Our new tagline, “Preserving & promoting the world’s culinary cultures,” has proven to be quite popular. Times have changed and associations need to change to. The greatest threat we see currently in our industry is the threat to local culinary cultures. Chains are swallowing up not just consumers’ food expenditures, but local culinary expression while drowning local culinary creativity. Already, burgers and coffee have been standardized by a few global conglomerates. That stops now. We’re reaching out to communities around the world, including in South Korea, Texas, Sweden, Portugal and Canada, to help them preserve and promote their culinary traditions. We’re NOT saying that there is no place for global cuisine (think fusion and gourmet) or ethnic foods. We’re simply saying that local culinary cultures need to fight harder – and need more help fighting – their decimation by corporate-controlled foodservice. Judging by how our members have embraced the tagline change, we know we made the right decision. Thank you for your support.