There Is Such A Thing As A Farm-To-Tarmac Movement

You're probably tired of the standard fast food and/or nameless delis you normally find at the airport. Even Starbucks is getting a bit boring. However, there are plenty of excellent airport restaurants around the world, and now the farm-to-table has extended its reach.

Meet the farm-to-runway movement. We spoke with Delaware North, a leading airport food service and retail company, about some of their initiatives to get local food to people who are about to get far away from all things local. The company currently sources locally grown produce, meat, and dairy products for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Austin–Bergstrom Airport (AUS), and Boise Airport (BOI).

Renowned chefs like Wolfgang Puck, Masaharu Morimoto, and Rick Bayless have had restaurants in airports for many years. Now, lesser-known but sustainability-oriented restaurants like Casavana Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale Airport, a restaurant that features authentic Cuban cuisine; Big City Boise, a female-run café that serves out-of-the-box treats like cherry pie scones, Mexican chocolate shortbread, and ethical coffee; and a soon-to-open outpost of Los Angeles's popular Wahoo's Tacos are vying for the attention of food loving travelers.

The best part of this development? A farmers market right at LAX. Los Angeles's popular Original Farmers Market, which has been operating since 1934, is opening its second location in Terminal 5 — the same terminal as Skewers by Morimoto. Past the mock-sculpture of the iconic clock tower at the original Los Angeles Farmers Market you'll find a host of vendors (Bennett's Ice Cream, Dragunara Spice Bazaar, the Dog Bakery, and more) along with "Farmers Market To-Go" items in refrigerators.

The movement is small, but it's picking up steam. Just as fine dining found its place in airports, sustainability-focused food is making its way to the mainstream — if we're lucky, one farmers market at a time.