By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI.org News contributor
PORTSMOUTH — Talk of
health, culture, agriculture and the local economy permeated a well-attended
discussion of the benefits of “Green Eating” at the Green Valley Country Club.
The Oct. 18 event
featured Casey Riley, Newport Harbor Corporation’s chief operation officer, and
Jonathan Cambra of The Boat House in Tiverton. They each prepared and served
dishes made primarily with locally sourced ingredients including locally caught
tautog and cornmeal from Kingston’s Kenyon’s Mill.
The presentation was
the second in a series sponsored by the Aquidneck Island Trust. The group’s “Conservation Speaker Series” brings focus to important conservation
issues within Aquidneck Island three communities. The first
event, hosted in April at
the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport, showcased a film that advanced solutions
to the global water crisis.
Chefs Riley and Cambra
took turns plugging the benefits of eating local and “green,” with obvious
pride in the commitment their restaurant group has made to sourcing ingredients
locally. For Riley that means “buying with the system in Rhode Island but also
branching out to New England.”
“We have farm produce
showing up at our doors seven days a week,” said Cambra, who praised Farm Fresh
Rhode Island’s Market Mobile program for linking local farmers and chefs.
“It’s pretty awesome
to make a meal and know where every ingredient come from,” Riley said. “We’ve
made a complete dish pretty much from Rhode Island farms.”
Cambra began the
presentation by filleting a freshly caught tautog — or black fish — pulled from
the waters off Castle Hill in Newport.
“We want to not only
support local farmers, but also local fisherman,” Riley said.
The discussion ranged
from the benefits of keeping more dollars within the state by buying local
produce to the health benefits of eating fresh, serving smaller portions and
avoiding genetically modified foods (GMOs). Both chefs expressed concern about
obesity and diabetes, now growing epidemics across the United States.
On the question of
generally higher cost of local food, both speakers agreed it was commodity
growing on mass scale by government-subsidized big corporations that translates
to non-local food being cheaper on supermarket shelves.
However, Riley
insisted that what he described as a “social movement” would explode into the
mainstream and eventually transform the whole food system, as local food is
demanded on the dinner table across the country. When this happened, he
believes prices for the healthier and closers options would come down.
The final event in the speaker series will
feature Dr. Robert Correllas, who will present a talk entitled “Nature as
Nurture: Protecting Land to Protect our Health” Thursday, Nov. 8, from 5:30-7
p.m. at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown.
