University:
Boston University
Course:
QST BA 472 | Business Experiments and Causal Methods
Academic year:

2024
Views:

183

Pages:

9
Author:

debatehl4dcq

Promoting local, community-based sourcing through restaurants Case studies ● ● ● ● Mei Mei (Boston/Brookline) Homeﬁeld Kitchencraft & Brewitchery (Sturbridge) Sweetgreen (nationwide) Dig Inn (Northeast, mainly NY and Boston) Identifying businesses that interact with local community (and commercial) farms ● ● ● How are restaurants interacting with local farms? How do restaurants choose which farms to source from? How do restaurants help support local sourcing through consumer education? ● ● What are the barriers to other restaurants sourcing locally? What beneﬁts does local sourcing provide to the local community? How are restaurants interacting with farms? Local, large commercial farms Distant, large commercial farms Local community farms Commercial aggregators Restaurants Local, small, independently owned farms Local food networks What are the types and impacts of different producers? ● Large-scale, commercial farms ○ ○ ○ ● Can be local or distant Can minimize costs through economies of scale Continual use, monoculture ﬁelds; tilling; fertilizer and/or pesticide application; little to no community engagement Small-scale, community or independently owned farms ○ ○ @uﬁboston via Instagram Mainly local Diverse, rotating, seasonal and regional crops; integrated pest management; community engagement ● Just local is not enough @waltham_ﬁelds via Instagram How do restaurants choose which farms to source from? ● ● First and foremost: they want to go in person, meet the farmers, and see their farming practices ﬁrsthand, over third party certiﬁcations Third party certiﬁcations ○ ○ ○ ○ ● Organic certiﬁcation ASPCA welfare standards GAP and GHP Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch These restaurants want to support organizations that they see doing good in their communities ○ ○ ○ Better working conditions for farm workers and distributors Education and accessibility Prioritized purchasing from small-scale, minority, POC, LGBTQ+, women How do restaurants educate their consumers? ● ● ● ● Often people’s ﬁrst interaction with local sourcing Information displayed in-store or online Changing expectations when it comes to food and availability, hopefully having customers leave more excited about their food and ready to ask questions about where their other food is coming from Mission-oriented business (community, land preservation, responsible production) @sweetgreen via Instagram What can we take away from these case studies? ● Local and responsible sourcing provide beneﬁts to the larger economy and ecology of the region that go far beyond the restaurant itself ○ ● Broader focus of restaurants with responsible sourcing: sustainability and minimizing waste within the restaurant, community building initiatives, accessibility, employee education and advocacy Barriers to local sourcing: access, information, cost (money and time) ○ ○ How do we encourage and facilitate restaurants with more conventional sourcing models to transition to local, responsible sourcing? How do we help foster lasting relationships between local farms and businesses? How policymakers can help support local, responsible sourcing ● ● ● ● Create or support existing training programs that help restaurants train their employees, transition to local, community-based sourcing Certiﬁcation programs that are responsible and accessible, both for the restaurants themselves and the farms they source from Oﬃce of travel and tourism advertisement of businesses that source locally and responsibly (certiﬁcation also plays a role in this) Sponsoring conferences where business owners and producers can share their experiences and challenges, build lasting business relationships