Farm to Table: A Recipe For A Healthy Pittsburgh

Last week, my mom, Theresa and I attended a conference held downtown called Farm To Table, which aims to bring together local farms, businesses and individuals that support sustainable agriculture and the local food movement in the Pittsburgh area. We had never been to this event before, but thought it would be interesting to attend, since we are part of the small business community here and also sell our baked goods at a local farmers market.

The conference was set up in a hall where attendees could visit the exhibitor booths. Exhibitors included local farms, food purveyors and organizations involved in nutrition, health and wellness. Since this is only the second year for the event, the number of exhibitors will probably grow in the coming years. It was nice that the hall was set up like an indoor farmers market, so you could mosey from booth to booth.

I think what we enjoyed most about the conference though, were the seminars that were held throughout the event. With the regular cost of admission, we were welcome to attend any of these talks, with topics that ranged from the importance of organic foods to sustainability and the consumer.

My favorite seminar was called "Steps Towards Developing a Sustainable Business,” and was given by the Director of Sourcing and Sustainability for Eat n’ Park Hospitality Group, which owns and operates a food service company as well as a large number of restaurants in the region.

Even though our company is technically not a foodservice business and we don’t operate in the restaurant industry at the moment, it was really informative to hear specifically how a large company working within the food industry is making strides to become more and more sustainable. And hopefully, once our company gets a bit bigger, we could apply similar initiatives to our day to day operations. Some steps, such as implementing energy efficient lighting, are things we can do right now. I also learned just how innovative those Europeans are when it comes to using resources as smartly and efficiently as possible. They have even come up with a way to harness methane from farms and use it to generate energy (fuel and electricity).

All in all, an environmentally enlightening experience.