Farm to Table: An Economies of Scale

            Being someone who grew up on a cash crop farm in Michigan, I hold a soft spot for the agriculture industry. I remember as a child raising chickens and even my first hog who I named Wilber. Now don’t get me wrong, I find the slow food movement and farm to table fad to be a good thing and can really help a business. But it is just that, a fad and sooner or later, it will have to die off.

            Many restaurants and people cooking at home are looking into the slow food movement and farm to table trend for means of healthier lifestyles and as a way to make a smaller impact on the environment. I will agree it is a tad absurd that for every 1 calorie of food to reach the table, it takes 10 calories of energy. Not to mention, with all of the outbreaks of food borne illness from listeria to salmonella in commercial food production, it only makes sense to go to a more natural way of obtaining food.

            The utilization of going to farmers markets and road side country stands in personal use and partnerships of local farmers in the case of restaurants is being seen more and more. I will agree as someone who sold sweet corn on the side of a road on Sundays growing up that I full heartedly support this kind of behavior. You may be asking yourself though, what point am I getting at. Well here’s the fact of the matter, this trend has grown exponentially. Alice Waters who was one of the pioneers of the slow food movement has been doing this for quite some time. Is the past six years I would say though, it has grown to a pandemic and I use this word, not so lightly.

            To name a few, Fruition here in Denver, and “The French Laundry” owned by Chef Keller in California have their own farms which grow the products they serve in their restaurants. Genius! This is what restaurants need to be doing. On the flip side, you have large companies such as Chipotle which is located throughout the country which utilize the use of local ingredients from “Organic” farmers. Local implying that it can be sourced within 300 miles of the establishment.

            First of all, organic implies many things and has grown into a very loose ended term which can infer a variety of things. Organic can be referring to the growth of animals without the use of steroids, hormones or antibiotics. Grass feed, grain feed and so forth. With produce and grains, it can be all naturally and handpicked, or it was raised with “Organic” pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer and such. You really don’t know what people mean when they say organically raised.

            Second, I think that people need to get the corn cob out of their ass, pun intended. Just because someone eats local, fresh and organic does not make them better than any other person. It’s just simply a way of life and while I am understanding of it, I don’t need judgment passed down to me, my family, or any other farmer, rancher, or food producer who are just trying to make a living off of the land which is something people seem to forget. The earth is in short supply with over 7 billion mouths to feed. Without the use of GMO’s and modern farming techniques, world hunger would tenfold. To me, what people need to do is yes, buy local or better yet, grow their own damn food. Restaurants should follow suit. When companies such as Chipotle start sourcing all of their ingredients in such a manor, it will create an economies of scale resulting in these “small” time farmers to produce such mass quantities in the near future that they will be unable to keep up with demand and inevitably start using more modern techniques such as the use of herbicides and pesticides.

            I remember when Wilber was slaughtered when I was 5 years old. And needless to say he was delicious. This fad will die out eventually. While it will not necessarily be “delicious”, I think it will be a final wake up call for people. Personally, I look forward to this day because maybe, just maybe, people will stop bashing the ag industry and the people who work so hard to feed so many people.