More than Louisiana’s coast may be eroding, according to New Orleans chef and restauranteur John Besh. Failure to preserve traditional Louisiana foodways could mean Louisiana’s culture — which Besh said is the state’s most valuable renewable resource — will go bland.

Besh, who spoke at the 2013 Louisiana Food Processors Conference Thursday at the Energy, Coast and Environment Building, said foodways, or the social and economic practices relating to food, are such an integral part of Louisiana’s culture that many of the state’s traditions are inseparable from food. Until recently, however, chefs around the world have trained to cook the same way because of the popularity of international cuisines, Besh said.

People are increasingly interested in preserving Louisiana’s uniqueness, though, which has conveniently coincided with recent “farm to table” and “buy local” phenomena, Besh said. Using local ingredients and practicing Louisiana cooking styles helps maintain cultural traditions many take for granted, he said.

“If we don’t take care of these foodways, then we will slowly see the erosion of this culture speed up to the point that we have no culture,” Besh said.

Besh emphasized the importance of Louisianians cooperating to preserve their state’s foodways. He warned if people ignore the culture they claim to be part of, it may vanish.

“Very few [cooks] are coming from Louisiana, very few of them are coming from New Orleans and very few minorities are entering into our business,” Besh said.

Supporting farmers is another way to protect Louisiana’s culture, Besh said. When farmers partner with the food industry, they develop new commerce that fuels foodways and economies.

Besh said his foundation, the Chef John Besh Foundation, makes micro-loans to farmers that finance improvements such as fencing. The foundation also partners farmers with MBA students to write business plans, Besh said.

Farmers have to make a profit for their business to survive, so it is important to provide business assistance when they need it, Besh said. Helping farmers build connections from the point of production to the consumer without involving middlemen makes larger profits possible, he said.

John Finley, director of food innovation at the LSU AgCenter’s food business incubator, also presented at the conference and said the incubator will have a demonstration kitchen to exhibit uses of products it helps launch, which will help tenants market their own goods. The incubator will also test how well customers receive a product before a tenant begins producing and trying to sell larger quantities, Finley said.

The incubator is looking at inviting chefs to teach food preparation classes, which would raise money for the University food science department and be valuable to community, Finley said. The incubator is set to open in June.

Dickie Brennan, owner of Dickie Brennan and Company, said that in the 1970s, Americans became fascinated with using American food products. He said regional American cuisines were reignited in restaurants, including his family’s, Commander’s Palace.

“We’re not a French restaurant, we’re not an Italian restaurant — we’re an American restaurant,” Brennan said.

This facilitated a new prominence of local products and ways of involving farmers, Brennan said.

Brennan also pointed out that while it is important to remain grounded in culinary tradition, restaurants must make some occasional changes. Restaurants not willing to evolve may as well be museums, which leaves them open to becoming irrelevant, he said.

Besh said Hurricane Katrina woke him up to how quickly a culture could be damaged, persuading him to be aggressive about maintaining Louisiana traditions.

“We all love our red beans on Mondays, or we should,” Besh said.

Without those customs, there is not much reason to live in Louisiana, Besh said.

“If we don’t hang on to all these great things that we have and we’re not responsible with it, it will simply just erode away and we will simply become just any old state on the coast — without a great beach,” Besh said.

“We all love our red beans on Mondays, or we should.”