Farm-to-table

According to Southern Living, Edna Lewis's 1976 The Taste of Country Cooking is "credited with inspiring the modern farm-to-table movement". Among the first vocal and influential farm-to-table businesses were Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, The Herbfarm in Washington, Bon Appétit Management Company based in Palo Alto, California, and The Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado. Since the 2000s, the number of farm-to-table operations has grown rapidly and "the American Farm to Table Restaurant Guide lists restaurants located in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia". == Fast-casual meets farm-to-table ==

More recently restaurateurs have tried to democratize the farm-to-table movement by opening fast-casual restaurants that offer relatively affordable locally sourced food. Sweetgreen, a farm-to-table salad chain, has experienced exponential growth since opening in 2007 in Washington, D.C., and now has more than 60 locations across the United States. In New York, another fast casual concept, Dig Inn, has gained popularity with their "farm-to-counter" model. In 2016, Dig Inn announced they intend to buy and manage their own farm. While they do not plan to source all their food from their farm, it will be a place for education and to learn "exactly how things grow". == Criticism ==

The farm-to-table trend has been met with some criticism. A Boston Globe critic argues it is a fad by millennials whose obsession with food resembled their parents' generational affinity for "music and drug of choice". The movement is also criticized for being relatively less affordable than other forms of food and dining. Others argue that the farm-to-table term is not fully understood by consumers. For example, foods advertised as farm-to-table are considered healthier regardless of actual nutritional content. ==Restaurant fraud==

Journalist investigations at the Tampa Bay Times and San Diego Magazine found widespread fraud in the claims made by the area's farm-to-table restaurants. Cases included a restaurant previously bought from a farm-to-table provider but has since switched to different suppliers without updating the menu; a restaurant claims to buy from a farmer, but the farmer denies ever having sold to that restaurant; a restaurant serving a type of food the cited farmer or fisher has never grown or caught or which is currently out of season or not being provided; a restaurant claiming to serve food from a provider which has gone out of business years ago; food from the claimed source makes up only a small portion of the type of food on the plate. In such cases the food actually served is usually non-local or even "commodity" food which is cheaper and more available out-of-season. In some cases food claimed to be "wild caught", "preservative-free", "made in-house", "Fresh from Florida", or "Long Island duck" was not. Such practices open restaurants to lawsuits from both the farmer whose name is being used fraudulently, and lawsuits from consumers who have purchased mislabelled food products, as well as enforcement actions by government agencies. Tampa Bay Times food critic and investigative reporter Laura Reiley attributes fraud in part to the rise of the farm-to-table trend since 2012, the lack of time of restaurants to deal directly with farms whereas they normally would deal with one or two large distributors, and in many cases sheer profit motive. ==See also==