Why Chefs Need to Discuss the Impacts of Climate Change with Congress

The James Beard Foundation's Climate Change for Restaurant Survival campaign is our ongoing effort to combat the significant impact of climate change on the independent restaurant industry, and the local economies it supports, from farmers to workers to diners. Last month, we brought together a group of award–winning chefs and a leading organic farmer to meet with members of Congress and staffers from the Biden Administration. Below, James Beard Award–nominated chef and James Beard Foundation trustee Elizabeth Falkner reflects on our Hill Day, the threat of climate change to her livelihood, and what chefs can do to fight it.

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I have owned, opened, and worked in restaurants most of my career and cooked all over the country. When the world changed because of COVID-19, I went out to talk with chefs across the country and made a film called Sorry We’re Closed. In the film, we talk about the collective voice of “the chef,” about the fragility of the restaurant industry even before the pandemic, about the future of food, and about the need for small, independently operated restaurants, bars, cafés, and farms in our communities.

My recent trip to Washington, D.C. with the James Beard Foundation (JBF) provided another opportunity for chefs’ voices to be heard on critical topics. This trip was part of JBF’s Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign, which is dedicated to tackling the significant impact of climate change on independent restaurants, chefs, and the local economies they support. We want to make sure Congress protects the historic conservation investments from the Inflation Reduction Act in the upcoming farm bill. We also want to help policy makers understand how unmitigated climate change creates unforeseen expenses, rising and fluctuating ingredient costs and shortages, operational disruptions, and altered growing seasons. This hurts restaurants, farmers, the people we employ, and the local economies we help support.

I was joined by some new and old friends from the industry:  

• Joy Crump of FoodĒ in Fredericksburg, VA, 
• Allison Vick of Little Blue Macaron and Little Blue Bake House in Raleigh, NC
• Karma Lee of Bobae and Origin Bakery in Kirkland, WA
• Kayla Abe of Shuggie’s Trash Pie & Natural Wine in San Francisco, CA  
• Rob Rubba of Oyster Oyster in Washington, D.C.
• and farmer Emma Jagoz of Moon Valley Farm in Woodsboro, MD

JBF had a busy day of meetings planned for us across the Capitol so we fueled up on coffee early and often! We met with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Chellie Pingree (ME-1), Abigail Spanberger (VA-7), and Susan DelBene (WA-1), as well as Congressman Don Beyers (VA-8). We also met with key staff from the White House, House Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s office (NY-8), and from the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Each of the chefs who attended brought a unique perspective on how climate change is affecting their businesses. Emma, a first-generation farmer, really helped government leaders understand how farmers are impacted by climate change and how it affects the restaurants that she supplies.  

Emma explained how she spends a lot of her time working on grants for cost shares and resilient food system infrastructure and filling out forms for money to invest in organic agriculture, which is inherently climate-smart.

Chef Rob Rubba, the 2023 James Beard Outstanding Chef Award winner and owner of Michelin-starred Oyster Oyster (a hard reservation to get!), described how important his farmers like Emma are and why he should and can pay his farmers the right price for high quality seasonal produce and ingredients that are critical for the success of his cuisine and restaurant.   

Chef Joy Crump talked about her restaurant, FoodĒ in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and her commitment to the community and the focus on farm-to-table ingredients, as well as her relationships with small farmers.

Kayla Abe, who formerly worked in nonprofit sustainable agriculture, described how her restaurant Shuggie’s is focused on climate solutions and on zero food waste, but how her efforts and time spent trying to do the right things cost the restaurant a lot more than people assume.

Chef Allison Vick added that her bakery opened in 2021 and that commercial real estate is expensive everywhere, so they set up a place that other bakers could co-lease and l sell retail under one roof at their brick-and-mortar bakery, Little Blue Bake House in Raleigh, North Carolina.  

Karma Lee described how her restaurants in Washington State make everything from scratch and from seasonal local produce and how the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest disrupted her businesses.  

We began the day sharing our perspectives with Rep. DeLauro. We talked about how restaurant margins are already thin and have steadily been decreasing over the last few decades as climate change has intensified. Rep. DeLauro was thoroughly engaged with us, supportive of the work we had cut out for us, and what I loved was at the end of our meeting, she left us with some words of wisdom and a charge: “Never give up and never take no for an answer.”

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree from Maine joined us next, and we continued the conversation over egg sandwiches and muffins, and more coffee (thank goodness). Rep. Pingree is an advocate in Congress for federal policies to support the diverse range of American locally focused farming and agriculture.  

Then we were off to the USDA to meet with Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack and the USDA are confronting the challenges associated with climate change to improve the resiliency of producers and through science and research build wealth that stays in rural communities.  

Secretary Vilsack described how agriculture in America went the wrong direction in the 1950’s, and particularly in the 1970’s, when the idea of “fast and cheap” and pesticides and profits were prioritized. He mentioned that the focus should be about healthy soil, crop diversification, plant-based nutrition, sustainable, local sourcing, and educating consumers.

We also shared our stories and concerns with Callie Eideberg—a Senate Agriculture Committee majority staff member—as well as with Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, Congressman Don Beyer, and staff from Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s office.  

Next, we were whisked over to the White House and met with Kelliann Blazek and Will McIntee, special assistants to the President. We met them in a beautiful, antiquated room with lots of mahogany accents, and I spotted a black and gold–etched antique telephone out of the corner of my eye. They were both unbelievably knowledgeable and aware of all the different cities and states we came from and were very supportive of efforts to fight climate change.

It was truly an honor to see inside D.C. and how there are so many brilliant people who work in our government and understand and support our perspectives.

That very old telephone in the office at the White House reminded me that at one point the telephone was an important development in communications. I think today we forget how important it is to communicate and meet with our representatives to discuss real concerns and issues. There’s just a better connection when we meet with people in person.

I personally feel that it’s best discussing matters at a table with good food and wine together. I am grateful we all were able to meet up and be a part of a hard-working group representing the James Beard Foundation campaign on Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival in D.C. 

As independent chefs and operators, we have a collective voice and strength in numbers, and we must communicate where the problems are and ask our policy makers for help to make changes in food policy for a better food future.

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Learn more about our Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival Campaign.

Elizabeth Falkner is a chef, JBF trustee, and the co-founder of T'MARO Spirits.