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GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2017 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 7 Good Food Awards Continued from PAGE 1 qualify for the judging, entrants first had to meet industry-specific criteria that re- flect environmental sustainability, animal welfare and social responsibility goals. For instance, the criteria for charcuterie require, among other standards, that the entries are free of artificial additives, that the meat came from animals raised ac- cording to the standards of the Animal Welfare Approved organization and that the people who raised and harvested the animals and who made the product were all paid fair compensation for their work. Winners get to display the Good Food Awards seal on their product. "We thought everyone – who wouldn't want to eat that way if they could?" Weiner said. "They would want to know which products hit all three boxes [delicious taste, environmental sustainability and social responsibility]." The point of the awards is to redefine what the words "good food" mean to the average consumer, Weiner said: "That consumers could presume that food was made without growth hormones, with respect for all the people involved, that cows were treated properly, that the food was supportive of the environment – and that it's a delicious and tasty thing." Those goals already align with what many consumers say they want. In market surveys, consumers over- whelmingly say that their most impor- tant goals when they're buying food are safety, nutrition and affordability, but once those primary needs are met, many also say that they want food pro- duced with humane treatment of farm animals and with acceptable business ethics, labor practices, human rights observance and environmental im- pacts. They just don't think that those characteristics match the foods they find in their supermarkets. Consumers said in a 2015 study by the Center for Food Integrity that many of them think that commercial farms and national food companies are likely to put their own in- terests ahead of public inter- ests, and an October 2015 study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that consumers think that food producers aren't paying enough attention to food safety, nutrition, environmen- tal sustainability or affordabil- ity. But even though consumers say that they're concerned about all of these issues, their buying behaviors don't neces- sarily follow, as affordability, food safety and nutrition con- cerns trump other values. Weiner would like to change that. "We feel we can entice peo- ple in with taste most easily. The best of the best has to be both socially and environmentally re- sponsible," she said. "Once people are interested in eating these amazing and delicious things, they'll be much more interested in learning about the values behind the food." The Good Food Awards program is just one piece of the puzzle for how she thinks that can be achieved. Already, food producers who want to earn the Good Food Awards seal for their prod- ucts are calling the Good Food Founda- tion for help to find ingredients that meet the criteria for the awards. "Pro- ducers may have the will and just lack the information on where to find ingre- dients that meet our standards. They need resources on where to find them," Weiner said. "Those ingredients also have to be produced in enough quantity to meet the demand." She pointed out that these ingredients are, after all, agri- cultural products, and some of them have long lead times between the appear- ance of demand for the product and the farmer's ability to supply that demand. "It can take many years to make more of that amazing cherry that there's demand for," she said. Consumers also have to be willing to pay the price tag attached to minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing social justice. That's going to take some education about the real costs of cheap food, especially in light of the reality that America's growing income inequality over the past few decades has meant that many Americans just don't have as much money to spend on their food as they might have in years past, Weiner said. "With food that's made in a way that doesn't degrade the environment, there are higher real costs, and educating the public who might want that is important, so they understand it when they get to the checkout counter, and sharing strate- gies on how to fit it into their budgets," she said. "If there isn't money to pay for good food, it's a lost cause. The growth of the food movement is connected to the broader econ- omy, to narrowing the income gap. Our movement is part of a broader movement to better our world." "There are a lot of government policies and business regula- tion reasons for why good food has emerged with the pricing that it has here in the US, whereas in other places, it's not such at such premium from industrially pro- duced options. We as a society need to look at models in countries that are able to a better job of making good food widely accessible — the norm," she con- tinued. "There are investments that need to be made beyond what the market is willing to sustain right now to make this food abundant, to allow more producers to make food this way.... It is expensive compared to what we're used to paying, but family farmers, small food producers and consumers are all on the same side in working to make it accessible for everybody." Grocery retailers who are looking for products that meet Good Food Awards standards may want to check out the Good Food Mercantile event, which will be held in San Francisco on Saturday, January 21. This is an intimate "un-trade show" of 135 vetted food producers and interested retailers hosted by the Good Food Retailers Collaborative, a group of the country's most innovative commu- nity markets who have united to support good food producers. Additional Mer- cantile events will be held in Washington D.C. on April 2 and in New York on the day before the Summer Fancy Food Show. Tickets and more information are available by visiting www.good foodawards.org/mercantile. GN C.A. Fortune has acquired Wild Rose Marketing, based in Boulder, Colorado, in a transaction closing in December. "With the aggressive approach we are taking across the country, we are pleased to announce the second phase of west- ward expansion for C.A. Fortune," said Tyler Lowell, Managing Partner of C.A. Fortune. "Bringing Wild Rose Marketing into the C.A. Fortune family adds com- plete coverage of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming — and gets us closer to our goal of building the best-in- class national privately-held natural, specialty and bakery/deli agency in the country." Rose Pierro launched Wild Rose Mar- keting in 1996. The company has deep relationships throughout its four-state footprint with Whole Foods Rocky Mountain Region, Safeway/Albertson's, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, King Soopers, Harmon's Grocers and multiple independents, including Spoons n Spice, Jackson Whole Grocer, Heaven to Earth, Kaune's Keller's, La Montanita, Tony's Market, Marczcyk, Peppercorn, The Cupboard, Nature's Oasis and more. Though Wild Rose Marketing initially started by representing tea and chocolate lines, during the last 20 years the com- pany has added tremendous diversifica- tion to its client and customer portfolio. Pierro has been able to build the brand by matching her ability to discover high- quality products across the country with delivering the best possible service. "When I met Tyler Lowell and his business partners, I found that I shared their vision in building C.A. Fortune into a unique privately owned national agency dedicated to the natural, spe- cialty and bakery/deli trade channels. With C.A. Fortune, we can continue to give our customers and clients outstand- ing local service — with the added ben- efits of a national firm behind us," she said. "We look forward to working with the team at C.A. Fortune and bringing added value to our customers and clients." Pierro will stay involved in a leader- ship position within the organization. C.A. Fortune plans to move the new of- fices to downtown Denver. GN C.A. Fortune Expands Coverage to Rocky Mountain Region PHOTO CREDIT KASSIE BORRESON PHOTO CREDIT RJE PHOTO

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