By Katherine Price, Sustainability Editor, H&C News: Sourcing ingredients sustainably
Sourcing ingredients sustainably
Where we source our ingredients from is an issue that has come into sharp focus in the last few years, not only due to the increasing awareness of the impact our food choices have on the environment, but with the industry seeing shortages as well as fluctuating prices. For some, spiralling costs have meant sustainable sourcing falling to the bottom of their list of priorities. But pandemics, conflicts and crop losses are issues that are only going to get worse and more frequent if we continue down the road we’re on.
With food responsible for approximately 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions, where hospitality businesses choose to source their food from can have a big influence over this figure.
It’s rare I read a press release these days that doesn’t mention a new restaurant ‘celebrating seasonal British produce’, and it’s fantastic that this is clearly a priority for operators.
But there’s a lot to consider when it comes to sustainable sourcing: pesticide and fertiliser use, carbon, food miles, biodiversity, seasonality, water usage, packaging, waste, deforestation, and the destruction of habitats – all of these are discussions that can and should be had with suppliers.
Some restaurants are taking their supply chain into their own hands and growing, making, and rearing their own produce. Honest Burgers just last week announced it was committing to buying its beef directly from farmers proven to be using regenerative farming practices, which they said meant prioritising soil health. Silo in London has been hosting an invasive species dinner series making use of the likes of Japanese knotweed and grey squirrel. Pine in Northumberland, as well as having its own farm, is dedicating a large part of its garden to housing a colony of native black honeybees. And Osip in Somerset got rid of its menus to ensure that every day, the kitchen can use the produce that needs to be used up, when it’s at its best and in whatever quantity it’s available – the real meaning of a seasonally changing menu.
I recently chatted to chef Liam Barker, who pointed out to me that the closer we are to the ingredients we’re using, the more we respect them and can ensure their sustainability. Having worked in the kitchen at Corrigan’s in London, he now runs pop-ups, supper clubs and cookery classes, with a focus on ‘food education’ (also the name of his YouTube channel).
“When you don’t really put any effort in to get something, you don’t understand the full value of it,” he told me. “Everybody from start to finish appreciates and understands the product when they understand what went into getting that product on the plate.”
He says that the best thing restaurants can do, other than growing ingredients themselves, is dealing with producers and farmers directly, people that can easily be found by searching on the internet and social media.
“Doing the work to go and find those people might take some time, but you’ll get a relationship with someone that you can work with over time to produce the things that you want. The products will be better, you know exactly where it’s coming from, and if you want to make changes, you can work with them to do that,” he says.
He stresses the importance of us shifting our mindset away from the convenience of ‘getting anything we want at any time we want’, something that many operators have already been grappling with in the last few years. But baking flexibility into your business model can make it more resilient to sudden shifts – many of the businesses that came out of the pandemic stronger were those that adapted quickly or were already diversified.
Shortages and disruptions have highlighted the importance of our suppliers – without them, we have no ingredients. Ensuring they and the people they work with are paid fairly, can plan ahead, and work on the sustainability of their operations with guaranteed customers and income is paramount.
I ate at Warehouse recently, within London’s Conduit club. On one side of an A3 sheet of paper was the menu, on the other a list of the restaurant’s suppliers and their stories. The venue is transparent about its sourcing, but also educating diners about what goes into their meals and spotlighting suppliers as part of the restaurant experience.
Ultimately, the definition of ‘sustainable sourcing’ is ensuring we aren’t taking more than nature can regenerate – creating food in a circular way that doesn’t damage the environment or populations and means stocks can return and grow year after year.
There are so many resources available to support operators to audit their supply chains, from wholesalers with a focus on fairness, transparency and sustainability, to carbon labelling services. There’s also the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good framework, which breaks food sourcing down into four simple areas to consider: using local and seasonal produce; more vegetables and better meat; sourcing fish responsibly; and using fairly traded produce to support global farmers.
As a final note, it’s World Environment Day this week (5 June) and this year’s theme is ‘Only One Earth’ – a stark reminder that we only have one planet to live on, and we need to look after it.