Editor's note: This is the first story in a six-part Restaurant Business series on climate change and the restaurant industry.
Climate change represents an existential threat to the restaurant industry, especially to independent restaurants.
That’s not hyperbole, said Dan Jacobs, co-owner of Milwaukee’s EsterEv and DanDan.
“If things aren’t changed, we are going to see the end of independent restaurants,” Jacobs said. “Independent restaurants are the fabric of our communities.”
Rising temperatures, unpredictable and destructive weather events, wildfires, a looming water crisis and more have the potential to disrupt nearly every aspect of a restaurant’s operations.
In recent weeks, restaurants were wiped out by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. That’s a headline-making impact of climate change.
But climate change is leaving its mark on virtually every aspect of the restaurant industry:
- Earlier this year, Phoenix recorded 113 consecutive days over 100 degrees, putting a damper on outdoor dining and driving up energy costs to keep restaurants cool
- A Thai chef in Los Angeles reports that the soil is too warm to grow cilantro root, an essential ingredient in curry paste, forcing her to substitute ingredients and compromise on flavor
- High temperatures require refrigerator compressors to work overtime, leading to more equipment breakdowns
- An inconsistent supply chain can lead to elevated prices which, in turn, can drive diners away
- Employees may need to miss work to deal with a home hit by flooding or children out of school due to soaring temperatures
“There’s a very clear and direct link between climate change and the economic health of restaurants,” said Anne McBride, vice president of programs at the James Beard Foundation (JBF).
For the next five days, Restaurant Business will look at the ways the industry is being shaped by the changing climate, and how some operators and advocates are fighting to stem the losses. We’ll examine the promise of regenerative farming, how some are combating food waste, innovative ways restaurants are saving energy, the impact of soaring insurance rates and more.
“There’s a real urgency,” McBride added. “And when you see things like what happened in North Carolina, for example, in Asheville, seeing that kind of destruction, seeing the number of closures … [Or] the number of restaurants that have closed in places like Colorado. When there’s less snow, people don’t come skiing. And you already have a very short season … So, that’s happening across the country. These extreme weather events are impacting restaurants.”
Both victims of climate change and causes of it
For restaurants, in particular, climate change is especially complex. And that’s because restaurants are both a victim of natural disasters, rising temperatures and water scarcity and they’re also a cause of it.
“Chefs and restaurants are, let’s say, charismatic victims of climate change,” said Barton Seaver, an award-winning chef who is now a sustainable seafood educator and advocate. “There’s the flipside of this which is where how are drivers of climate change? And not in a finger-wagging, sort of traditional environmental vantage point which is ‘bad human, bad.’ Restaurants are participants, willing or not, in a system that has been built for efficiency and lower cost rather than actual, measured and considered outcomes … How do we both gauge and come to grips with our role in creating the system, as well as use our levers as drivers of change to make it what we want?”
Entrepreneurs like to open restaurants and other businesses in areas with rapid population growth. In the U.S., that means the South and West, places like Florida, Phoenix, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. But those are also the areas at greatest risk for climate change-fueled weather disasters, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times. And that growth can strain infrastructure such as roads and electrical grids, amplifying the damages of severe weather.
Just over 4,200 natural disasters were recorded from 1980 to 1999, according to a 2020 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction report. But that number rose to 7,348 natural disasters from 2000 to 2019, with a 232% increase in extreme temperatures, 46% jump in wildfires, 134% increase in floods and 40% rise in storms, the report said. And those numbers have continued to climb in the last several years.
Rising temperatures are also suppressing the supply chain. With every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit increase in global temperature, “extensive losses” occur in the production of wheat, rice, maize and soybeans, the staple grains that account for two-thirds of the world’s caloric intake, according to “The Climate Reality for Independent Restaurants,” a report published earlier this year by the James Beard Foundation and the Global Food Institute (GFI) at The George Washington University.
A reduction in crops will drive up prices, and extreme weather can roil the supply chain, increasing transit time and disrupting distribution.
“Climate change is an urgent threat that significantly affects our food supply chain, and this impact ripples through communities, economies, farmers, the fishing industry and restaurant owners alike,” the James Beard-GFI report stated. “As climate change disrupts traditional weather patterns, alters growing seasons, intensifies extreme weather events and leads to biodiversity loss, agricultural productivity and stability are jeopardized … This uncertainty affects the consistent and reliable sourcing of ingredients for restaurants.”
For Minneapolis-based Chef Sean Sherman, owner of Owamni and a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, solutions lie in returning to indigenous food systems.
Sherman, widely known as the Sioux Chef, recently earned a spot on the Climate 100 list published by the U.K.-based newspaper The Independent for his work to “source local, wild and heirloom ingredients and follow the sustainable practices that Indigenous communities have used for generations.”
Colonizers devastated the land through logging, mining and other destructive practices. Sherman is working to counteract that by educating people about indigenous foodways that are more sustainable.
“It’s important to understand that, as we kind of crawl into some really devastating climate change issues and are facing major things like water crisis here in the United States, that strengthening our local food systems is really a must for us, especially from a restaurateur point of view, but just as a human in general,” Sherman said. “If we look at it from an indigenous lens, we can understand how to better utilize the landscapes around us and understand how we should be protecting a lot of our natural resources instead of endangering them.”
These are huge issues, to be sure, but Sherman is addressing them with a local approach.
Owamni, which comes from the Dakota word for turbulent water, whirlpool or eddy, is part of Sherman’s nonprofit organization North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), which works to create a food system that “generates wealth and improves health” in Native communities. The operation includes the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis, with a retail space to sell indigenous products like maple syrup, wild rice, frozen meals, housemade tortillas, as well as a hot bar, tea bar, commercial kitchen and education studio.
“It’s one thing if I give somebody two pounds of dried corn, but will they know what to do with it in their home?” he said.
His award-winning restaurant (named the best new restaurant of 2022 by the James Beard Foundation among other accolades), with Saturday dinner reservations booked out for about a month, is the engine for Sherman’s broader vision. Owmani serves intensely regional and seasonal dishes, focusing on ingredients like wild rice, sweet potatoes, bison and elk.
“Our restaurant does very well,” Sherman said. “We make quite a bit of sales throughout the year. A big chunk of that is food costs, and a big chunk of that food cost is being spent directly on indigenous producers … Owamni really serves a purpose. It creates skill sets of hiring. We have 100 people working at Owamni throughout the year, and about 70% of our staff is identifying as indigenous. Because of our intentionality of purchasing from indigenous producers, we’re just moving a ton of money towards indigenous producers.”
For his next act, Sherman is looking at replicating his operation around the country, starting in Bozeman, Montana, and Anchorage, and expanding from there.
“There’s no purpose to live in fear,” Sherman said. “So, the best thing we can do is at least try to make the next generation stronger.”
Making the case on Capitol Hill
Individual operators like Sherman, and larger restaurant chains, can no doubt have an impact on climate change and related issues.
But lobbying elected officials for systems change is the most effective way to make process on these global issues, experts agree.
The James Beard Foundation launched its Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign early this year to mobilize restaurant owners to push their representatives in D.C. to slow the impacts of climate change.
The group has been holding roundtables with chefs and lawmakers around the country this year to highlight the economic impacts of climate change and will host a congressional briefing on Dec. 5.
Specifically, JBF is fighting for a version of the Farm Bill to include conservation funding for climate-smart agriculture and it is seeking to protect the $20 billion in climate-smart agriculture funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. Climate-smart agriculture addresses some of the problems caused by climate change through practices focused on building resilient systems by adapting growing operations to climate conditions.
“There’s not one solution,” the JBF’s McBride said. “There’s not one miracle, one miracle solution to solving anything having to do with climate change or its economic impact on restaurants … [We’re] focusing on the big picture of legislative change and also giving them operation-level solutions that are much more immediate.”
Communicating the cause to diners
Getting diners on board with issues related to climate change is another story, though.
But as the crisis intensifies, it may be up to restaurant operators to explain why meals cost more or why certain ingredients may no longer be on the menu. A consumer-facing campaign is next on the JBF’s agenda, McBride said.
“Diners don’t want to think about climate change when they’re going out for dinner,” she said. “They really don’t, so it’s very hard for them to understand why they’re suddenly paying a lot more for their dinner. They think chefs are lining their pockets. We know that’s anything but the truth.”
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