On a crisp Wednesday morning, Clean Fairfax schlepped into the District of Columbia to learn more about sustainable food production systems at the 2018 Food Tank Summit. Food Tank, a think tank that focuses on all things food, hosts several conferences around the country each year and welcomes leading thinkers on food systems issues to lead fruitful discussions (pardon the pun.) We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were glad to network with like-minded individuals and organizations! Here follow a few highlights:

Founding Farmers’ Co-Founder Wants You To Skip The Straw

Dan Simons of Founding Farmers, the ever-popular DMV restaurant chain, described straw use as “totally bonkers” and told the crowd to “stop sucking,” referring to the trending sustainability hashtag #stopsucking. Founding Farms, a Certified Green Restaurant, now uses paper straws and skips straws altogether whenever possible. Several Founding Farmers locations are LEED Certified and the food itself is quality. Props to Founding Farms for being a community leader in sustainability! Clean Fairfax urges you to stop su… ahem, just skip the straw #skipthestraw.

Hungry Harvest Loves Ugly Food

Food waste was a big issue at the summit. According to the NRDC, up to 40% of all food is wasted from end to end. Hungry Harvest, founded by a University of Maryland graduate, seeks to help solve this problem. During discussion breaks, they displayed a myriad of “ugly” fruits and vegetables, most of which weren’t ugly at all. This organization saves local produce that isn’t deemed fit for the supermarket for strictly aesthetic reasons, packages it in a box and delivers it directly to consumers’ doors much like a CSA (sign up here if interested). This significantly decreases the amount of food that’s thrown away simply for imperfections, which decreases the amount of food that ends up in landfills, which in turn decreases the amount of greenhouse gas that eventually enter the atmosphere! According to Hungry Harvest, “we’ve rescued over 5 million pounds of food from going to waste & provided access to over 700,000 pounds of fruits & veggies to those who are food insecure.” Hungry Harvest accepts SNAP benefits and offers produce at a wonderfully discounted rate. Good on you, HH!

Farming Is For City Slickers

The Young Farmers Coalition, an alliance of young farmers, ranchers and consumers, repeatedly stressed a statistic from a survey of their membership, which found that 75% of young farmers didn’t grow up on the farm. Indeed, the younger generation of farmers come from a diverse set of backgrounds, and not all of them relocated to rural areas to take up the occupation. Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland are becoming hotbeds for urban and suburban farming, and if you’re interested, there are a plethora of organizations that educate the public about farming and take volunteers! The University of DC runs an expanding network of urban and rooftop gardens, including the three acre East Capitol Urban Farm. The university also regularly teaches courses on urban agriculture. Common Good City Farm in Le Droit Park provides much needed fresh produce to its neighborhood and educates thousands of citizens a year about healthy lifestyles. If farming sounds appealing to you, contact us and we can point you in the right direction!

Summits like these are important to further conversation and connect the dots. Conservation takes many forms, and agriculture plays a massive role in our lives and our ability to live sustainably. Keep talking to your neighbors about these issues, and remember that food comes from the ground, not from the market, and certainly not from a plastic package!