Dining not chicken about sustainability

By Ricky Mempin

Imagine you're a chicken.

Explaining the living conditions of farm chickens, Bon Appétit West Coast Fellow Vera Chang offered this mental image to those in attendance for "The Story Behind the Food" lecture.

She said that many chickens used on farms are forced into cages too small and suffer from problems like osteoporosis, on top of having to produce 98 percent more eggs than normal chickens.

This was only one problem Chang introduced last Tuesday in the Adobe Lounge as part of a presentation about how the Bon Appétit Management Company is addressing food related issues.

"I'm passionate about food, sustainability and justice," said Chang.

As a student, Chang found the food offered by Carleton College's dining service dissatisfying. In the hopes of creating change, Chang created a group called Food Truth and eventually joined her school's dining board.

This was her first presentation at a college as a representative of BAMCo. Though initially uncertain about working with a large corporation like BAMCo, Chang realized that they can create change.

"These large institutions can be driven by social change," she said.

Other issues Chang discussed included antibiotic use, the overuse of seafood, food's connection to climate change and farm workers' rights. Apart from all other dining service companies, BAMCo has chosen to tackle these issues head-on, Chang said. BAMCo chefs have direct contact with farmers, as 20 percent of their money, totaling 55 million annually, is spent on local farms within 150 miles.

"There are no recipe cards and menu cycles," Fedele Bauccio, the co-founder and chief executive officer of BAMCo said in an article called "The Power of Ten." "We customize each location with its own chef who draws from local, seasonal resources as much as possible."

To prove this, Chang presented Tonight's Featured Farms, the two farms responsible for the meal provided at the presentation.

According to Chang, many farms practice methods that are unfair to both animals and farm workers. Seventy percent of antibiotics are used non-therapeutically on livestock; instead, they are used to make animals grow quicker. To prevent this, BAMCo refuses to buy chicken or pork raised using antibiotics, Chang said.

Additionally, seafood consumption has doubled since the 1970s; the average American eats 60 pounds of seafood annually, she said. If this rate remains constant, the world supply of seafood could end in 40 years. According to Chang, BAMCo does not buy from fish farms, but is wild-caught. Seafood watch pocket guides, indicating which fish came from fish farms, were provided for everyone in attendance.

"Seafood affects everyone," Chang said. "It's about our oceans."

BAMCo is even making attempts to slow climate change. Because one-third of greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems like BAMCo, BAMCo removes anything unnecessary and environmentally unhealthy, Chang said. To lessen their carbon footprint, BAMCo's beef usage has been reduced by 33 percent and cheese by 10 percent.

But the initiative that Chang was most passionate about was the last: farm workers' rights.

Having done an apprenticeship working on farms, Chang feels a strong connection to these people. "We're all more intimately connected with farm workers than we ever think about," she said.

Farm workers are forced to deal with long hours under little or no protection of labor laws, according to Chang. Most of them are younger than 21 and do not have sick leave, overtime pay or child labor laws.

Minimum wage is also not a requirement for farms. For many farm workers to make minimum wage on their current pay, they would have to harvest 2.5 for ten hours a day, Chang said.

Chang mentioned that since 1997, seven different slavery operations involving over 1,000 farm workers have been prosecuted.

BAMCo established a code of conduct for the farms they work with, requiring fair wages for their workers as well as worker empowerment.

The evening ended with a presentation of different ways to help the environment and farm workers. Chang encourages people to begin farming their own food.

"We young farmers can start small, planting herbs and lettuce in our windowsills," she said. "Better yet is working with others in a community garden space to grow food and feed more people."

Contact Ricky Mempin at rmempin@scu.edu.