The Farmers’ Turn to Take Center Stage in the Food Industry – Food Trends 2011
6Do you like this post?
World-renowned restaurants are celebrated, and they become a part of a tourist’s pilgrim to another country. Restaurateurs and chefs who made the restaurant popular worldwide are celebrated, and they earn a reputation like kings and queens in the food industry. Now, it is the farmers turn to take center stage as restaurants and chefs give credit to farmers and producers who provided them the means to exercise and excel at their crafts. Farmers have become one of the highlights in the food trends 2011.
With this growing trend, I can safely say that “celebrity farmers and producers” are one of the emerging trends this new year. In fact, they are now being given the recognition that they deserve in shaping the food industry and introducing the importance of quality and fresh food products in the menus. It is an emerging trend that we, as chefs, should jump at if we want to stay ahead of the “culinary pack” and be one of the pioneers to offer something new and ground-breaking to the food industry.
The Role of Farmers and Producers in the Food Industry
Mass food production, it has been something that flourished and became a “need” to cater to the growing society and its ever-growing needs and wants. Because of this need, manufacturers of pesticides, fertilizers, and drugs introduced artificial means of making their crops, products, livestock, and fowls bigger and better to meet the demands of society. It has been found out in the recent years though that this practice is not good for the health and safety of consumers.
Because of this awareness, the need for organic, drug-free, and chemical-free food products increased as many farmers and producers went back to basics. Then came the boom of the organic farming industry as more and more consumers became health-conscious, especially in light of food-related problems like obesity, heart diseases, and diabetes, among others.
Another industry that depends on organic food farming is the food and restaurant industry, especially the first-class restaurants that pride themselves on serving only the freshest and safest food products. Right now, there is an up-and-coming trend of restaurant owners and chefs celebrating and honoring their farmers and producers by giving them the spotlight for the tremendous service they provide to the food industry.
Celebrating and Honoring Farmers and Producers
There are a variety of means that popular restaurateurs and celebrity chefs celebrate and honor their food product suppliers and producers, and we will do very well to take advantage of this trend and join the bandwagon as well. For this reason, here are some of the things that we can do so as not to be left behind.
As a chef, one of the means wherein we can introduce not only ourselves but our cuisine as well is through blogs and personal websites. Now, what better way to give thanks to our suppliers than by honoring them in our blogs? We could also invite them to write an article or two about their service and food products. That way, your readers, which are probably also some of your customers, will get to know where their food came from.
Another way of benefiting from the celebrity farmer trend is to create a special menu in honor of their very important service to the food industry. You and your supplier can work together on the special dish, giving a very good detail description of the menu. This way, your diners will know where the ingredients in their dish came from.
There are a lot of people who would be interested in getting to know the farmers and suppliers of their favorite restaurant, so why not take this opportunity to work with your local farmer or supplier in creating an exciting event? This is a very wonderful opportunity to not only showcase the importance of fresh and organic food products but to also show your diners what you can cook up using the ingredients available at the local farm. This will also be a very good opportunity to encourage consumers to always go for healthy and quality foods rather than mass-produced food products. Who knows, the consumers might also be encouraged to put up small organic farms for their own personal consumption.
These are just some of the ideas on how you can profit from the emerging trend of celebrity farmers. It will be a bit of a hard work, especially since some farmers and suppliers shy away from the spotlight, but in the end, it will be worth all your effort as you and your suppliers encourage consumers to go the healthy route.
Image Credit: internetbingoblog.com
Popularity: 1% [?]
Currently 6 comments - But what do you think?
Related Posts
Digg it
Delicious it
Stumble it
Sphinn itSign up here to ensure that you receive our regular ezine, blog updates and the entire chefs package for FREE! Learn more
Australian Chef- Matthew J. Goudge is the mastermind behind the formation of the ProChef360 platform.
Couldn’t agree more Chef, its about time ethical farmers ‘wares’ took their place in the limelight. Have been thinking along these lines myself,
[Reply]
Chef Matthew J.G Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 11:18 am
We actually can learn a lot from them if we “really” put our minds to it.
Matthew
[Reply]
Thanks for the link Matthew. I would love to see this get bigger.
[Reply]
Chef Matthew J.G Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
It is my pleasure. I am with you on this point.
I am currently living and working in Maldives there is no farmers market to be seen. (For obvious reasons).
I actually miss going to the local farmers markets and browsing through the produce on offer.
Matthew
[Reply]
What is your favorite farmers market?
http://action.farmland.org/site/PageServer?pagename=best_local_farmers_market_vote
[Reply]