The James Beard Foundation has launched a new initiative to address the impacts of climate change on the nation’s independent restaurants.
The Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign aims to unite chefs around the country and push for federal action to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Independent restaurant owners are hurting now, and the situation will only deteriorate over time unless we do something about it,” said James Beard Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach in a Tuesday call announcing the campaign.
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The organization, which is best known for its annual James Beard Awards, partnered with the Global Food Institute at George Washington University — founded by chef and humanitarian José Andrés — to publish a report on the pressures climate-related events place on the restaurant industry.
The 60-page report cites extreme weather as a direct cause of increased food costs, which restaurants must pass onto their customers by way of increased menu prices.
“We found that rising temperatures, extreme weather events and shifts in agricultural patterns have all contributed to the rising costs and operational challenges in recent years,” Reichenbach said.
Weather changes are also harming restaurant sales, Reichenbach said. She called out Texas specifically as a place where restaurants that rely on patio season sales are increasingly losing business due to record-breaking heat.
Texas is also experiencing reduced food production because of the heat, the report found. In 2022, crop loss claims in Texas totaled $20 billion compared to $8 billion during the drought that ravaged the state in 2011.
To address such issues, the James Beard Foundation will highlight the experiences of chefs around the country who are struggling with rising food costs and ingredient shortages to “make clear to federal policymakers that climate change is not just an environmental crisis, it is a clear and present danger to the independent restaurant industry and all that industry represents,” Reichenbach added.
Andrés, who founded global aid group World Food Kitchen, said the work the James Beard Foundation and the Global Food Institute are doing is an urgent effort to shape a better food system in a changing environment.
“This research is more than just a collection of data and insights,” he said in a written statement. “It’s a rallying cry for chefs, restaurateurs, food producers, policymakers and all actors across the supply chain.”
As part of the campaign, the James Beard Foundation said it plans to use its resources to educate chefs and restaurateurs on the effects of climate change, host roundtables, meet with policymakers in Washington and facilitate farm visits for chefs and lawmakers to see first-hand the challenges they face.
“If we do nothing,” Reichenbach said, “the impact of climate change would challenge the very viability of the independent restaurant industry.”