Food followers — always trend hungry — announced a new one this week in “farm to counter.” At its essence, farm to counter is a regional food system in which growers within a reasonable distance provide fresh seasonal provender for consumers willing to pay a bit more for a meal served by locally owned or “real food” chain restaurants. Knowing the source of your food and the ingredients in your meal is a good and increasingly popular thing. “Local and seasonal works for California,” the Tender Greens founder told the NY Times (link below), “I don’t know if it would be scalable.” That is the question, vividly reinforced by the drought. The scarcity of water is already driving up the cost of the whole food chain and driving down food sector employment. This new sub-category of dining out is also called “fast-casual.” It may also become “fast-causal” if the drought continues for more than a decade, as it did in Australia. Yet another reminder that the our water supply is paramount.
