Ensuring the health of our farms and food: A Minnesota chef and farmer’s mission

The authors joined other producers, restaurant owners and chefs across the country in a letter to Congress, urging them to maintain climate-smart agriculture provisions in the Farm Bill. These funds support farmers in adopting practices that benefit soil, water and climate, and improve farm profitability as well. Photo by Getty Images.

Farmers and those of us in the food business are the foundation of this nation’s food economy, especially in Minnesota — a state with an impressive and rapidly growing food scene , whose agriculture production generates over $106 billion annually in total economic impact and currently supports 388,134 jobs.

And yet we are still awaiting the essential and overdue policy roadmap — the federal Farm Bill — to help steer and support our industry.

It’s not every day that farmers team up with small restaurant owners and chefs to weigh in on federal policy, but as chefs and farmers ourselves, we share a vital interest in the cultivation practices that promote healthy and resilient soils in the face of increasing climate challenges. Ensuring a safe, sustainable and available food supply is critical for farmers, chefs and the communities they serve.

Chefs understand better than most the intrinsic link between soil, crops, food and the culinary experiences they are able to deliver. Our work intersects with farmers — including those at the Minnesota Farmers Union — every day, through grant and resource-sharing opportunities, communication with our producers or even interactions at our local farmers markets .

Minnesota’s agricultural community is incredibly diverse, and we work to bridge the gap and provide much-needed resources and support to our farming partners wherever we can. Ongoing collaboration between restaurateurs, businesses and farms is essential to maintaining the success of Minnesota’s booming agricultural industry.

Ultimately, great ingredients come from great soil. Partnerships like the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Chefs for Healthy Soil initiative and James Beard Foundation’s Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign are crucial to bringing together farmers, chefs and their communities to rally around the health of our soil.

Whenever a chef and their team buy an ingredient or support a local farm, they are making a choice about the agricultural practices they are supporting. Chefs and farmers alike have the power to steer the conversation — and ultimately all farmers’ practices — toward regenerative agriculture.

Last month, as the House Agriculture Committee met to markup this year’s Farm Bill, we joined other producers, restaurant owners and chefs across the country in a letter to Congress, urging them to maintain climate-smart agriculture provisions in the Farm Bill. These funds support farmers in adopting practices that benefit soil, water and climate, and improve farm profitability as well. It was a powerful demonstration of two ends of the food chain coming together to advocate for the mounting issues affecting our industry and impacting American consumers every day.

Agriculture and all businesses related to feeding this country (not to mention the rest of the globe) are integral to the U.S. economy, generating over 22.1 million full and part-time jobs, which amounts to over 10% of total U.S. employment. And independent restaurants are the fifth largest employer in the U.S.

Policies like the Inflation Reduction Act and other historic conservation investments were a significant first step, but these funds are at the mercy of ongoing negotiations. Congress should preserve the $20 billion in climate and soil health funding in the IRA and include both these funds and additional incentives for climate-smart practices in the next Farm Bill. These investments must be protected for years to come, combating climate change, protecting soil health and bolstering the U.S. supply chain that the livelihood of farmers, restaurants and rural communities depend on.

That’s why Minnesota farmers, small restaurant business owners and others in the food industry came together this month at The Buttered Tin in Minneapolis to advocate for the importance of these policies.

Minnesotans have good reason to be proud of the astounding impact that agriculture has on our economy . With this Farm Bill, legislators can protect the vital funds and resources that ensure the health of our farm and food sectors and support a vibrant state economy for us all.