Guest Speaker: Chefs and Farmers Unite
The recent Farming for the Future Conference promoted new ideas and learning to the benefit of all.
By Jamie Moore
I recently organized the 2012 “Sustainability in the Food Service Industry” pre-conference sessions at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s (PASA) 21st-annual Farming for the Future Conference, which brought together more than 2,000 farmers, processors, consumers, students, environmentalists, business and community leaders and chefs.
These sessions, which placed both noncommercial and commercial foodservice professionals in the same room as farmers, are an important step in understanding each other’s needs and challenges. As a PASA board member, I created “Sustainability in the Food Service Industry” in 2011 to give local producers a forum to introduce their products to chefs primarily from Parkhurst Dining (a division of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group). From there, our chefs took what they learned to new levels.