Article

Farm-to-fork trend inspiring operators

As the use of farm-branded ingredients continue to be a growing trend on restaurant menus, farm-to-fork purchasing companies are picking up speed.

March 8, 2011 by Kim Williams — Reporter, NetWorld Alliance

When Michael Atkinson and his wife go out to dinner, the couple won’t order meat-based menu items unless they know exactly where it comes from, including whether the animal received antibiotics or hormones, and if it was grass-fed versus corn-fed.

Atkinson, CEO and founder of FohBoh.com, a foodservice social media solutions company, has more than 30 years of experience in the foodservice industry as a restaurant owner, operator, executive and entrepreneur. He considers himself a “professional consumer” with “hospitality DNA.”

“Supply chains scare the hell out of me. We’ve been trained, as consumers, to read labels and the ingredients on those labels. We just want to know what’s in our food, so we can make our own decisions,” Atkinson said. “If Choice A offers higher quality, nutritional details and is located in an acceptable radius to my hometown, then I’m going to pay a little more and go for it over Choice B.”

Atkinson and his wife are part of a growing number of consumers who want to know where the products come from when they order their meals at restaurants.

The trend is part of the sustainability and food quality shift that has taken the restaurant industry by storm in recent years, and has even earned a place on the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot in 2011” survey, which lists farm-branded ingredients on its rank of the top 20 trends.

Helping restaurant operators create closer “from the farm” relationships are websites such as FromtheFarm.com and WorldwideFarmersMarket.com.

FromtheFarm.com is an online farmers market launched in 2008, that offers consumers and restaurants premium agricultural products shipped directly from family farms straight to their front doors. Ordering is available 24 hours a day, and products range from meats and seafood, to dairy, produce and rice and grains.

Derrell Kelso, CEO of FromtheFarm.com, said the company recruits farmers, makes sure they are the right fit before adding them to the website and manages the purchasing process. He believes it’s a win-win situation because it helps build the farmers’ brands while delivering quality flavor and products to consumers.

The online farmers market approach also allows chefs to purchase products they may not be able to obtain from their usual purveyors or access items that are not readily available in their area.

“We have high-end hotels purchasing quail eggs in places like Montana or Alaska where they don’t have access to such an item,” Kelso said. “We want to bring fresh flavor to consumers.”

WorldwideFarmersMarket.com has been open for about one year and is another start-up focusing on bringing consumers and farmers together. Through a one-stop shopping database, consumers search for specific items to purchase based on the most convenient location in order to keep shipping costs down.

Kelso acknowledges that purchasing sites, such as his own, are not necessarily more cost effective, but the spotlight isn’t on cost, it’s on the quality of the products.

“We’re all about locally grown, and when May comes around, we’ll be getting orders for peaches and nectarines from Chicago because you can’t get that item there as fresh as we can make available. We don’t have products sitting around in warehouses before making the long journey to grocery stores or food purveyors like Sysco,” he said.

Consumer demands for fresh ingredients

NPD Group, a provider of consumer and retail information and insights, recently completed a report that looked at how consumers define healthy, and tested concepts such as locally grown, fresh and organic ingredients. According to Bonnie Riggs, NPD restaurant industry analyst, consumers ranked food quality as the most important feature among fast casuals when dining out, with the most important attribute being fresh ingredients.

“What we found was that when consumers go out to eat, they’re not consciously looking for low-fat, low-cal, low-sodium, they’re looking for fresh ingredients, the right portion and grilled items,” Riggs said. She also said that among fast casuals, consumers enjoy watching their food being prepared and are most concerned with the appearance of ingredients.

Josh Spiegelman, owner of Roam Burgers, a fast casual restaurant in San Francisco dedicated to using high-quality, farm fresh ingredients, thinks that consumers are becoming more self-conscious of the kinds of foods they are eating while dining out.

“Our ingredients come straight from the farms, and we make sure to call out the names of those farms. People are really interested in that. It’s right up there on our menu board,” Spiegelman said. “The transparency part of it is who we are. Yeah, it’s more expensive and it’s a challenge for us, but our customers understand and appreciate it. They are willing to pay a little more in order to know exactly where their food comes from.”

Local Harvest.org, founded in 1998, is another resource dedicated to connecting consumers and restaurants to family farms. Erin Barnett, director of Local Harvest.org, said the organization now has about 400 to 500 restaurants that have created listings in its directory that have expressed a commitment to farm-to-fork practices.

“I think it helps to inform the public — for people who want to know what good food means,” Barnett said. “I think Chipotle is doing some interesting things. All manner of things are possible. The more demand from consumers, the more growth could be expected."