Los Angeles Times
05-25-07
Drawing up a map for food sustainability
‘Sustainable’ defined hundreds of different ways
By CORIE BROWN
Los Angeles Times
MONTEREY, Calif.—With all the talk about "sustainable" agriculture, sustainable
fishing and sustainable eating, it was remarkable how little agreement there was
earlier in May at Monterey Bay Aquarium's second annual Sustainable Foods
Institute about what sustainable actually means.
The daylong symposium gathered 50 food writers and assorted food retailers,
farmers, academicians and scientists to discuss the state of the world's
increasingly fragile food system, both terrestrial and aquatic. The goal was to
increase awareness of the need for a sustainable food supply.
It sounds simple, but everyone came with his own definition of "sustainable."
Some participants labeled any move toward a more efficient use of resources as
sustainable, while others said they believed that nothing short of complete
energy self-sufficiency fits the bill. Most people held opinions that fell somewhere
in between.
Undoubtedly the most effective program designed to promote the fuzzy concept
is the aquarium's Seafood Watch Program. The simple pocket guide, also
available online, lists which fish are best choices, which are acceptable
alternatives and which should be avoided. A separate, more detailed guide helps
chefs connect with fisheries and fishermen who follow good fishing practices. Yet
no other programs to help consumers find "sustainable" food were promoted.
The point, however, wasn't to parse words but to inspire discussion. Startling
information—such as 90 percent of the world's large predatory fish having
vanished from over-fishing—shared the stage with standard environmental stump
speeches on buying organic, buying local, buying less.
Samuel Fromartz, author of "Organic, Inc.," led a panel on the challenges big
corporations face when they embrace organics, and New York University
nutritionist and food studies professor Marion Nestle gave a talk about threats to
food safety. Dan McGovern, publisher of Sustainable Food News, led a
discussion of "food miles"—a calculation of the environmental cost of
transporting food long distances. Los Angeles Times environmental writer Ken
Weiss led a discussion of sustainable seafood, and I moderated a "Marketing
Sustainable Wines" panel.
"Food is the new social movement," Nestle said. Health concerns and a
newfound appreciation for quality have politicized dinner. "It's grass-roots
democracy," she said. "The more the public is educated, the better they will be
able to make good choices."
Organic practices are part of the sustainable ideal, according to many of the
speakers.
"I want to grow the perfect peach," organic farmer David Mas Masumoto said.
His Sun Crest peaches have been hailed by chefs and food writers. "What is
perfection? It is committed to memory. If you don't have a memory of the flavor of
heirloom peaches, how do you know what you are missing?"
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has started to stock organic produce. Their
customers haven't demanded organics, said Peter Redmond, a Wal-Mart vice
president and seafood buyer. But he believes they will.
The company is also instituting a sustainable seafood program. For instance,
Wal-Mart buys 50 million pounds of shrimp per year—75 percent from shrimp
farms in Thailand, Redmond said. For 2 cents more per pound than he has been
paying he can set standards for how Wal-Mart's Thai shrimp suppliers operate
their farms as well as spot-check to make sure they follow those standards. "And
I still have a lower price than our competitors," he said.
None of the shrimp farms in Thailand, however, meet the aquarium's Seafood
Watch Program's standards of sustainability.
"We try to influence how the shrimp is produced," Redmond said. "If we stopped
offering shrimp from Thailand we couldn't influence it at all."
For food service provider Fedele R. Bauccio, chief executive of Bon Appetit
Management Co., sustainability means following the aquarium's Seafood Watch
guidelines. He also insists on free-range poultry and seasonal produce and gives
the chefs at the 400 institutions served by his company a free hand to develop
menus and work directly with local farmers.
But it's still a work in progress, he pointed out as he picked up a bottle of San
Pellegrino water his company was serving at the symposium. Considering the
food miles issue, he said he would stop importing water from Europe as well.
"The idea of sustainability has taken on a life of its own," Bauccio said.
Organic produce that has to be shipped in or local conventionally grown produce:
Which is better? McGovern of Sustainable Food News said local trumps
everything. "We know that we have a more socially just, economically secure and
culturally viable system when we move to a locally based food supply," he said.
Not so fast, said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming
Research Foundation. "Organic is the platform," he said. "Other eco-labels are
valid but not enforceable. There are 400 definitions for sustainable."
Certainly "sustainability fraud" is occurring, said Thomas Tomich, director of the
Agricultural Sustainability Institute at the University of California, Davis. "I want
there to be science-based standards for 'sustainable.' If we don't move quickly to
give it a concrete basis, people are going to become disillusioned."
"Sustainability is a term like truth or beauty," said Fred Kirschenmann, a senior
fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State
University. "We struggle but never get there." It means something different to
different communities. "When asked if my farm is sustainable, I say, no," he said.
"We're working on it. I have to keep changing, keep trying new things, keep
adjusting."
For peach farmer Masumoto, the ultimate definition of sustainability may rest with
his daughter, Nikiko, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
last week. He considers his organic farm to be sustainable because it is in
balance with nature as well as being economically balanced. Now Nikiko wants
to join him on the peach farm, which means it must grow. "It opens up all sorts of
possibilities," he said. "She is young and naive. That is what you need to be
creative, to find new solutions, to find a new sustainable balance."