Perhaps no one represented the American work ethic more than the dairy farmer. Early morning hours and hard physical labor, often conducted in solitude while ankle deep in muck. Families working together to get the job done. They have long proudly supplied a demand for their community, and like most farmers, are clearly not in it for the money.

Today however, the American dairy farmer also represents the frustration and economic hardship evident across our nation. Increasing volatility in the price of milk paid to farmers, higher feed costs, corporate consolidation in the supply chain, organic milk farms scaling up, and questionable government policies all have farmers shedding a few tears. The life is so unappealing that the number of American families remaining in milk farming has plummeted from roughly 165,000 20 years ago, to less than 50,000 today.

Behind the innocent glass of milk lies an intriguing story that’s not so black and white: Many farmers are losing money, organic milk is in short supply,  anti-trust lawsuits have been filed, and legislative reform is on the agenda. Farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers are engaged in conversations like never before. And cows. Don’t forget about the cows.

Please join us for the next Kitchen Table Talks in San Francisco on Tuesday, February 21 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at 18 Reasons, as we discuss the current state of the organic dairy industry.

When: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Time: Food and drink at 6:30. Discussion from 7 – 8:30 pm
Where: 18 Reasons (3674 18th St., San Francisco, 94110)
Tickets: $10 Brown Paper Tickets. NOTE: A limited number of sliding scale tickets will be available on a first come, first serve basis at 7 pm on the night of the event.

Joining us in conversation will be:

Leslie Butler, Department of Agricultural Economics at U.C. Davis. Leslie holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University. He regularly testifies at state and national hearings regarding dairy policy, and has published numerous articles on dairy production and economics marketing and policy.

Mike Griffin, West Region Pool Manager, Organic Valley. Mike was born and raised in Petaluma, CA. After his first year of college, he began his journey into farming, and never looked back. His vast  experience over 30 years at Clover Stornetta as a truck driver, distribution foreman, plant manager and in public relations, ultimately led him to Organic Valley in 2011, the nation’s largest cooperative of organic farmers.

Richard Hughes, owner Westfield Jersey’s in Bodega, CA. Richard was a self-proclaimed “city boy,” until he turned 15 and a 4-H project began his life long journey and commitment to dairy farming.  In 1976, Richard and his wife purchased a 182-acre ranch just outside of Bodega. They currently have around 100 Jersey cows, have completed the transition to organic farming, and provide milk to Straus Family Creamery.

Bob McGee, CFO/COO Straus Family Creamery, Marshall, CA.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of Civil Eats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. Seasonal snacks and refreshments generously provided by Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

In the 10 weeks since that momentous spark in mid-September, what began as an audacious protest, call to action, and singular act of civil disobedience on Wall Street, has quickly taken root worldwide. Capturing the hearts of those negatively impacted by the current economic and political system, speaking passionately for the disenfranchised, and uniting arms in solidarity with protest movements around the world, the Occupy movement has become a lightning rod and catalyst stimulating a long needed dialogue. Economic and social justice, corporate control and profiteering, and systematic corruption are just part of that discussion.

On Thursday, December 15, 2011 please join us in San Francisco for the next Kitchen Table Talks for a thought provoking and stimulating exploration of the context, implications, actions, and promise of Occupy for the food movement.

When: Thursday, December 15, 2011; 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Food and drink at 6:30 pm; Discussion at 7:00 p.m.

Where: Women’s Building, 3543 18th St. (between Valencia and Guerrero Streets), San Francisco

Tickets: $10, available at Brown Paper Tickets
A limited number of sliding scale tickets will be available on a first come, first serve basis at 7:00 p.m. on the night of the event.

Joining us in conversation will be:

Raj Patel, thought leader, writer, academic, and activist who has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and now protests against both. Raj is currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, he regularly writes for The Guardian, and for many mainstream publications. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times bestseller.

Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety, is a public interest attorney, activist, and author. He has been involved in public interest legal activity in numerous areas of technology, human health and the environment for nearly 25 years. He is author of Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food and editor of the highly-acclaimed Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. His articles on law, technology, social, and psychological issues have also appeared in numerous law reviews, technology journals, popular magazines, and newspapers across the country, and he has been featured in numerous documentaries including the film The Future of Food.  In 1994, the Utne Reader named Kimbrell as one of the world’s leading 100 visionaries.  In 2007, he was named one of the 50 people most likely to save the planet by The Guardian-U.K.

Sarah Treuhaft, Associate Director, Policylink. Sarah collaborates with local and national partners on research and action projects and authors policy briefs and reports to advance Policylink’s social equity mission. Sarah has worked on food policy and was a member of the team that successfully advocated for the creation of a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Her most recent publication is America’s Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model, co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor. Sarah was a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. Seasonal snacks and refreshments generously provided by Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

Everyone from Willie Nelson to your average Zuccotti Park resident knows that we need to see policy that reflects our national needs for good, clean, healthy, and fair food. But, how and where to get involved in a piece of legislation as complicated and entrenched as the Farm Bill? To aid in your education, we’re excited to announce a special Kitchen Table Talks on Sunday, November 6, in conjunction with the Community Food Security Coalition’s annual conference. Join us in San Francisco for a lively conversation about the Farm Bill at our new location at 18 Reasons and we’ll take a look at this important piece of legislation from national, state and local levels, and answer your questions about what the it is, where it is headed and how you can get involved.

When: Sunday, November 6, 2011; 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: 18 Reasons, 3674 18th Street (@Dolores), San Francisco

Tickets: $10, available at Brown Paper Tickets

Food and drink at 6:30 pm; Discussion at 7:00 pm
8:30/9:00 Mission Pub Crawl with Jen Dalton

Joining us in conversation will be:

Kari Hamerschlag is a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group. Kari monitors implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill and promotes policies that expand local and sustainable agriculture, increases consumption of healthy food and reduces agriculture’s negative impact on the environment. She educates and activates consumers on these issues and recently authored a comprehensive Meateater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health. Kari is a member of Oakland’s Food Policy Council and recently helped lead a collaborative effort with over a dozen groups to promote a California citizen petition and organizational sign on letter on the Farm Bill around National Food Day.

Udi Lazimy helps farmers advocate for federal policies that support organic agriculture, and currently runs the Organic Farming Research Foundation’s (OFRF) national 2012 Farm Bill Campaign to ensure that widespread public support for organic is adequately reflected in the Farm Bill. Before coming to OFRF, he ran the farmland preservation and agriculture outreach program for Cascade Land Conservancy in Seattle. Udi has also directed programming for nonprofit conservation and sustainable development organizations across the country and abroad.

Susan Kuehn is the SF Coordinator for Food & Water Watch building a grassroots coalition of SF residents, organizations and businesses around our Resolution proposing that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors support initiatives that rebuild local and regional food infrastructure, support small and medium-sized producers and ensure that they are fairly compensated by buyers, promote sustainable and urban agriculture, increase access to health food, and connect San Francisco residents with local farmers and ranchers.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. Seasonal snacks and refreshments generously provided by Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

While the expression “vote with your fork” has become a slogan for the modern food movement, many advocates struggle with how to move from conscientious consumerism to engaged citizenship. Harnessing the groundswell of public interest in food to create lasting policy change was the subject of a recent San Francisco Kitchen Table Talks, a monthly conversation about food issues.

Richmond District Supervisor Eric Mar, San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance co-coordinator Eli Zigas, organizing expert Stephen Burdo, and 50 local food advocates gathered at 18 Reasons to discuss tactics and tools for activating the good food movement. Surrounded by street artist Zoltron’s images of a conflicted Ronald McDonald, the conversation focused on two successful campaigns that put San Francisco food policy on the national stage.

Supervisor Mar brought his perspective as a legislator and chief sponsor of the Healthy Meal Incentive Ordinance, passed last November. Misleadingly nicknamed the “Happy Meal Ban” by critics, the ordinance holds fast food restaurants accountable by placing limits on calories, sugar, and fat in kids’ meals served with toys.

Facing a fierce opposition from chains like McDonald’s, Mar credits the campaign’s success to uniting diverse community interests under the banner of public health. “Legislation is not the most important thing; it’s the process of empowering or disempowering people,” he said.

The campaign found allies in local community groups with interests in food access and children’s health, including the SEFA Food Guardians in Bayview Hunters Point, the Women’s Collective of La Raza Centro Legal, and Literacy for Environmental Justice. They also partnered with Corporate Accountability International, authors of the Retire Ronald and Value the Meal campaigns.

McDonald’s threw lobbying and advertising money into a strong counter-campaign, claiming that the regulations would hurt small businesses and take away parents’ right to choose. In response, the Healthy Meal campaign framed the issue as a public health concern, rallying pediatricians and parents groups behind the cause.

Eight supervisors’ votes were needed to override Mayor Gavin Newsom’s anticipated veto. The campaign put pressure on Supervisors Sophie Maxwell and Bevan Dufty by mobilizing parents and communities in their districts. The ordinance passed eight to three. By asserting local rights over the interests of multimillion-dollar food corporations, the groundbreaking legislation sent a powerful message. “It’s a small step forward but it’s a proud moment when you force corporations to make some changes,” said Mar. “We have to be revolutionaries in thinking about the food system, not only about what we do as individuals. It has to challenge the corporations that rip off and oppress our communities.”

From the Grassroots Up

From the citizen frontlines, Eli Zigas discussed how the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA) went about changing outdated zoning code, thereby empowering urban farmers to cultivate and sell their produce in the city. The initiative originated with two young urban farmers, Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway of Little City Gardens, a 3/4-acre farm in a residential neighborhood in the outer Mission district. When they decided they wanted to set up a farmstand and start marketing to restaurants, they ran up against city rules requiring an expensive conditional-use permit and a hearing before the S.F. Planning Commission.

They launched a campaign to revise the old law, backed by the newly formed SFUAA, who began sending letters to the mayor’s office. After an influential sympathizer wrote a letter of support, the mayor began to take notice.  Motivating many individual citizens to take action (grassroots), while simultaneously forming alliances with well-connected or well-respected champions (“grasstops”), were key ingredients in the campaign’s success. “Much of what we did was not about electronic activism,” said Zigas. “It was about old-school activism that used electronic tools in turning out people and sending in letters and making phone calls and turning out people again.”

After nearly seven months of meetings with city departments and supervisors, Supervisor David Chiu and Mayor Newsom introduced the new legislation, kicking off a larger public debate. As a volunteer-run effort, numbers were important, with some individuals being more or less involved. Participants showed up at hearings, circulated petitions, solicited businesses for support, got other groups to sign on, wrote letters, built a Web site, and presented to classes.

Timing and luck also played their part. Urban ag was experiencing a renaissance and public support was flourishing. In 2009, Mayor Newsom passed the Executive Directive for Healthy and Sustainable Food, which called for an increase in urban food production through an audit of unused public land, support from Rec & Park, and new marketing opportunities for local farmers. The SFUAA’s proposal was right in San Francisco’s sweet spot.

On April 12, 2010, the bill passed unanimously, raising the level of power and influence of farmers and gardeners in the city. “When it came down to it, the most important thing was packing 70 people into a City Hall hearing room, so much so that the police had to keep people out,” said Zigas. “That had an impact on everyone who saw that hearing.”

Tools of the Trade

Stephen Burdo, Political Director for Kathleen Russell Consulting, a strategic communications firm specializing in nonprofit and political campaigns, described the importance of blending tried-and-true traditional organizing methods with modern tools.

Prior to social media, some of history’s most successful movements, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized through word of mouth: church meetings, phone calls, knocking on doors. From the food movement playbook, federal food labeling requirements started with a group of California mothers who organized through PTA meetings, leading to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990.

With the advent of social media tools, the rules for engagement have changed, but they haven’t replaced direct action; they’ve just maximized it. “Social media increases your ability to organize by 100 times,” Burdo says. An early example of social media organizing, Kitchen Gardeners International’s 2008 Eat the View campaign gathered 110,000 signatures through online channels, successfully urging the White House to plant a garden. The project reached a critical mass after months of campaigning when their petition jumped from 10,000 signatures to 20,000 in six days after it posted clever videos that went viral.

How can food activists successfully blend old-school tactics with modern technology to create real and lasting change?

Tell a story. The SFUAA’s campaign gained attention by presenting a simple, easily relatable story about two young gardeners who just wanted to sell their veggies. Create strong, clear messaging, and use voices, photos, and videos to bring your issue to life.

Get the word out. Know where your message is going. According to Burdo, 71 percent of Americans are on Facebook, making it the place to go to build and converse with supporters. Only 5 percent of the general public, but 90 percent of media professionals, use Twitter, making it less useful for grassroots organizing and more useful for framing the debate for reporters.

Seek grassroots and grasstops allies. Form coalitions to build numbers. Partner with community groups and organizations that share interests in public health, local development, and the environment. Don’t underestimate the power of sympathizers in high places, who can push your cause behind closed doors.

Use social media, but don’t overuse it. Clogging feeds and inboxes with e-blasts is no way to keep supporters. Be strategic in your communications. “Post no more than three to four times a week on Facebook,” said Burdo. “Organizing is about building a list and turning that list out.”

Keep momentum going. In drawn-out political campaigns—and most of them are—the worst thing you can do is let momentum fade, according to Burdo. To keep supporters engaged, provide concrete actions to participate in, such as meetings or rallies. Zigas agrees: “When you ask people to do something make it meaningful (don’t waste volunteers’ time), make it fun, and win.” Celebrate victories of all sizes, even if it’s just scoring a hearing date.

Make it personal. What about those chain-letter petitions that glut our inboxes? The panelists agreed that a personalized paper letter goes much further in getting a legislator’s attention than a boilerplate e-mail. Put time into your communications to elected officials, write from the heart, and create a meaningful connection.For the SFUAA, having online petitions, a Facebook page, and a MailChimp list helped keep their supporters informed, but they were just tools of the trade, not ends in themselves. “It’s not how many tweets you have, but how well your tweets and phone calls get people out to do tangible things,” said Zigas.

Further Reading

• Michael Pollan discusses how the good food movement is winning the culture war but making little progress with the political one. Read his article in The Nation.
• Online campaign strategist Michael Silberman summarizes the best articles about online organizing. Read his work at the Huffington Post.
• Frances Fox Piven describes the process of change through grassroots efforts in Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America.
• For an instructive take on the late 19th Century farmers’ insurgency, read Lawrence Goodwyn’s The Populist Movement.
• Mark Bittman relates Occupy Wall Street to the modern food movement, calling for a systemic approach to change. Read his column at the New York Times.
• Want to get involved now? There are many opportunities to engage around the 2012 Farm Bill. Visit Food and Water Watch.

As consumers, we all know and try to live the mantra “vote with your fork.” But as citizens, voting with our forks can only get us so far. Standing up for real change in our food system requires getting informed, involved, and activated. As the political season heats up, please join us for Kitchen Table Talks on Tuesday, September 20 to hear how ordinary people made extraordinary improvements in our community and learn the tools of political engagement. It will be the first KTT in the new 18 Reasons location, across the street from Bi-Rite Market.

We encourage participants to take their newly learned skills the following week to a free San Francisco mayoral candidate forum on Monday, September 26, sponsored by the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance, San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, and Bay Area Water Stewards. There you can engage candidates on their perspectives on issues related to urban agriculture, schoolyard greening, and the City’s management of water resources.

When: Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Where: 18 Reasons, 3674 18th Street (@ Dolores), San Francisco

Food and drink at 6:30 pm; Discussion at 7:00 pm

Joining us in conversation will be:

San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar. For over two decades, Eric has been a dedicated and responsive advocate for working families, youth and seniors, small businesses, and all the diverse residents of the Richmond District and San Francisco. He championed the Healthy Meal Ordinance in San Francisco and co-sponsored the urban agriculture zoning ordinance.

Eli Zigas, co-coordinator of the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance, an all-volunteer community organization, which promotes the growing of food within San Francisco and the associated goals of its member organizations, through advocacy, education, and grassroots action. This year, Eli helped organize the successful push to change the City’s zoning code to allow gardeners to sell what they grow in the city. Eli is also the Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program Manager at the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR).

Stephen Burdo, Political Director for Kathleen Russell Consulting and an expert in using social media in the areas of legislative advocacy, electoral campaigns, grassroots organizing, media relations, strategic planning, and community outreach.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. Seasonal snacks and refreshments generously provided by Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

Summer in San Francisco is here, and if you listen carefully, you will hear a cry from locavores: “The tomatoes are here!” Our farmers’ market tomatoes usually start with small cherry tomatoes, which burst in your mouth, and as we head into August, you’ll start seeing larger tomatoes, which are perfect for salads, finally culminating in tomato abundance in September, which is the time that many of us start our canning projects.

But tomatoes that we get at our local farmers’ markets are not the norm. Much of the $5 billion tomato industry in the United States focuses on providing tomatoes to consumers year-round. This consumer demand comes at a steep price; supermarket tomatoes are usually tasteless, artificially ripened, and picked by farmworkers who are treated unjustly and exposed to extreme levels of pesticides.

Join us for the next Kitchen Table Talks in San Francisco where we delve into the story of tomatoes, including labor rights and the successes of the Campaign for Fair Food, heirloom varieties of tomatoes, and a discussion about tomato research being conducted at the University of California, Davis.

When: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Where: Viracocha, 998 Valencia Street at 21st Street, San Francisco
Food and drink at 6:30 pm; Discussion at 7:00 pm

Joining us for our panel discussion will be:

Fred Hempel. Hempel is the owner of Sunol-based Baia Nicchia Farm & Nursery, known by chefs, home gardeners, and tomato enthusiasts for their large variety of heirloom tomatoes. The farm, on San Francisco Water Department land in Sunol, is host to over 100 varieties of tomatoes that have been grown specifically for the many microclimates of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Damara Luce. Luce is the national coordinator of Just Harvest USA, and worked and lived in Immokalee, Florida for over seven years, working closely with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to bring to light the injustices of tomato farming in Florida. She aims to build a more just and sustainable food system with a focus on establishing fair wages, humane working condition, and fundamental rights for farmworkers.

Emma Torbert. Torbert is a post-graduate fellow working at the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis, and works there on the Russell Ranch project, a farm where 180,000 pounds of processing tomatoes are grown each year for research purposes. Through the Russell Ranch project, data is being collected on different varietals, trends in yield, nutritional content, environmental impact, and efficiency in use of water.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. A $10 suggested donation is requested at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Seasonal snacks and refreshments generously provided by Village Market, Bi-Rite Market, and Shoe Shine Wine.

Photo caption: Heirloom tomato, Baia Nicchia Farm.

The world is still, after several long years, desperately trying to climb out of the financial abyss brought about during the latest global financial meltdown. Painful “austerity” measures, largely impacting working class people who already suffered the most during the crisis, are proffered by those responsible as the short-term economic fix to what ails nations around the world.

After roughly 150 years, and the countless day-to-day tribulations of billions of people, capitalism is being questioned like never before. Not surprisingly, the Bay Area’s counterculture spirit transforms economic models as well. New, locally minded businesses whose lifeblood includes notions antithetical to the dominant paradigm, including shared prosperity, enabling and/or giving to others, and creating community, are thriving.

Do they offer a more satisfying, rewarding, and ultimately more viable path for long-term success for society at large? On Wednesday, June 29, please join Kitchen Table Talks as we discuss the vision, mechanics, and spirit behind these “Alternative Business Models.”

Joining us in conversation will be:

Cathy Goldsmith, member of the Cheese Board. Cathy graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in education and has cooked at various restaurants in the East Bay, Philadelphia, and London.  Her interest in food, politics, and social justice have found a home at the Cheese Board (a 100 percent worker owned co-op since 1971), where she’s been for the past 16 years.

Anthony Myint, restaurateur, chef, and author. After eating his way across 31 countries at age 25, Anthony landed in San Francisco and proceeded to co-create Mission Street Food, Mission Burger, Mission Chinese Food, and Commonwealth Restaurant–with its “benevolent business model.” Anthony was named among the most influential people in food in 2010 by Chow.com and among the “Top 40 under 40” by Food & Wine magazine.

Jessica Prentice, Co-Founder, Three Stone Hearth. Chef, educator, innovator, and mother, Jessica has been a spark in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. Formerly chef of the Headlands Center for the Arts and Director of Education Programs for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Jessica coined the word “locavore” and co-created the Local Foods Wheel. Her first book, Full Moon Feast was released by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2006.

Caleb Zigas, Executor Director, La Cocina. After interning with ProMujer in El Alto Bolivia where he learned about microfinance in its infancy, Caleb brought those lessons to bear at La Cocina when it opened its doors in 2005 and has been shaping its incubator program ever since.  A former Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneur and named one of five “Community Organizers making a difference” by Inc. magazine, Caleb’s combination of food industry experience and commitment to social justice helps strongly define La Cocina.

The Panel discussion will be preceded by an introduction to the Living Wage by Karl Kramer, Campaign Co-Director of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition.

When: Wednesday, June 29 from 6:45-8:00 pm

Where: Viracocha, 998 Valencia Street @ 21st Street, San Francisco

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. A $10 suggested donation is requested at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Sustainable food and refreshments will be provided, courtesy of Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

Yesterday, we reported on the dark side to chocolate that many consumers are often blissfully unaware of, or deliberately chose to ignore. Cacao is grown predominantly on small family farms in a narrow tropical band around the equator. While a handful of massive global corporations control and profit handsomely from the worldwide chocolate trade, millions of cacao farmers and their families toil in poverty year after year and deforestation is widespread. Worse still, child slavery tragically persists, despite reputable international reports that surfaced over a decade ago–in particular highlighting the world’s largest exporter of cocoa, the Ivory Coast.

Mindful of the unbearable social and environmental costs endemic to the current chocolate trade, and concluding that the industry doesn’t have the resolve to create material positive change, many courageous folks are responding with a different approach. Fair Trade, Direct Trade, Profit Sharing, Co-ops, and Bean to Bar are among many alternatives being pursued.

Gratefully, there are some inspiring souls who have been moved by the troubling social and environmental injustices endemic to today’s chocolate industry. On February 22, 2011 at Viracocha in San Francisco, Kitchen Table Talks hosted an intimate discussion about the issues facing, and solutions offered, by some conscious industry role-models.

To set the stage, the 85 folks in attendance watched a brief clip from 2001’s award-winning documentary, Slavery: a Global Investigation. In it, Kate Blewett and Brian Woods (inspired by the work of Free the Slaves‘ Kevin Bales), documented first hand accounts of modern day child slavery in the cacao fields of the Ivory Coast. Former child slaves chillingly spoke of “masters,” whippings, beatings, and daily abuse, and a local expert stated his belief that 90 percent of cacao plantations in the Ivory Coast (the world’s largest cacao exporter at roughly 40 percent of global supply) are tainted by slavery.

Following the film clip, we served a pastry graciously baked by Jim Dodge, the Director of Special Culinary Programs at Bon Appétit Management Company, using Fair Trade chocolate from Cordillera. Jim’s delicious creation resolutely dispelled a concern about the taste and consistent quality from Fair Trade chocolate suppliers.

The discussion among these industry pioneers was reflective, thought provoking, and inspiring. John Kehoe, VP of sourcing and development for Tcho, relayed his keen observations from more than 20 years in the specialty cocoa trade. John provided color on the remoteness of small family cacao farms in Ecuador, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, and the many difficulties faced by growers in getting their beans to market.

Brett Beach, co-founder of Madecasse (recently named by Fast Company as among the 50 most innovative companies in the world) shared similar insights about growers in Madagascar, and the myriad ways farmers are cheated by collectors once they manage to get to market. Carlos Mann, co-founder of Nicaraguan chocolate maker Momotombo, and founder of the exciting educational initiative OMETEOTE, re-affirmed the harsh conclusion that in this industry “farmers will never grow their way out of poverty.”

But rather than acquiesce and contribute to such a fate for the farming families whose lives have crossed their own, these enlightened leaders are choosing to obliterate the traditional business models based on more than 100 years of the colonial ethos and are empowering their partners, rather than exploiting them. For these visionaries, paying a higher price for beans—a fair price—is just the start.  They are also cognizant that by providing farmers knowledge, skills, tools and training in fermentation and artisanal chocolate making, they create lasting value that benefits all parties. Farmers learn to add-value to their beans, while at the same time the knowledge gained through making and tasting chocolate (sadly, a rare occurrence) creates a positive feedback loop that improves the quality of both farmed and finished product.

Treating their cacao farmers with dignity as partners, rather than solely as a dehumanized link in their supply chain, creates value in economic terms and beyond. A win-win to be sure.

Adrienne Fitch-Frankel, Fair Trade campaign director for Global Exchange, highlighted some of the many benefits that the Fair Trade system has meant for these remote communities since  Fair Trade certification began  in 2002: Price premiums for Fair Trade certified beans that are re-invested in the community, the availability of low-cost credit, and empowerment through democratically run cooperatives.

Adrienne also spoke passionately about the building momentum in Global Exchange’s Raise the Bar Hershey’s campaign, which presents mounds of content for conscientious consumers to chew on about the hypocrisy within an iconic and troubling U.S. company which professes to be an advocate for children yet continues to source a majority of their cacao from regions notorious for child slavery and petulantly refuses to provide transparency and assurances that their products are free of such child abuse. (*For a complete list, see below.)

Christine Doerr, owner of the award winning artisanal truffle maker Neo Cocoa, provided insight into the difficult trade-offs she makes in her own sourcing decisions. While in the past she had purchased Fair Trade certified chocolate, she is not currently doing so because of a better quality to cost ratio currently found elsewhere. Armed with knowledge and ever mindful of the direct impact of her commercial decisions, even at her business size, Christine is enthusiastic and open-minded about ongoing sourcing decisions which would continue to elevate her heartfelt creations to even greater heights.

The Conscious Consumer

My son should not have to wait until the next century to witness the end of slavery. We all know the hideous abuses wrought by global capitalism—the exploitation of human and natural resources that has brought insufferable damage to so much of the world. We know, because like my boy, we see it if we truly look.

If you are tired of waiting for companies, governments, and legislators to act responsibly, in tune with the morals of billions of their fellow global citizens, then simply spend your dollars elsewhere. Visionary companies producing world-class chocolate, such as our panelists, are growing, but they need your help.

“Messages” in the form of greenwashing campaigns, or vacuous corporate “sustainability” reports, are the disingenuous domain of those profiting from a history of lip-service from consumers, and destruction in their wake. Don’t just spend your hard earned money with small, conscientious chocolatiers in order to send a message to the Hershey’s, M&M Mars, Nestlé, Cargill and ADM‘s of the world. Spend money with the Tcho’s, Madecasse, and Momitombo’s of the world because it truly tastes great, and, as my boy has learned so easily, feels even better.

Join the campaigns to end slavery in chocolate and bring dignity to the tens of millions of farming families whose livelihoods depend on the chocolate trade. Tell Hershey’s executives, loud and clear, that their behavior and sourcing practices are unacceptable: Simply stop buying their candy. 

Child slavery and chocolate: Indelibly intertwined? With your help, not for long.

*Hershey’s products: 5th Avenue, Almond Joy, Cadbury, Caramello, Good & Plenty, Heath, Jolly Rancher, Kit Kat, Milk Duds, Mounds, Mr. Goodbar, Payday, Rolo, Skor, Symphony, Take5, Thingamajig, Twizzlers, Whatchamacallit, Whoppers, York, Zagnut, Zero

Photo: Megan Felde Jones

As a father, there is perhaps nothing more profound than being mindful, present, and open-minded enough to life’s lessons that my young child incessantly and brusquely thrusts in my face. As a winemaker, little has motivated or reminded me more about our natural propensity to be captivated by our sense of smell and taste, as much as watching my toddler instantly become enraptured with chocolate. In chocolate, at three-years old no less, he likely had already discovered one of the few things that will remain among his favorite pleasures for many decades to come. A remarkable lifetime relationship that will bring virtually uninterrupted pleasure. Anyone think they can compete with that?  Sweet dreams.

But just recently, when he turned four, I thought he was compassionate enough and could emotionally handle the “dark side” of chocolate. By forcibly inserting his brain into his heretofore frivolous relationship with chocolate, beyond just tickling its pleasure receptors, I was hoping to elevate his enjoyment of chocolate beyond mere taste. Now, when he comes to understand the implications of his chocolate consumption decisions, it will not only taste great, but also feel great.

It is achingly beautiful to witness the instinctive, boundless love, and yes, even empathy, in a young child’s heart. At four, my son does not yet know that the world is supremely unjust and that children are not born equal. He does not yet know a single reason why anyone, no matter the circumstance, deserves anything less than true happiness, fulfilled. There is a glorious magic, wisdom, and starkness to the simplicity with which he approaches logic, reason, and justice.

He sees a picture of a young child working hard on a farm and he wonders. He hears that those children, in a forest far away, work very hard all day while here, he laughs and plays. That those children rarely have any food, while he eats often. And he learns that those children don’t have a choice, while he sometimes has a choice  (if I’m in a good mood). Occasionally at night he is read the story of Chaga and the Chocolate Factory and he begins to quickly make sense of the land and life of those “other” children in a forest far away.

He doesn’t yet know the horrific nature and history (past and present) of slavery. But he doesn’t need to. To my four-year old boy, it is so incredibly simple. What isn’t so simple is how somewhere along the road to adulthood, youth lose empathy. They lose the energy they once had to fight for something better for themselves and especially others. And their idealistic instincts drift away with each puff on a long forgotten dandelion.

From Gnats to Farmers

People have seemingly always been obsessed with chocolate. Ancient civilizations such as the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans had long ago used cacao as currency, ceremonial offerings, and as food reserved for the elite. The botanical name for the plant, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the Gods.” It is a curious plant: While fermented and processed cacao beans (i.e., chocolate) is recognized as one of the most aromatic and intoxicating substances known, the cacao flower itself has neither fragrance, nor nectar. As such, it is pollinated by chance and not by bees, but by the lowly gnat.

Cacao is grown in a narrow belt around the equator in some of the world’s poorest nations, with West Africa (Ivory Coast, Ghana) responsible for around 70 percent of the world’s supply. Farming cacao is not where the money is: It is estimated that approximately 90 percent of the world’s cocoa is grown on small family farms of less than 12 acres. As such, the World Cocoa Foundation estimates that 40-50 million people worldwide are dependent on cocoa as their main source of income. Widespread reports persist of large scale poverty, farmers cheated myriad ways, and systematic and pernicious exploitation despite hardscrabble toil and enormous profits and pleasure derived from their labor.

While executives and their boards of directors have sought profit from the exploitation of human beings within their corporate family, the earth fares no better. Poor soil fertility, increased pest pressure, declining yields, and other immediate economic factors have led to widespread disfigurement of diverse cacao habitats and deforestation, which leads to an endless cycle of ecological destruction.  In its 2004 report, “Commodities and Conservation: the Need for Greater Habitat Protection in the Tropics,” the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science estimated that cacao production has been responsible for the loss of 80 percent of the forest habitat in West Africa over the past several decades.

Chocolate and Slavery: Indelibly Intertwined

Most abhorrent of all, despair and hopelessness plaguing the nations bordering cacao exporting countries (Mali, Burkina Faso) has led to conditions conducive to child slavery. UNICEF, the U.S. State Department, and many others have reported [PDF] the use of child slaves in cocoa production for more than 10 years, particularly by the world’s largest exporter of cacao, the Ivory Coast.  According to the International Labor Rights Forum, the State Department estimates that more than 109,000 children in the Ivory Coast work under “the worst forms of child labor” and that an estimated 10,000 are unquestionably slaves.

Tcho chocolate, an innovative chocolate maker based in San Francisco, is frank when they write on their Web site, of the Ivory Coast, “Children are stolen from their homes…and sold to Ivory Coast growers, where they are shackled, threatened, beaten, and, all too often, killed.”

Once the condoned use of child slaves by today’s multinational chocolate barons was unwrapped in these reports, the industry attempted to deflect scrutiny and meaningful regulations and committed to address the (ready for this non-sequitur?) “worst forms of child slavery” by 2005.  Working with Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel, the industry formally outlined steps they would take to meaningfully reduce this practice when they signed the “Harkin-Engel Protocol” in 2001.  Having failed to reach their modest targets in 2005, the industry defensively re-affirmed their “commitments” and extended the protocol in 2008 and again in 2010.

How determined is the chocolate industry to ending child slavery in their immediate corporate families? In his May 2008 testimony during a public hearing on child labor and human trafficking conducted by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), Larry Graham, president of the National Confectioners Association of the U.S. (a signatory to the Harkin-Engel protocol), concluded, “Cocoa should not be on ILAB’s list. If placed on the list it would serve as a discouragement… It would send the wrong message to industries and others… Indeed, it would lead to the logical question, ‘if cocoa is on the list despite the enormous resources devoted by the industry, governments and NGO partners, why mount such an effort?’”

In September 2010, Tulane University, working with the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), released its oversight report for Congress on progress with the Harkin-Engel protocol over nearly a decade. In it, they reveal that the “majority of children exposed to the Worst Forms of Child Labor remain unreached by the remediation activities currently in place.” Tellingly, they also reveal that the USDOL had committed $10 million in taxpayer dollars in 2010 towards implementing the steps outlined in the protocol. At the same time, the industry itself, with billions of dollars in cash at their disposal, had committed $7 million in “new” funding—over the next five years.

Be-Twixed and Bewildered

During his October 2010 presentation at the World Cocoa Foundation partnership meeting, Allesandro Cagli from Ferrero, reassuringly presented a slide which read, “Several surveys have shown that while consumers in the EU and US may pay lip-service to sustainability issues, many do not put it into practice when shopping.”

In the chocolate industry, the companies, executives, and their boards who have pocketed billions of dollars in cash from the exploitation of millions of people and the Earth: Hershey’s, M&M Mars, Nestlé, Kraft, Cargill, Archers Daniels Midland (ADM), know that you know. In fact, they snicker at the fact that you just don’t care enough to do anything about it. Throughout the world, executives of these global corporations (and their top subordinates) with billions of cash sitting in their bank accounts, meekly cast the complexity of supply chains as the indecipherable code blocking greater transparency, information, control and progress towards ending slavery under their nose.

It is said with a hint of exasperation (and surely a wink) in this whopper of a tale, that millions of small farmers harvest their crops in remote lands, then travel over rugged dirt roads to markets, co-ops, or weigh stations.  There, freshly harvested and highly perishable cacao is bought or sold, aggregated and exchanged, or immediately and coldly rejected outright. As countless village markets are aggregated and sold to larger constituents, volumes amenable to global trade slowly begin to take shape.  The result, they meekly suggest, is impenetrable obfuscation.

Yet, if I were to look for a simple, fairly tasteless chocolate bar to satiate a sugar craving, I don’t have to spend very much money, or expend much energy, looking for one. While in sourcing cacao their global supply chain leaves these highly compensated executives be-twixed, the aforementioned companies have miraculously found a way to get their supply of chocolate into every retail store, shack, hut, newsstand, school or ferry on the planet and all happily accounted for in the profit statements which “inform” their bonuses.

Tomorrow: Part II of this article, A Better Way: Chocolate with Dignity

Photos: Daniel Rosenthal, used with permission. Top: 9-year-old Jean Baptiste doesn’t attend school. Work begins at 8 am and involves cutting cocoa fruit off the trees with a machete and removing the beans. The family has no other viable source of income. Jean Baptiste has no idea what happens to the cocoa beans. Here he is taking a short rest from the strenuous work. Middle: Ivory Coast, near Sinikosson. Harvesting, hands full of cocoa beans. Bottom: 11-year-old Ibra, using a machete tied to a stick to harvest cocoa pods from a tree on father’s cocoa plantation on outskirts of village of Sinikosson. He does not attend school; work begins at 8 am. He has no idea what happens to the cocoa beans.

“This group is interested in rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty,” said Starkman from a podium at the UC Berkeley Journalism School, which co-hosted the panel. “They’re also one of the most technologically connected generations, using social tools and the internet to organize.”

Indeed, as the discussion illuminated, the young men and women present have succeeded in ways that have seamlessly blended the online and offline worlds. They also represented multiple lenses on the edible world: from food justice to green business, to the “delicious revolution.”

The audience heard from Haleh Zandi, co-founder of Planting Justice, an organization that combines permaculture landscaping, sustainable food education, and community organizing. (For every three edible gardens Planting Justice builds for paying clients, they provide one for a low-income household.) Zandi came to food through the anti-war movement. And, after studying the industrial food system, with its heavy dependence on fossil fuels and the abundance of cheap, heavily processed food, she says she drew a connection between the two. “I started to see it as a slow and violent warfare on our bodies,” she said.

In an effort to create genuinely “green” jobs, Zandi and her co-founder employ youth of color, including formerly incarcerated youth, and pay them a living wage (from $17-$25 an hour). “Most discourse around green jobs focuses on … solar panels and such,” she told the audience. “But we’re trying to demonstrate that green jobs can be created with very little capital input.”

Panelist James Berk is also working to make significant change in the Oakland food landscape. The owner-worker at Mandela Foods Cooperative was recruited right out of high school to help run an independent, full-service grocery store in West Oakland. Berk spoke eloquently about his motivation and the state of food in his community.

“Regardless of what part of Oakland I’ve lived in,” said Berk, “there was never a grocery store within walking distance.” He spoke of eating mainly frozen HungryMan dinners and Hot Pockets, saying, “although I didn’t really understand high fructose corn syrup, I knew that when I ate those things they made me feel bad.” Now Berk is working to get fresh produce into corner stores in West Oakland – an idea he says he often has to defend. “People in these communities are buying [produce] – that’s something we’ve been questioned about a lot. Although some of them could use some education…we all want something better than what we have.”

Hai Vo, a former organizer with the campus-based Real Food Challenge*, and a recent college graduate, spoke of his new project, Live Real. With Live Real, Vo hopes to engage in organizing off college campuses precisely so he can give youth like James, who are “highly impacted by the food system,” more of a platform in the movement.

“We want to make sure the food movement is inclusive,” says Vo, who described Live Real as an “on- and off-line platform that builds community.” He is also involved in a search for eight to ten Real Food fellows for the coming year.

Nikhil Arora was by far the most business-minded of the group, but that’s not to say he doesn’t also have an eye toward transforming the food system. The Hass School of Business graduate talked about the serendipitous crossroads he and classmate Alejandro Velez found themselves at two weeks before graduation. The two were considering finding jobs as consultants or going into investment banking, says Arora, when they were told about how easy it is to grow oyster mushrooms in used coffee grounds. Arora and Velez were excited by the idea of turning a waste product into food, and began experimenting with growing the mushrooms in buckets in a tiny student apartment.

Within months of leaving business school, the two founded a company called Back to the Roots and, thanks to a national partnership with Whole Foods, began selling mushroom kits. The idea, Arora says, is to get people to think differently about growing their own food (additional, simple food production kits are forthcoming), and therefore appreciate it more. “We’re in Whole Foods, but that’s not the only place want to be,” says Arora, who hopes to get the message behind their product out to a less self-selecting audience. “We’re aiming for Toys R Us by Christmas.”

Samin Nosrat, the organizer of Oakland’s Pop-Up General Store, writer, cooking instructor, and a former chef at Chez Panisse and Eccolo, talked about pushing the “delicious revolution” in new directions. To Nosrat, helping people understand the work and the resources that go into making real food is equally as important as—if not always in harmony with—providing more access to healthy food.

Nosrat called herself an “accidental activist,” saying, “I’m not necessarily a political person. I know how to create community around food, to give people pleasure and teach them how to do that for their families.”  But Nosrat’s actions may belie her words. She went on to describe the success behind her recent Bakesale for Japan, which—thanks largely to online organizing via Facebook and Twitter—raised over $130,000 from 42 locations around the country. At each location, she made it a point to offer affordable options so that “no matter how much money you had, you could go and spend a dollar and feel like you were a part of something big.”

“It’s really easy to send a text message to Red Cross,” she added. “But what’s meaningful is to be able to put your hands on something and be with other people.” On a note that might just explain her generation’s fascination with food, Nosrat said: “It’s something that will never be digitized. At some point you have to get off the computer and eat, and at some point you’re going to have to interact with somebody to get that food.”

* The Real Food Challenge has chapters on campuses around the nation and has spurred other initiatives, such as the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFed), a project which seeks to build a web of student food cooperatives. CoFed founder Yonatan Landau was also on the panel.

Originally published by CUESA

Watch the talk here:

Kitchen Table Talks: Next Gen Food Activists from News21 Berkeley 2011 on Vimeo.