Denny's (corporate headquarters: Spatanburg, South Carolina; annual sales: $30 billion) has long been the major player in America's "casual family dining" business. Other chains, like Applebee's, are gaining ground, but all operate on the same high-volume/low-price cookie-cutter model. Cracks are beginning to show, however. People are tired of eating crappy food, and the marketing execs know it - note the deluge of so-called "healthy alternatives" now on offer, including wraps, salads and fresh fruit. But calories aren't all that people are counting: there is also a growing concern about the cost of industrial food production to everything from our waterways to our sense of community. That's the new bottom line.
Meat: From the commercial feedlots of the southwest USA. Pinpointing the exact source is impossible; ranches were long ago surpassed by "confined animal feeding operations" - factory farms. You can bet the cow was raised on a steady diet of Roundup Ready Corn&153; - America's most chemically treated crop - and treated with Rumensin, Tylosin or similar antibiotics, along with hormones like Revlar to "encourage" rapid development. Dairy Products: From the "confined dairy operations" of Central Valley, California, where cows are expected to pump out 100 pounds of milk a day. It's made possible with a high=protein diet and injections of bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a substance banned in every country except the US. The milk is shipped cross-country in rolling tanker trucks, burning millions of gallons of fossil fuels each year.
Vegetables: From agri-business suppliers in the California Sunbelt. Each slice of tomato or leaf of lettuce has traveled an average of 1,518 miles on the back of a truck to reach your plate. Then again, it's designed for the rigors of the road: irradiated, genetically modified, treated with chemical preservatives and/or picked green and left to ripen in the box.
French Fries: From the potato processing plants of the northwest USA. Odds are good that the fries arrived via one of McCain's 30 worldwide processing plants (company motto: "One World, One Fry"), which churn out a million pounds of frozen fries an hour. Once known for its diversity, American potato farming has been reduced to a monoculture of Russet Burbank potatoes.
The Farmers Diner, owned and founded by Tod Murphy in Barre, Vermont, has a simple motto: serve local food to local people. It's not just another back-to-the-land dream - it's a bona fide business with first year sales of $550,000. In real-world terms, that's brisk enough trade too keep 174 acres of farmland in production, pay eight farmers $50,000 each and create seven new farm jobs. Over the next five years, Murphy plans to open four new restaurants and a central processing plant in the area and then replicate the pod model in other parts of the country. Turning the high-volume/cheap food dining model on its head, he has created a new market for small farmers and provided 70,000 customers with "rich food for regular folks."
Vegetables: From Cedar Circle Farm, East Thetford, Vermont. It's owned and operated by longtime activists Kate Duesterberg and Will Allen. They bought the farm three years ago and converted it to an organic operation, selling most of their produce at their farm stand.
Dairy Products: From Rock Bottom Farm, Strafford, Vermont. The state has lost over 8,000 dairy farms in four decades since the mid 1950s when factory farms moved in. The second-generation Rock Bottom Farm is run by three brothers - Earl, berry and William Ransom - who ship organic dairy fresh to the diner.
French Fries: From the farms of Peasely, Chappel, Guildhall and Williamstown, Vermont. The Farmer's Diner cuts its fries fresh every day from potatoes grown in the state. They're never pre-cooked or frozen, and the cooks use every part of the potato.
Meat: From Montana Yankee Ranch, Starksboro, Vermont. Monty Adams bought Montana Yankee to get back to traditional pasture-fed cattle ranching after working for years on commercial feedlots. He happily meets the diner's specs: no hormones, no antibiotics and all livestock must have access to outside pastures.
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