Brenton Johnson, who hosted a recent local-food gourmet dinner on his organic farm, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, just east of Austin, Texas, represents a new breed of young, organic farmer whose philosophy is to live in harmony with the land and bring back the sustainable ways. Naturally (no pun intended), he advocates buying local food.

In between tending his turnips and perusing the potatoes, Brenton penned this wise, authoritative list, which he agreed to share with us. (We couldn’t write it any better.)

This isn’t just about helping the local farmer, it’s about preserving our planet (and eatin’ better, too!).

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By John DeFore

Just witnessed on the outskirts of Austin: A multi-course gourmet meal, impeccably cooked from local produce and elegantly served, smack dab in the middle of a farm.

And it’s not just happening in Austin, or even just in the South. Outstanding in the Field is the name of a roving crew of foodies (one of whom is a dirt-digging artist) who travel the country (and sometimes the globe) organizing massive dinners for customers who want to see exactly where what they’re eating was grown.

Call it an extreme (and, at $180-$220 per person including wine, extremely fancy) take on the locavore ideal, one designed to use the group’s culinary cred to promote awareness of small-scale farmers.

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By Harriet Blake

Drinking tap, not bottled, water is gaining momentum in restaurants from coast to coast. The “Take Back the Tap” campaign began in March in San Francisco, although some restaurants had already been forgoing bottled water on their own. It grew to include cities such as Alburquerque, Memphis, Omaha, Portland, Seattle and San Diego, and this past summer, the Big Apple.

The program is sponsored by Food and Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit consumer rights organization that looks at corporate control and abuse of the country’s food and water resources. The New York Take Back the Tap campaign also is sponsored by Riverkeeper, a Hudson River environmental protection group.

“Our goal is to make sure that people have safe and affordable drinking water,” says Food and Water Watch (FWW) executive director Wenonah Hauter. “Food and Water Watch promotes a clean water trust fund that protects [the country's] 1.5 million miles of water structure.”

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By Catherine Girardeau

This coming Labor Day Weekend, San Francisco will celebrate the intersection of taste, sustainability and social justice that is the Slow Food movement. Non-profit educational organization Slow Food USA is throwing a four-day party they’re calling Slow Food Nation.

SFN’s Executive Director Anya Fernald hopes the debut event, expected to draw some 50,000 people, will reach out beyond the obvious coalition of foodies, health-nuts and environmentalists to, “build momentum and demand for an American food system that is safer, healthier and more socially just.” Highlights of the festival, which runs Friday through Monday, will include the:

• “Slow Food Rocks” concert, serving up not only Gnarls Barkley and the New Pornographers but gourmet beer and locally-grown and locally-produced food;

• 50,000 square feet of “taste pavilions” for which nationally-recognized regional food experts have hand-picked authentic gastronomic specialities from every state;

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By Harriet L. Blake
He cooks, runs a business, is a husband and father, speaks multiple languages and manages a website. And on top of that, chef and restaurateur Jose Duarte is certifiably “green.”
“I’m on a mission,” Duarte says. “I’m an advocate for showing other restaurant owners that we can minimize costs, maximize profits and [...]

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