The ISSUE: FOOD SUSTAINABILITY
Food is essential, satisfying not only our basic nutritional needs but also bringing us together for shared communal experiences. Preparing, sharing and eating food together is at the heart of what it means to be human, and cooks and chefs have always occupied a special place in society, as the artists and architects of our food culture.
But it has become increasingly clear in the early part of the 21st Century that there are problems in our food system. The way we produce, consume and dispose of food has significant social and environmental impacts.
Food security is intensifying, as we are intensively cultivating a selection of key crops, but at the detriment of our soil health and deforestation. Cattle farming has a considerable environmental impact, with meat consumption expected to rise. Our planet is being affected by climate change, especially smallholder farmers facing droughts, water scarcity, volatile markets and gender inequality.
Food access also is a significant challenge, with 820 million going hungry daily, whilst 2 billion are obese or overweight, a rebalance of sustainable nutritious food needs to take place.
Throughout supply chains we are aware of the amount of waste that occurs, costing $1 trillion and emitting 8% of greenhouse gases. Additionally, as experienced throughout the Covid pandemic, we need to develop strong partnerships across all actors within our supply chains, adding value in all directions.
As Chefs, the choices that we make about the way we work, the suppliers we select and the ingredients we choose, determine whether we are contributing to these problems or supporting solutions.
And as Diners, we want the choices we make about where we eat, and which businesses we support, to align with the things that we care about, whether that’s animal welfare, low carbon or a fair tips policy.
For both chefs and diners, the complexity of the modern food system means that making good choices can often seem like an impossible task.
We created Food Made Good as a membership program for businesses that wanted to confront this sustainability challenge and for diners that wanted to use the power of their appetites for good.
The sector needs to work collaboratively to tackle some of the greatest social and environmental challenges in the world. Let’s turn our passion into action and create a more sustainable food system