Posts Tagged ‘Diedrich Coffee’

• Wal-Mart Goes Local?

  Date: 12.15.2009 | Category: News Feed | Response: 0

  Wal-Mart: Supporter of local foods? We’re skeptical. The corporate giant has long been criticized for putting small, local companies out of business, so when it was reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Wal-Mart is planning to increase sourcing from local food producers, it’s not surprising that many advocates of the local food movement questioned the intentions of the nation’s largest food retailer.

  Is Wal-Mart simply being opportunistic? As FarmPlate wrote last week, the buzz around the phrases “local” and “sustainable” has caused some restaurants to label their foods to appeal to customers, without checking that the ingredients are, indeed, from local or sustainable sourcs.

  Since there is no government-regulated definition of “local food,” Wal-Mart will be capable of deciding for itself what constitutes local and what doesn’t. According to Chris Wertz, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart, the supercenter would define local as “a product that’s produced and sold within the same state, though there would be exceptions.”

  Wal-Mart is upfront about its intentions, says Rich Pirog, a director at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Pirog explains Wal-Mart’s position as: “We’re going to move millions and millions of pounds of local food, and we’re going to do it so everyone in the supply chain profits, and we’re going to be the low price leader in local food.”

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• Behind the Labels of Sustainable Dining

  Date: 12.08.2009 | Category: News Feed | Response: 2

  The phrases “locally grown produce,” “locally sourced meats and seafood” and “sustainability” were the top three trends identified by the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot in 2010 chef survey. It’s no surprise restaurateurs around the country have been striving to hit the mark on providing locally sourced foods on their menus, but according to an exposé by The Washington Post, some restaurants may be more focused on the sustainable label than on the food itself.

  D.C.’s Founding Farmers restaurant was the subject of Jane Black’s article yesterday for the Post, titled “‘Green’ Cuisine Not Always as Ordered.” The restaurant had labeled the salmon as sustainable, although Black reports it came from Cooke Aquaculture, one of the largest salmon farms in North America. A salad named a “best of the season mix” was composed of few in-season ingredients, and three of the six small farms Founding Farms claims to work closely with hadn’t delivered to the restaurant in six months.

  Black points out, “The absence of an industry or government standard for ‘sustainable food’ creates ample wiggle room for brands looking to cash in on eco-consciousness.”

  The article was disheartening, considering that the Founding Farmers’ website read: “At Founding Farmers we believe that everyone benefits by knowing more about the sources of the food they eat. Owned by a collective of American family farmers, we promote the products and services of family farms, ranches, and fisheries from across the country.”  This mission statement was taken off the site yesterday.  In its place is Founding Farmers’ response to Black’s article, which points out: “Strive is a critical word; we don’t promise 100% of anything.”

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• Is Goliath Helping David?

  Date: 12.01.2009 | Category: News Feed | Response: 0

  Whole Foods Market, the 21st largest food retailer in the U.S., is making an attempt to facilitate the production of locally raised and processed poultry in the northeast by operating mobile slaughterhouses.
  Small livestock farmers continue to struggle to maintain access to dwindling numbers of USDA-approved processing centers. The Whole Foods mobile slaughterhouse will address this issue by traveling to the farmer, saving the farmer time and money and increasing the amount of poultry that can be raised and processed locally.

  The national number of USDA-certified and inspected slaughterhouses has decreased in the last eight years from approximately 550 to 350, according to the Hartford Advocate, as bigger businesses like Tyson have bought up smaller processing facilities.

  Some farmers must travel a hundred miles or more to have their livestock processed by a licensed slaughterhouse. Though poultry farmers have the option to slaughter their birds on their own farms; having livestock processed in a licensed, USDA-approved facility makes their product easier to sell.

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