Getting my local take-out to go organic….

This is the first in a series of blog entries I plan to post as I attempt (and hopefully succeed!) to get a local restaurant to serve sustainably-raised meat.

We’ve been really grateful and extremely pleased at the positive response we’ve had to the Sustainable Table Blog and have been blown away by the number of people reading it. But we’ve felt like something has been lacking, and we think it’s a personal touch. So, starting today, we’re going to intersperse first hand accounts and editorial type posts between our news posts. We hope you enjoy it – and hope you’ll join in the conversation with us! Please let us know what you think.

Last Thursday, I visited a local take-out place that just opened up in my neighborhood. I’ve been going pretty regularly because their food, even though it is mostly for take out, is delicious, home-cooked- style food. They offer great vegetable sides like roasted root vegetables and lentil salads.

So, I’m there the other night, and there is all this glorious fried chicken on display. I usually try not to eat meat unless I know where it came from, and since this stuff looked so good, I decided to ask. It’s a small place, and the owner/chef is usually running back and forth behind the counter, cooking food while giving directions to his staff and greeting friends that always seem to be stopping by. This evening, however, was pretty slow.

“Do you know where this chicken came from?” I asked.

The woman at the counter looked to the chef, who replied “It’s nothing fancy, if that’s what you mean. It’s not organic. Just regular chicken bought at the butcher shop down the street.”

My friend, with whom I planned to share this meal, seemed a little embarassed. “Well that’s okay, let’s just get it anyway. We’ll take 2 pieces”. We later got into an argument about it.

“You sounded so snobby back there.” he said, made visibly uncomfortable by the whole thing.

“Why? Because I want to know where my food comes from?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s like saying ‘this food isn’t good enough’ and you sound like a snob.” and the conversation deteriorated into Crossfire-style debate from there.

This is a problem that I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of for awhile now – the stigma attached to organic food. It usually costs more and therefore implies a certain level of status or condescension to others. Of course you could always spend less on beer and put that extra money toward better food (ahem) but that’s another debate.

But back to the scene in the restaurant. Although the owner is clearly catering to a crowd that likes quality food (at least the prices and french words on the menu suggest as much) he seemed a little put off by my question about the chicken, equating “organic” with “fancy”. How do we get people to realize that organic isn’t an excess but a necessity? Well, that’s my challenge as I try to convince my favorite local spot to start buying from a local farmer.

I think my next step will be to research local options and compare prices, so that I can prove that it won’t cost more to serve meat without the hormones, antibiotics and all that fun stuff. Stay tuned and wish me luck.