Locally grown and sustainable food is a recent trend to much of the American public. However, it’s a topic that is becoming increasingly more important, and this is marked by the fact that four of the top five trends tackle this topic. There are many reasons to eat locally grown foods, beyond supporting local businesses, food grown locally is often fresher, better tasting, more vibrant and healthier.

Sustainability has quickly become the unofficial trend for our times, and for good reason. You may be asking yourself, “what exactly are sustainable foods?” As defined by the sustainabletable.org “sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities.” One of the most important sustainable food items is fish. We are overfishing our waters, placing many species at risk of extinction. Examples of species include Chilean sea bass, atlantic salmon and monkfish, to name a few. Tilapia, Pacific halibut and Pacific cod are great examples of safe sustainable fish.

Here are the top five trends in order: locally grown produce; locally sourced meats and seafood; sustainability as a culinary theme; mini-desserts; and locally produced wine and beer.

Other food trends include: nutritionally balanced children’s dishes, gluten free/food allergy conscious, super fruits (i.e. acai, goji berry and mangosteen), organic produce and regional ethnic cuisine, to name a few.

For more information on the Top 20 food trends visit:  http://www.restaurant.org/pdfs/research/whats_hot_2010.pdf

For sustainable agriculture information: sustainabletable.org

Information regarding sustainable fishing practices: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx