Concerned about the impact of the pandemic on independent farmers and chefs, culinary maven Ruth Reichl talks to innovat | dG1fc0pWUGd5ckpYa2M
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00:00If there is one thing you could explain to the American consumer about your business, what would it be?
00:06I would like the consumer to understand that the person that does all the work and has all the investment
00:12is doing it literally for nothing, and that the middlemen are getting all the money.
00:17I've been writing about food for 50 years, trying to get Americans to care more about it.
00:22Ruth Reichel.
00:22The revered restaurant critic for the New York Times.
00:25Ruth Reichel.
00:26Gourmet magazine editor.
00:27I really can't send cameras to anyone, you know.
00:30That's right, that's right.
00:33COVID was the wake-up call.
00:34Our broken food system was exposed.
00:36You have restaurants all over the world, right?
00:39Had is a key word there.
00:41The big issue is keeping all of our purveyors alive.
00:47The CEO of Tyson said the American food system is breaking.
00:51Yeah, you're right.
00:53The majority of mass agriculture in the United States is all about how cheaply can you produce it.
01:00And that's what's gotten us to where we are.
01:02The decree for risk these folks take on is staggering.
01:07Go to any financial advisor and say,
01:09all right, I'm going to risk $8 million this year and I'm going to work 100 hours a week for a $50,000 return.
01:15Man, they're going to tell you you're an idiot.
01:18Farming economics has been stressful.
01:21We're at cost of production or less.
01:23You know, what is your worth? What's your value?
01:26We understand that model of economics and we don't want any part of it.
01:29If those senators and representatives are smart, you don't want this country's food supply in limited hands.
01:36When we hired a hundred and something young, educated, passionate people,
01:42they needed a place to eat and sleep and shop and play.
01:47And so we built.
01:48When you ask the ocean what to grow,
01:50the ocean says grow things that won't swim away and you don't have to feed.
01:53When I grew this tomato and I bit into it, it just rocked my world.
01:58And everything is tied to everything else.
02:00I don't think of this farm as a factory.
02:02I think of it as an organism.
02:04That biodiversity is just waiting for us.
02:08What resulted is a really nice community.
02:11It's still tiny, but it's gone from ghost town, literally, to destination in a decade.
02:19So I'm very proud of that.