Warts, famine and all

Sugarcoating, it seems, is not sustainable.

Or at least it shouldn’t have a place at next month’s International Foodservice Sustainability Symposium, insist the renowned authorities who’ve agreed to serve as keynote speakers. As one put it during a recent conference call, “We should not shy away from painting the real picture. If we do that, we’re just denying what we have to face up to.”

The unpleasant realities include a possible worldwide famine, or what another speaker termed “the biggest scientific challenge the human race has got right now.”

There are also thorny issues like increasing what farmers are paid for their output—a difficult idea for restaurateurs to embrace when they’re already wincing from a climb in commodity prices.

Yet the keynoters were quick to note there’s reason for restaurateurs and consumers to be optimistic. Yes, there are serious sustainability-related problems facing the world. But there are already steps being taken to address the issues, including a number of actions in restaurant kitchens.

The speakers participated in a conference call last week to hammer out the content for the IFSS, a first-of-its-kind brainstorming session.  FoodserviceSustainability was able to be a fly on the wall via a recording.

Because the confab was a working meeting, it wouldn’t be fair to air precisely who said what. It was a workshop, not a rehearsal or preview.

But suffice it to say that the participants are comfortable with an unabashed look at the facets of sustainability that should be of interest to chefs and restaurateurs. They agreed that differences of opinions on some of those matters would be welcomed, since more perspectives will bring a clearer picture and underscore the complexities.

Those issues include such things as improving food taste through sustainable agricultural methods, even if the end result is lowered farm output. For instance, mechanization boosts yield, but it also puts small farmers out of business because they can’t compete.

The speakers also raised some issues that are sometimes overlooked in discussions of food sustainability. How, for example, is the nation as a whole, and foodservice in particular, going to help a growing body of young people who’d like to reverse the historical trend and opt for a farm career?

The give-and-take during the hour-plus call suggested that the IFSS is going to be an event not to be missed. You can look at the specifics of the program on the event’s, website, IFSSymposium.org.

At the event, you’ll be able to hear the on-the-record comments of the conference call participants. They included Julian Cribb, the agricultural journalist and author of “The Coming Famine”; Dr. Fred Kirschenmann, an organic farmer and distinguished fellow of the sustainable agriculture program at Iowa State University; and Dr. Richard Beachy, director of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.