department reported that the "most common green occupation in 2009 was agricultural workers." The agriculture industry creates more than 12,000 green jobs annually, the second largest source of green jobs in WA state (yes...behind energy efficiency in the construction industry). Those 12,000 positions represent 11% of all agricultural employment in WA state and are mostly generated by companies whose work is “preventing and reducing environmental pollution.”

As projects such as Farm Power NW and the Wild Horse Wind Farm continue to challenge our conception of what food and energy production look like and as the city of Seattle continues to herald 2010 as the Year of Urban Agrulture, let's continue to look to farms as a source of green jobs.

Northwest Farm Credit Services - A quick look at the Young and Beginning Producer Grant program

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:56:00 +0000

I posted this earlier today at Cascade Harvest Coalition.

One of the primary barriers to growth for small farmers and other food entrepreneurs is access to capital. Appropriate financing allows entrepreneurs to invent new technologies, deploy innovative sales strategies, attract new investment, and ford occasional economic valleys. Small businesses in WA state have a lot of advantages including nationally renowned community development organizations, a supportive Department of Financial Institutions, and a strong angel investor community.

In an effort to synthesize the leading programs as well as highlight some more creative tools and strategies from around the nation, I will begin posting regular blog shorts, highlighting one or two programs or opportunities at a time. We look forward to your participation and feedback.

This fall I spoke with David Poor of Northwest Farm Credit Services about their Young and Beginning Producer Grant. The program was established to support young and beginning farmers who would otherwise have a hard time accessing financing. ‘Beginning’ is a bit of a misnomer as eligible farmers must have several (but fewer than 10) years of experience in farm management. Loans can range in amount from $2.5K to 200K and 2009 interest rates were prime rate plus 2%. Ancillary benefits include mentorship and a $500 stipend for continuing education (including the purchase of a computer).

Thoughts from Ag 2.0 - a conference on food and finance - Palo Alto, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:15:00 +0000

Thanks to Slow Money NW for sending me down to Palo Alto, CA for the Ag 2.0 conference. It has been a truly worthwhile experience. The day was billed as "where the sustainable agriculture industry is being defined, built and funded" and special energy was placed on private equity. So coming in I knew that there would be diverse paradigms in the room - from EcoFarm attendees to the titans of industrial agriculture and from angel investors to venture fund managers. For instance, right now I am listening to a panel with Con Agra, JR Simplot, Toro Micro-Irrigation, and Dow Venture Capital. Haven Baker of JR Simplot just stated (paraphrased) that one of their sustainable initiatives is the development of genetically engineered potatoes using only potato genes (rather than importing genes from other species).

Moments earlier I shared a rich conversation with Jeremiah Ridenour, Founder and CEO of Wise Solutions, a manufacturer of Organic pesticides. And still earlier I spoke with Kevin Kopcynski of Rockport Capital about VC investments in clean tech and Arati Prabhakar of US Venture Partners. I've heard pitches from entrepreneurs in land based and open water fish farming, precision agriculture, and online technologies that help build regional infrastructure. The day is closing soon and I'm tired and content. Yesterday I shared meals with with Ari Rubenstein, his wife, and daughter Yamaya on his boat in Alameda, and Jenny Kassan of Katovich Law Group in Oakland. The meeting with Jenny was - as usual - tremendously rich. After sitting down with her at a local Cajun restaurant, I opened up my notebook and scribbled frantically for an hour; she is a treasure of information and enthusiasm.

Seattle farmers markets donated more than 23 tons of produce to food banks in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:57:00 +0000

Last year the farmers selling produce at Seattle NFMA farmers markets (University District, West Seattle, Columbia City, Lake City, Magnolia, Broadway Sunday and Phinney) donated 47,000 lbs. of produce to Seattle food banks.

NFMA director Chris Curtis says "food bank shelves are generally devoted to shelf stable processed food. Our neighborhood food banks tell us they are thrilled to receive this high quality, totally fresh and nutritionally dense produce every week. The produce is generally collected at the end of the market day by food bank volunteers, then stored, packaged and distributed to food bank clients within 48 hours."

Obesity epidemic starts before birth - LA Times and Systems Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:57:00 +0000

This morning the LA Times reported that obesity can start before birth and that 1 in 3 American children are overweight. According to the article, mothers who are overweight going into pregnancy are more likely to have overweight or underweight children.

The causes of childhood obesity are extremely complex. To get an idea of just how complex, check out this systems diagram from Shiftn.

Are foreign governments pioneering American energy?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:06:00 +0000

Bottleneck forms as US government tries to increase access to loans for green energy projects. While Japan invests in smart grid technology in New Mexico, Energy Secretary Chu explains US efforts to keep up with China.

FDA releases warning letters; must read for start-up Private Brands

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:33:00 +0000

http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ucm202784.htm
http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ucm202859.htm

If you are developing a private brand, think twice about how you are representing your product at point of sale.

Tom Douglas opening restaurants in the Terry Ave Building - So Lake Union

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:37:00 +0000

http://bit.ly/bM9LS3

Asked Guy Kawasaki some questions tonight - rattled in afterthought

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:54:00 +0000

Guy was a guest lecturer in my BGI class tonight and I had the chance to ask him a few questions about the role and interest of the Venture Capital community in sustainable enterprise. I was disappointed in - actually angry is probably a better description - his unwillingness to acknowledge that certain LOHAS markets such as organic retail and clean tech are becoming profit centers.

It wasn't a one-on-one and given that I love his books I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he recognizes the burgeoning markets and the $100'sM in interest from VC but was trying to put that into perspective compared to the larger trends in finance.

I think I'm disappointed for another reason. Guy is a leader. And I want to see a leader with a positive vision. Instead of saying that we should make our money in conventional industry so that we might one day be able to give philanthropically, I wanted to hear him lay out a vision for how business will begin to find profitability that isn't built on externalization of costs. The UN recently reported that the top 3,000 multi-national corporations are creating $2.2T in environmental damage each year. I wanted him to tell us how business can effect positive change.

Misinformed Atlantic Monthly Article by Helene York

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:29:00 +0000

I imagine that as director of strategic initiatives for Bon Appetit Management Company, Helene York has access to hundreds of chefs who are trying to source more local food. I know she must because as Regional Manager for Growers Collaborative, LLC I worked with dozens of BAMCO professionals and witnessed their consistent commitment to supporting regional farms.

The problem is, Helene says many things that contrast with my experiences and even - I'll go out on a limb - mislead future initiatives.

First off, cost IS a major factor. Saying that sourcing more organic and local produce will not significantly impact your bottom line is overly simplistic. A Sodexo chef of a major university recently told me that his bottom line was suffering due to a switch to local produce until he moved from an 'All You Care to Eat' (I guess all you can eat is no longer PC) to single plate servings. But he had to think about how to restructure his pricing in order to reduce costs.

Next up meat. That is really cool that BAMCO chefs are butchering their own cuts. James Beard award winning chef Maria Hines recently talked about working with custom butchers to select atypical (and often less expensive) cuts in order to cut costs while delivering premium local product.

Yes, volume can be an impediment to sourcing local produce. However: big companies like SYSCO are starting to source locally (this is for real, local produce from select small, values-based farms); mid sized companies like OGC and Charlies have been offering traceable local product for years; and small mission driven companies like Growers Collaborative and Red Tomato are sourcing exclusively from local growers. The key to volume and consistency is to use a distributor that has small- AND mid-sized local growers. The mid-size growers set the bar for food safety while providing excellence in cold chain management and delivery.

In regards to "School schedules are an ironic obstacle." she is dead on. Ironic as hell.

farmer fisher chef connection

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Moore) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:18:00 +0000

Just spent a great day with the Seattle foodie community. Farmers, chefs, brokers, eaters all milling about and eating good food. Luxurious. Poppy Tooker talked about conserving through consumption. Eat the foods you want to preserve.