Blog: Uncategorized

+ Blog Categories

Check out Bon Appétit Management Company’s series on the business of sustainable agriculture on TriplePundit.com, an innovative new-media company for the sustainable business community.  In our 9th post, "Farming Internships: Vital or Illegal? The Answer is Both.", Midwest Fellow Dayna Burtness explores the legality and necessity of farming internships. Read the whole post here.

In this video on CBS Interactive's SmartPlanet, take a tour of Yahoo's kitchen to see a number of sustainability initiatives in action. Innovations include locally farmed food, our Low Carbon Diet Calculator that measures food intake against carbon footprint, and a food dehydrator that converts excess food scraps into mulch.

Midwest Fellow Dayna Burtness sat down with Macalester College student Abby Colehour to talk about the Real Food Challenge and the less glamorous side of improving the food system.

The Bon Appétit Management Company team at Washington University in St. Louis is converting used fryer oil to biodiesel for a campus delivery truck. Wash U alum Kristopher Kelley came up with the idea and is now collecdting 150 gallons of vegetable oil each week from Bon Appétit! The story was covered in the St. Louis Business Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, River Front Times and on the Channel 5 news.

Farmers and producers: take note!  The Natural Resources Defense Council has announced its groundbreaking annual award, Growing Green, honoring those who work to strengthen our national food system.  In the year since I was honored with the 2009 Business Leader award, food has been given a prominent place on the national agenda — in a way that I only could have dreamed of when I encouraged our chefs to start sourcing direct from small owner-operated farms more than 10 years ago.    Among the highlights of the year:  A vegetable garden was planted on the White House Lawn to promote the benefits of local, seasonal food; First Lady Michelle Obama loudly endorsed an urgent focus to bring fresh food into national school lunch programs; a TIME Magazine cover article decried the high cost of cheap food for human and environmental […]

Open Hands Farm is a Community Supported Agriculture farm outside of Northfield, MN.  Owners Erin Johnson and Ben Doherty use organic practices to grow dozens of varieties of produce for their CSA members as well as the Bon Appétit Management Company cafe at St. Olaf College.  Midwest Fellow Dayna Burtness had a chance to visit them in early October to learn more about their farming practices. 

Midwest fellow Dayna Burtness spent Eat Local Challenge Day with folks at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.  The food was delicious and beautiful! Some dishes even featured produce from the student farm on campus.  Take a look:

by Dayna Burtness, Midwest Fellow             During my first few weeks as a fellow, I made the somewhat painful decision not to return to manage the college farm I co-founded at my alma mater, St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  STOGROW farm is in its fifth successful season selling produce to the Bon Appétit cafe on campus, but its development is limited by the five student farmers having to stretch themselves between farming and classes during the spring and fall.  I was all set to move to Northfield–a delightful small town an hour south of Minneapolis–at the end of my fellowship, help the farm expand up to several acres, and live happily ever after selling veggies to Bon Appétit as the STOGROW lead farmer.             The only problem was that even though Northfield is home to great […]

Midwest Fellow Dayna Burtness introduces the new Student Garden Guide developed by Bon Appétit Management Company. The guide will help students just starting farms as well as those who want to take their student garden to the next level. A must-read! Download your copy here: http://www.circleofresponsibility.com/page/354/student-garden-guide.htm