As thinkers, legislators, entrepreneurs and more gathered in New York City last week for Climate Week NYC, many took the opportunity to join related but independent conversations. Some joined chefs and farmers to discuss the intersection of climate change with food and agriculture—conversations in which the George Washington University’s Global Food Institute (GFI) took a leading role.
GFI started the week with an announcement that Instacart and the Rockefeller Foundation had joined the institute’s Leadership Council. Then Carbonell Family Executive Director Stacy Dean joined high-profile food world presenters Sept. 23 at Food Tank and the James Beard Foundation’s daylong Climate Week kickoff summit, “Restaurants and Farms: A Key Solution to the Climate Crisis.” Dean gave an overview of GFI’s “The Climate Reality for Independent Restaurants: A Deep Dive into the Supply Chain,” the comprehensive report released in February that illustrates the immediate threat posed to the independent restaurant industry by climate change.
The report translates into quantitative terms facts that people in the restaurant industry already know, making it a way “to put research into the hands of restaurant owners and chefs to help empower their advocacy,” Dean told the audience as part of a livestreamed lineup that also included journalist and author Mark Bittman and public health advocate Marion Nestle. (GFI Director of Curriculum Development Tara A. Scully also attended the summit.)
In brief, Dean said, climate change and climate change-related events like reduced crop and fishing yields disrupt supply chains and raise the cost of food in an industry where profit margins are famously tight. Climate change affects not only a restaurant’s supply chain but also its night-to-night intake. In cities like San Antonio, where a substantial percentage of restaurant seating is outdoors, steadily increasing temperatures mean fewer diners are willing to eat outside—so they may not patronize restaurants at all.
All this may sound dire, but Dean said the report is “not just a collection of data and insights on the impact of climate on restaurants and chefs.” Rather, it can be a “rallying cry” for people working for change both inside and outside the restaurant industry. People within that industry are “critical leaders and voices,” Dean said, since they represent institutions woven into the fabric of the communities they serve, sites of everyday togetherness and special celebration. Besides, restaurants represent a significant portion of the U.S. economy, having paid over $75 billion in wages in 2023.
“Both because of how we hold you in our hearts, but also because of the bottom line that many policymakers’ brains require, you're really powerful voices and have an extraordinary opportunity to be changemakers, to carry forward how the food system and climate are integrated,” Dean said. “We are thrilled to be in the fight with you.”
In spite of the sobering issues under discussion, Dean said the week she, Scully and other GW representatives spent in conversation with fellow food activists was invigorating. Alongside GFI founder José Andrés, they attended a day and a half of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)’s 2024 Annual Meeting and other events hosted by food policy venue REGEN House. At the beginning of the week, GFI also co-hosted a dinner with the Bezos Earth Fund, attended by Andrés, GW President Ellen M. Granberg, Provost Christopher Alan Bracey and Alliance for a Sustainable Future Executive Director Frank Sesno, among others.
All these events were opportunities for cross-pollination, Dean said, bringing activists, researchers and innovators together with legislators and entrepreneurs. Over the course of the week, Dean heard from farmers pioneering sustainable sea cucumber farming in Panama and from engineers developing solar-powered refrigerators. At REGEN House, she heard from corporate executives working to move the financial burden of more sustainable and responsive supply chains from farmers to international conglomerates. Likewise, Dean and her colleagues were able to share exciting work going on at the university, including work by GFI, the Alliance for a Sustainable Future and other interdisciplinary initiatives.
“There was a sense of like-minded people who were energized to be together and to talk about what was working in face of a pretty important situation, and having GW there was exciting,” Dean said. “We were right there in the midst of it all, lifting up some of the great things happening at the university.”
At the Food Tank and James Beard summit, Dean said she was pleased and excited to be able to present some of GFI’s work but was equally if not more motivated by the conversations she had with fellow attendees, especially chefs and restauranteurs. She said the GFI report could crystalize issues faced by individual restaurant workers into a more industry-wide movement for better food policy.
“A lot of the conversation you heard was about things [restaurants] are doing in their own community to be sustainable players, which is important part of the conversation. But another part is that we're not going to fix this without shifts in policy,” Dean said. “Having GW issue that report kind of codifies their experience formally, which really felt validating to them. But it also is empowering, because now, when they talk to policymakers about tackling this problem, they can speak more globally across the industry. So we want to help them bridge from one space to another.”
