Farm-to-table
Despite the growth in the farm-to-table restaurants the movement has been met with some criticism. Critics argue the interest in knowing where your food comes from and ensuring it is locality sourced is just another food fad for millennials. Furthermore, the higher price point that many restaurants are forced to demand, given the higher costs of production and lower economies of scale, also make farm-to-table food less accessible for many people. The movement was originally closed tied to "tree-hugging elitists," who were able to afford farm-to-table food. Lastly, critics argue that the farm-to-table term is not fully understood by consumers. For example, foods advertised as farm-to-table are considered healthier regardless of actual nutritional content.
Farm-to-table
Investigations by journalists at the "Tampa Bay Times" and "San Diego Magazine" found widespread fraud in the claims made by area farm-to-table restaurants about where the food they were serving came from. Cases included: restaurant previously bought from that provider but has since switched without updating the menu; restaurant claims to buy from a farmer, but the farmer denies ever having sold to that restaurant; restaurant serving a type of food the cited farmer or fisher has never grown or caught or which is currently out of season or not being provided; restaurant claiming to serve food from a provider which has gone out of business years ago; food from the claimed source makes up only a small portion of the type of food on the plate. In cases where fraudulent claims are being made, the food actually being served is usually non-local or even "commodity" food which is cheaper or more available out-of-season. In some cases food claimed to be "wild caught", "preservative-free", "made in-house", "Fresh from Florida", or "Long Island duck" was not. Such practices open restaurants to lawsuits from the farmer whose name is being used fraudulently, lawsuits from consumers who have purchased mislabelled food products, and enforcement actions by government agencies. "Tampa Bay Times" food critic and investigative reporter Laura Reiley attributes fraud in part to the rise of the farm-to-table trend since 2012, the lack of time of restaurants to deal directly with farms whereas they normally would deal with one or two large distributors, and in some cases sheer profit motive.