For regenerative food to truly reach its potential, we have to strengthen our hope that a more delicious future is possible, panelists said during a standing-room-only Climate Week NYC event hosted by Food Tank and Lundberg Family Farms.
During the Summit—which opened with a special musical performance from Broadway’s Celia Hottenstein and Ryan Fielding Garrett—farmers, chefs, filmmakers, and business leaders discussed the importance of pushing the food industry toward more transparent, more authentic, more flavorful practices.
“Regenerative agriculture and hope go hand in hand,” Brita Lundberg, Chief Storyteller at Lundberg Family Farms, said during the event. Her fourth-generation family farm wholeheartedly embraces climate-friendly techniques because “we believe the health of our bodies and our planet depend on it.”
Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
Delicious regenerative food has to start with a seed, said Dan Barber, Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Founder of Row 7 Seed Company.
At Row 7, Barber and his collaborators are investing time, energy, and agricultural talent into using “old-world wisdom that can be sped up with technology,” he said, to innovate seeds that bridge taste and sustainability.
“The industry cares about size, shape, color, yield…flavor is very low on the hierarchy,” Barber said. “But if you’re selecting for all that, you’re selecting against flavor and nutrition.”
While Barber spoke, the audience sampled Row 7’s koginut squash, which has been developed with more people- and planet-forward priorities in mind.
“Deliciousness and nutrition and ecological health are all the same,” he said. “They all go together.”
In recent years, as panelists discussed, important stakeholders within food production and distribution systems are pushing to change the food industry’s approach. A particularly important priority is ensuring that terms like “regenerative” have a standardized meaning, so consumers can recognize and trust the impact of their food purchases.
“There are many certification schemes out there. The profound danger we have is confusing consumers about what we are actually talking about,” said farmer Greg Swartz of Willow Wisp Organic Farm.
“If you have conventional agriculture and you add some good practices to it, that doesn’t make it regenerative,” added Paul Lightfoot, General Manager of Patagonia Provisions. “If you’re using chemicals, pesticides, and natural gas, it’s inherently not regenerative.”
That’s why farms like Lundberg Family Farms, which has been farming regeneratively since the 1930s, work so hard to tell their stories. With greater transparency, consumers can understand and recognize instances where sustainability is baked into producers’ daily lives, not simply a trend.
“The companies that are doing the right thing don’t mind letting you know the how and the why of what they’re doing,” says filmmaker Simon English, who with his brother Oliver English runs Common Table Creative. “They’re not afraid to show what’s happening behind the scenes. And a lot of companies putting food in grocery stores these days wouldn’t do the same.”
During the eveningtime Summit, celebrity chefs J.J. Johnson of FieldTrip and Marcela Valladolid of Matriarca Foods prepared bites showcasing ingredients like rice, landrace masa flour, and sustainable seafood that are produced carefully and intentionally.
“If we want to drive change, we have to support our farmers,” says Jason Buechel, Chief Executive Officer at Whole Foods Market and Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores. “If they don’t have an outlet for their supply, it’s ultimately not a sustainable business.”
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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.
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