Americans need to go back to the land.

I don’t mean this in a 1960’s, leaving the city for a commune in the country, complete with goat milk, wheat grass and sprouted lentil loaves, kind of way.

I think we all need to get back to the land wherever we are.

We need to touch whatever bit of earth we have at our disposal, whether that means a planter on the deck, a grassy front yard, or an empty lot at the end of the block. We need to do more than touch that earth–we need to till it, plant seeds, tend them and watch them grow into food for ourselves, our families and our neighbors.

America used to be a nation of farmers, and we need to remember that and return to our roots.

Why?

Because of rising food prices, and looming threats of food shortages.

Because of lack of availability of fresh vegetables and fruits among the urban poor.

Because of soaring obesity rates, and lowered nutrition among the country’s poor.

Because eating locally is good for us and the environment, and our local economy.

And because we need to remember who we are, as a nation.

Gandhi once said, “To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves,” and he is right. As Americans have turned away from the land, as we have allowed farms to be turned into strip malls and condominiums, as we have turned away from self-reliance and embraced consumerism as a lifestyle, we have forgotten the soul of our nation. We have forgotten what once made us strong, and that was a deep connection to the earth, to our homes, to our neighbors.

We need to rebuild that connection, and in doing so, we will be better able to weather the coming economic recession, high food prices and possible food shortages which loom over our future lives.

And the thing is–gardening and growing at least some of our vegetables and fruits–can be accomplished anywhere. You don’t have to have forty acres and a mule, or even one acre and a rototiller. A small urban yard will do, or a series of containers on a rooftop or balcony or a vacant lot.

Urban agriculture is finally coming back into its own in the US, after last being seen as a real movement during WWII with the “Victory Garden” campaign when rooftops and backyards were planted in cities and larger gardens were dug in the country by people from all walks of life.

The New York Times features an article on the growing trend of urban farming in the US where individuals not only grow food for their families on vacant lots, but also grow enough vegetables to sell to their neighbors. Not only does this bring in extra cash for people in poor neighborhoods, it also brings much appreciated fresh food to people who have little choice in where to shop.

The Times reports that co-ops have been formed, CSA;s have gone urban and restaurants have taken to buying produce grown within their own cities.

Of course, none of this is new–there have always been urban farmers. What is new is the idea that urban farming in the US could help to substantially feed citizens while also boosting local income and microeconomic systems. (Cities in the UK and other countries are also embracing urban agriculture as well, but I am primarily talking about the US for now.)

For proof that city-based agricultural ventures, from backyard gardens to community gardens to full-fledged urban market farms, can produce a significant amount of food in modern times, we need to look beyond the US, however. We need to examine the current urban agricultural system of Cuba.

Cuba’s successful experiment in urban agriculture started as a means to feed Cuba without relying on food imports after trade embargoes caused food shortages. Currently, urban farms occupy around 86,000 acres, and in the past few years, these farms have produced 3.4 million tons of food annually. Urban farms grow 90 percent of the fresh vegetables for the city of Havana alone.

Considering that these government-led and supported urban agriculture programs only started a few decades ago, their success is astonishing, and to me, enticing.

Just think of what Americans could do with our abundance of land, in comparison to the smaller acreage available to Cuba.

Why don’t we do it then? Why don’t we all start planting our own “Victory Gardens” again, and take the time to learn how to grow our own food, and take back a measure of self-reliance once more? Why don’t we claim our own victories–against poverty, against processed foods, against corporate control, against our own complacency–and relearn what we have forgotten: how to dig the earth and tend the soil.

Let’s join other Americans and do it, in big ways and small ways.

Let’s remember ourselves.

Author’s Note: Our backyard is finally being terraced this year, and the first things we will plant in it will be asparagus crowns, strawberries and a bunch of annual vegetables. The ornamentals–the flowers and shrubs, and hopefully fruit trees–will wait for next year. The food comes first.

There are a lot of reasons behind the colossal waste of food that goes on in the restaurant industry, but I would say that one of the largest causes has to do
with corporate restaurant policy regarding the treatment of leftovers.

When I say leftovers, I am not talking about what comes back on diner’s plates at the end of the meal–that is a separate issue which I will discuss in a little bit. I am talking about corporate chain restaurant policy regarding the disposal of food that is left on the steam table, in the display rack or in
the warming oven at the end of the night shift. The food that can be reheated one more time without bacterial contamination risk or loss of food quality is always saved, cooled properly and refrigerated to be rewarmed the next day, but what about the rest of the food that is quite often still good to eat, but will suffer in looks or taste if it is warmed over the next day. (Most corporate restaurants lack the flexibility in menu that independent restaurants have, so it is not often that you will see a leftover from one day transformed into something else as a dinner special the next day. Consistency is one of the watchwords of the corporate food world, and in the name of the “C-word,” a lot of edible food is thrown away.)

You would think that restaurants would give this food to their employees, or better yet, donate it to a local food bank, food pantry or church soup kitchen to be served to the homeless and impoverished people for whom hunger is a daily reality.

But, alas, that is most often not the case.

Most corporate chain restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and the like have a very strict policy of dumping this perfectly good food out into the dumpster, which is often locked and behind enclosures in order to keep enterprising individuals from “harvesting” or saving this food. (If these enclosed or locked bins tampered with, even by a hungry person, they can then be arrested and charged not with just vandalism for breaking the locks, but for breaking and entering and theft. Imagine being charged with stealing garbage–the whole point of garbage is that the former owner of it no longer wants it, so why is it illegal for someone else to take it before it is heaped into a landfill?) Employees who are caught taking food of this kind home or eating it, or donating it are treated as thieves and are often fired.

Why are such draconian and ridiculously wasteful policies the norm in the corporate food industry?

There are two reasons. One has to do with the fear of food loss through employee theft. Yes, that is right–corporations are so afraid of losing money through employee theft that they waste just as much, if not more, money throwing away imperfect, but still edible food. The reasoning behind this somewhat obtuse concept is that if you have day old muffins that must go out, and fresh muffins, and if you give the employees the day old–still palatable, but not quite the best–to employees to eat or take home, then you would have no way of knowing if they were taking the day old muffins which you were going to throw away or the fresh ones.

The reason why food is not donated to hunger relief organizations has to do with the fear of being legally liable if, due to improper storage or reheating after the food is released into the hands of whatever individuals or organizations to which it is donated, someone or a group of persons fall ill from food borne disease.

That sounds like a reasonable fear, unless one knows about the federal law which protects organizations, corporations and individuals who donate food in good faith to non-profit organizations for the relief of hunger, from legal liability in the unlikely case of illness related to the food donation.

This law, called The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, came into effect in 1996, so there is really no excuse for corporate restaurant chains to -not- donate their food to the needy through non-profit organizations.

It is possible that many corporate policy makers do not know about the law, which is where employees and consumers can step up to the plate and attempt to make a change in the rules that allow so much edible food to be thrown away from corporate kitchens. Ask managers of individual restaurants what their policy is for donating leftovers, and if they cite liability, inform them of this law, and then call a corporate hotline, email the headquarters, or even better, write them a letter, telling them about the law and asking them to change their policies regarding food donation. Whichever course of action you take, get your friends on board, and if you work in a corporate chain restaurant, talk to your managers and see if you can get them to talk to their managers. Send letters to the board of directors or the president of the company. You may be surprised at how effective such communication can be–corporations will not change their policies if there is no complaints, but a volley of complaints, especially those in writing, tend to get the attention of those who are high enough in the hierarchy to do something about it.

You can also work with America’s Second Harvest on these issues, and try and get your local restaurants, both independent and corporate chains, to try and cut down rampant food waste by donating unused food to food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

In contrast, most independent restaurants do not have such unreasonable policies regarding the disposal of unused, unsellable, but still edible food. Every independent restaurant where I have worked has either given such food to employees, or sold it to them at a very low cost, in the interest of both feeding their employees and not wasting food. Many of the independents where I have worked also donated food to homeless shelters and food banks quite generously, even before the Good Samaritan law was in effect. Many other independent restaurants will donate food to various groups for free–for example, at Salaam, we donated lots of uneaten dinner and lunch specials which were still great that day, but wouldn’t be good the next day to the Obama campaign workers who had come to town during the Ohio primary. These folks appreciated the hot food and salads, and we appreciated being able to offer support that wasn’t monetary, but was still necessary and meaningful.

One other reason there is so much food waste in American restaurants, especially in chain restaurants, is the gargantuan portion sizes that have become the norm. Some chain restaurants, like The Cheesecake Factory, have portion sizes so ridiculously large, they don’t serve their entrees on plates, they serve them on oval platters, or as Zak quipped the one time we ate there as his dinner was set before him, “Here comes the trough!” Apparently, frequent diners at such restaurants take their uneaten food home, but when we were there, our table only sent back what we couldn’t eat on our dirty plates, and we saw many diners do the same. Some tables sent away so much food that another three or four people could have been fed on what was wasted. (This is one of the reasons I try to give only sensible portions at Salaam–I hate to see unusable food returned to the kitchen–although in small, independent restaurants, you will often see workers setting aside unusable food as compost or in rural areas as animal fodder. To my mind, that certainly beats sending it to the landfill.)

Of course, when you have restaurants sending food home with individuals who may or may not follow safe storage and reheating procedures, it begs the question as to why they will not donate edible but unsellable food because of liability issues.

I think that in the coming months and years as food prices rise precipitously due to the sharp rise in oil prices, we may see this wasteful attitude toward food in corporate restaurants start to change. We may see a more frugal philosophy of food once more arise in the restaurant industry.

Let us just hope that it is also a more ethical and compassionate philosophy as well. The amount of food that is wasted in American restaurants could easily go towards relieving a significant portion of the hunger problem in our country, and I would like to see more restaurants get behind efforts to feed the needy by participating in programs such as America’s Second Harvest and Share Our Strength. Ask the servers and managers at your favorite restaurants if they participate in food reclamation projects, and see what you can do to foster such efforts in your neighborhood. Everyone who joins in the effort to end food waste and hunger in America and does their own small share is building the momentum of a movement that is not only ecologically sound, but compassionate as well.

Author’s Note: I would like to thank Jonathan Bloom, author of the blog, Wasted Food, for putting the idea for this series of posts in my head.

Most of the waste occurs after food gets into consumer outlets such as grocery or convenience stores, in homes, after the food is purchased, and in restaurants. This is a shame, because if we could save some of this food, it could be used to help alleviate the hunger problem we have in our country. We could also save a great deal of money in the process.

There are plenty of ways for restaurant workers, cooks, chefs and owners to reduce the amount of waste that occurs within their establishments, and the truth is, most chefs strive to keep food waste at manageable levels. The main reason for this is because food waste affects food cost, which is the largest, most easily controllable expense which affects the profitability of any restaurant. Another reason that chefs work at keeping food waste to a minimum, is because, as a group, they tend to be among the most frugal people I have ever met. They hate to waste food. It is nearly a physical affront to many chefs to edible food thrown away.

As the grandchild of farmers and the great-grandchild of a butcher, I grew up with a similar attitude towards food waste. When you grow or otherwise produce food for a living, you know intimately the true cost of food in the form of very hard work. Vegetables just don’t spring up from the ground without effort, and meat doesn’t grow in supermarket meat cases already encased in Styrofoam and plastic wrap. Fruits, vegetables and grains require a lot of work to be brought to market, from soil preparation, starting seeds indoors or sowing them outdoors, to weed removal, to pest control, pruning, to harvest.

Meat production is even more tricky, as it involves keeping livestock healthy, well fed, happy (unless you raise them in a CAFO–confined animal feeding operation–situation, in which case, the happiness of the animal, unfortunately, doesn’t enter into the equation), and carefully bred. Mammals and birds all have different needs for housing, food, and water, and these need to be balanced carefully when raising them for food.

In the interest of respecting the effort that goes into growing food, it behooves chefs and home cooks both to try and reduce food waste in our kitchens; the great side effect of this is that we will also reduce our food costs. In the years ahead, as oil prices rise, and food prices continue to soar, these techniques of avoiding food waste are going to become even more important than they are now.

In the following series of posts, I will list the various ways that chefs avoid food waste in the kitchens of their restaurants. These techniques are useful not only in a professional setting, but can also be adapted to our homes to great effect. In addition, I will give examples from my own experience both in restaurant kitchens and on the farm, to show how many of these ideas which have become codified into restaurant practice grew out of formerly commonplace sensible frugality.

So, look for great tips on avoiding food waste in the next few posts–I hope you will not only find them edifying, but entertaining.

I want to thank all of my readers who have so generously donated to A Menu For Hope this year, and while it is true that we have together broken last years record of approximately $62, 000.00, we’d like, in the last few hours of the campaign, send as much as we possibly can to the schoolkids of Lesotho.

There are some woefully neglected prizes with some great odds of winning out there: Pim breaks down some of them, and on her blog, there are links to more extensive lists breaking down the odds on prizes regionally.

These links are on the right hand side of the front page of her blog–under A Menu For Hope Daily, which lists the up-to-the-minute donation total.

It is amazing to me to see generosity in action among food blog readers: you all are a wonderful bunch of people! Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Oh, and while you are at it–keep playing Free Rice. With Free Rice, the bookish cook’s hunger for vocabulary can help feed poor people around the world. It is a great way to extend the generosity of A Menu For Hope all through the year.

Remember, the more people who play, the more people who win a full dinner plate through the United Nations World Food Program.

A Menu For Hope continues on–and blog readers are giving generously to help out the school lunch program of Lesotho.

I know it is hard to choose among so many amazing prizes, but do give it a shot and buy a raffle ticket or two or three. They make great gifts for those hard to buy for folks who also happen to be inclined toward charitable works.

And if you win–or your gift recipient wins–that is just icing on the cake.

Here are some of my favorite prizes–meaning ones I am going to buy tickets for–which you might like too:

From Chez Pim– UW11 Lunch with Howard McGee: Harold is the original Culinary Nerd. And I mean that in the fondest sense possible–author of On Food and Cooking, which is one of my favorite reference books of all time. I would love to sit, eat and geek out about food with Harold. (I am sure that every other Culinary Nerd food blog reader in the world would also love to geek out with Harold! Who wouldn’t?)

From Becks And Posh: UW32The English Afternoon Tea Package, which includes a beautiful teapot, English preserves, Twining’s tea, handmade scones, and all sorts of other lovelies. I want to bid on it not only because I love tea, but because I want to know how Sam makes English style clotted cream here in the US. Sam is so clever–she is making sure that everyone who bids on her prize wins.

From Quick Indian Cooking: UK12 Indian Cooking Bible Published in India. Malinka says she will send a copy of National Indian Association of Women Cookbook, a book only available in India, anywhere in the world. She also says it has taught generations of Indian women how to cook–and that is a great endorsement. I -really- want to get my hands on a copy of it, so I’ll definitely be bidding on it.

Those are my favorites so far–and of course, there is always the prize I am sponsoring–A Gift of Indian Spices.

The total raised so far this year is $30,850.00.

Let’s keep up the good work!