Chefs for the Marcellus

I have a house in upstate New York that’s been in my family since the early 1950s.  It is smack in the middle of dairy farmland in a very depressed area of Sullivan County. Farm families that have been our neighbors for decades are very excited about signing the leases offered by the drilling companies that want to frack their land. My own next door neighbor is one of them. I can’t blame them: After years of being treated poorly by big dairy and the dairy board, and not getting nearly enough money for their milk, they are desperate for cash. What they can’t see is that drilling will spell the end of farming. There may be some short-term profits, but in the end, the organic farms and added-value product producers will just move or decide they can’t hack it anymore. That terrible possibility will happen long before the drillers are gone.

Please go to the farmers you know and ask them what they need to strengthen their businesses so that they don’t need that lease. Talk to cooks and food producers around you and become more educated together. Help  farmers find better ways to ensure  their future. Most important, please write to Governor Cuomo to tell him that you support our farmers and want to protect their livelihood from fracking! — Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, PRINT.

Mary Cleaver owner of The Green Table and The Cleaver Co. started her business 30 years ago out of her conviction “that the best foods are grown, tended and harvested within one day’s drive of your table.” Her website features a section on her sources, some of which lie atop the Marcellus Shale Formation. “The evidence is clear,” says Mary: “Fracking can potentially devastate our food shed and water supply, and irrevocably harm our farmland and the hard working people who grow and raise our food.  As a food professional who cares deeply about the safety of our food and the health of those who eat and produce it, I urge our elected officials to ban fracking in New York State.”

In today’s New York Times, “a natural gas drilling rig next to an impoundment pit in Washington County, Pa.  Such pits are often used to store toxic drilling waste.”   Read more.

Bill Telepan cares passionately about where his food comes from.  At his  Upper West Side restaurant, Telepan, he builds menus around seasonal, local foods that he personally sources from area farms.  In the introduction to his book, Inspired by Ingredients (Simon & Schuster), he writes: “As far as I’m concerned, farmers are the ultimate prep cooks. The decisions they make and the work they do are the first building blocks of every dish we serve at my restaurant …  For example, I want to know if they use pesticides, or if they do, that they use natural ones.”  Bill knows that fracking poses a danger to  the local farms that he treasures, so he has signed our letter to Governor Cuomo, asking him to ban fracking in New York State.  Please join him by writing to Governor Cuomo today.

“The 28 counties that overlie the Marcellus shale currently boast over 20,000 farms, 4 million farm acres, and $2.4 billion in farm revenue, more than half the statewide farm economy. We fear the widespread use of fracking will endanger farmland through environmental degradation, fragmentation, and lease of dwindling farm acreage. Additionally, high-volume water use and potential for water, soil and air pollution are in direct competition with sustaining our farming economy.” Read Hilary Baum’s testimony to the City Council. Then add your voice by sending Governor Cuomo a letter.

Every once in a while a cause or an injustice gets you up off your seat and angry enough to do something about it. As a chef, I get asked a lot to comment about the connection between fracking and food. I can’t imagine anyone not seeing the connection, but as I go to City Council meetings, speak at rallies, and hit the ground running to fight what I fear will be disaster for our food system, I realize that more needs to be done.  Most often, I’m the only food professional at these events, and that has to change, so I’m asking you — fellow restaurateurs and chefs — to join me! Please write to Governor Cuomo to tell him that you oppose fracking our farms. — Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, PRINT.

Restaurateur Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s No. 43, a co-founder of our organization,  has signed our letter to Governor Cuomo, asking him to ban fracking in New York State. Jimmy says: “New York  State has a rich tradition of agriculture and agricultural value-added products. I believe New York State — especially the regions of the Marcellus Shale region — deserve positive, long term economic development related to farming and food production. That’s why I’m a co-founder of Chefs for the Marcellus.”