Personally, I would start a think tank related to food and dining. I'm not aware of any think tanks dedicated specifically to food/dining (at least in the DC-area), but there certainly are some interesting food-related ones around. For example, The Center for Genomic Gastronomy.
The Colorado-based Sterling Rice Group (SRG) has been described as a "foodie think tank," although it calls itself an advertising agency. Here is a link to its predictions for food trends in 2013.
The closest thing in Washington may be something called Keep Food Legal, a libertarian-oriented non-profit run by Baylen Linnekin which advocates for the right of every American to "grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, cook, and eat the foods of their own choosing."
And of course there is El Bulli, once rated as the top restaurant in the world before it closed, which will re-open as a "gastronomic think tank" in 2014.
