More and more consumers are demanding fresh, natural and/or organic ingredients. They expect the menu to include local and seasonal produce, which supports local livelihoods, as well as reducing transport costs and environmental impacts. 90% of the world’s fish stocks are either fully or overexploited, which means the only way to ensure the future of fish stocks and marine environments is to source fish that has been caught responsibly.
About ¾ of millennials and Gen Z consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services.(Nielsen Company, 2015)
Environmentally sustainable foods
Learning about food ingredients means you can make choices that align with your sustainability goals.
Farmed Foods
Most of the food we eat and we put on our menus is farmed. Farming began thousands of years ago to help man gain a secure and ongoing source of high quality nutrition. Prior to farming, human societies found food by hunting and gathering wild food – an unpredictable practice that depended on the generosity of nature to provide. We now enjoy a huge variety of farmed produce, from fruit and vegetables to important proteins like meat and poultry and even farmed fish and seafood.
Wild Foods
There are still some menu ingredients that are sourced through foraging, hunting and fishing. Foraging for wild herbs, mushrooms and edible plants is becoming a popular pastime and some restaurants do buy foraged ingredients – but this makes up a tiny percentage of produce purchased for the hospitality kitchens. Similarly, hunted wild game is occasionally seen on menus; for example, Cazador restaurant in Auckland specialises in game meats including wild boar, venison and duck.
Premium Game is a Marlborough-based licenced supplier of wild game meat to the hospitality industry. But by far the biggest source of commercially caught wild food comes from the ocean. It is a massive industry, employing tens of thousands of people worldwide, on fishing boats, at fish markets, processing factories and associated businesses.
source: screenshot at https://www.premiumgame.co.nz/wholesale/ on 12/5/22
Commercial industrialised fishing
Fishing has been a vital human activity for thousands of years, with food from the ocean being a sustainable form of nutrition for millions of people. Over recent times (particularly since the industrial revolution introduced new technologies), the quantity of fish caught and the area of oceans accessible to modern fishing vessels have increased hugely. (nature.com, 2010). Seagoing fishing factory ships equipped with radar and sonar to help them find vast shoals of fish and catch them quickly have led to the devastation of many fishing grounds all around the world. These huge vessels can go further, stay out longer, process and freeze enormous quantities of fish on board, resulting in overfishing and overexploitation of fish resources.
Sustainable fishing guarantees there will be populations of ocean and freshwater wildlife in the future.
Example: Cod fisheries in Newfoundland
One example of the consequences of overfishing is the fishing for the commercially important species of cod off the waters off Canada’s Newfoundland. Once the biggest cod fishing area in the world, scientists have calculated that by the 1990s there was only 1% of the biomass remaining. (nature.com, 2010), (environmentalscience.org, n.d.)
Watch these short videos identifying the effects of overfishing and then do the exercise.
Watch
Exercise 7
- After watching both videos, post your initial reaction on the class discussion board.
- Research the consequences of overexploitation of the world’s natural ocean resources, exploring 3 of the most overfished species globally.
- Find out where they live and why they have become endangered.
Self-Directed Learning
Use your journal to complete these tasks.
- Visit MPI Fish Stock Status and read both the 2020 Report and Summary Overview. You should be able to explain the difference between management targets, and soft and hard limits for different species.
- Identify 3 good options of fish and shellfish you could include on a mid-range local restaurant menu. Find a recipe for each which you think would be suitable to include on such a menu.
As well as knowing which species are overfished, you should also demand to know where and how your fish is sourced. Some species are okay to choose if fished in ecologically acceptable ways and in certain regions, but may not be okay to choose otherwise e.g. purse-seine caught trevally from Cape Reinga to East Cape is an acceptable choice, but trawled trevally is not.
The way that a fish is caught is essential to understanding its sustainability.
Fishing techniques
Research the main commercial fishing techniques – trawling, long-lining, and purse-seine. In your journal, briefly describe what each method involves and its pros and cons.
The World Wildlife Fund describes “bycatch” as the “incidental capture of non-target species such as dolphins, marine turtles and seabirds”. Bycatch also includes other species of fish than that being fished for. Often fishermen are legally obliged to throw away any species they are not specifically permitted to land – a process called “discarding” and a big source of food loss.
Exercise 8
Watch the videos showing discarding of fish in the UK and the problem of bycatch.
There are many ways to minimise bycatch that have been developed in recent years. Find some examples online. We have also provided details below.
Source: oceana.org, n.d.
Self-Directed Learning
By 2050 the world population is expected to increase by 3 billion people, creating huge demand for food, land and water. Aquaculture production offers a huge potential to sustainably feed the planet. Already it has surpassed wild catch and it will continue to play a critical role as demand for seafood continues to rise.
Unfortunately, aquaculture has gained the reputation of being an environmentally damaging practice:
- Farmed salmon has some damning statistics - 3 kg of wild fish are needed to make 1 kg of farmed salmon, and the antibiotics and chemicals used in the production spread into the water and contaminate the biodiversity. (Fournier, 2017)
- Ongoing destruction of mangroves to create shrimp ponds in parts of South Asia, has caused significant environmental damage.
Watch this video showing salmon suffering in Scottish fish farms which gives you an idea of the bad press aquaculture has received. After you watch the video continue to research and summarise the positive and negative environmental impacts of aquaculture in your journal. Is the poor reputation of aquaculture deserved?
Farmed Beef and Lamb
As we studied in Module One Food Trends, the consumption of meat worldwide is growing and this is creating a big challenge for environmental sustainability. The United Nations University (the research arm of the United Nations) reports that more than half the crops we grow are used to feed livestock, and that the problem is set to get worse with wealthier nations and a rising global population increasing the demand for meat and dairy products. (United Nations University, n.d.)
The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods. (Guardian, 2021)
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that raising livestock for meat and dairy produces 14.5% of all anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions - about the same amount as the transportation sector.
Exercise 9
- Read the following articles:
- Consider these questions: How can we still enjoy meats such as beef and lamb but in a more sustainable way? How can these items remain on our menus in the future?
- Work in pairs to prepare your contribution to a tutor-led, online group discussion session. Think about examples of sustainably-farmed meat; the cost; customer preferences, environmental impacts etc.
Self-Directed Learning
- Make a critical analysis of this information about the environmental footprint of beef:
Source: Poore (Oxford University) - Explain why emissions, land use and water use differ depending on locations.
- What is the situation in NZ?
Eggs
‘New Zealand’s modern egg industry is built on a balanced and sustainable approach to farming and food production. This means considering hen health and welfare, human health and nutrition, food safety, the environment, public attitudes and cost – all together to provide eggs New Zealanders can enjoy now and in the future.’ (Egg Producers Federation of New Zealand, 2012)
Exercise 10
Investigate the various types of eggs available in New Zealand – battery cage; colony cage; barn; free range; organic… Are they all environmentally sustainable?
Part 1
- Calculate the unit price for each egg pack above. What is the median and mean egg price? What is the range of egg unit prices above?
- In 2015, McDonald’s USA announced its commitment to source 100% cage-free eggs by 2025, representing around 2.2 billion eggs a year. If a cage- free egg costs $0.15 more than a caged egg, how much extra will this commitment cost McDonalds?
- As a customer would you be willing to pay more in a restaurant for free range eggs? Organic eggs? Why or why not?
Part 2
Several other common foods are environmentally unsustainable including sugar, mineral water, coffee, chocolate, palm oil, soybeans and rice. Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet. You may not know much about it but you will find it in 50% of all supermarket products. (Stuff, 2018)
- With a partner, investigate one of the products listed above. (Your tutor will ensure the list is covered by the group.)
- Prepare an infographic to share with the whole group at a designated meeting time. Your infographic should have relevance to the hospitality industry.
The phrase ‘food miles’ refers to the distance that groceries travel to reach consumers’ plates. This distance includes the kilometres travelled as food is shipped from farms to processors, processors to storage depots, storage depots to vendors, and vendors to consumers. The implication is that the further food has to travel, the worse it is for the environment.
How does knowing the ‘food miles’ of a product affect your purchasing decision?
Read this BBC article, Facts about Food Miles, then watch the Peter Newton's Ted Talk before doing the exercise.
Exercise 11
You should now be questioning the validity of using food miles as a measure of environmental sustainability. Write notes in your journal about other factors to consider when contemplating the distance your food has travelled to get to your kitchen.
Research the meaning of the terms:
- Carbon footprint
- Water footprint
Why are these measurements important? Study the following table and summarise the message in your journal.
| Food Item (1kg) |
Carbon Footprint (kg CO2) |
Water Footprint (L) |
|---|---|---|
| Beef | 27 | 15,500 |
| Chicken | 6.9 | 4,300 |
| Rice | 2.7 | 2,500 |
Self-directed learning
Complete your infographic and post on the class discussion board. Look at other students’ infographics.
According to a report by Salesforce, the theme of seasonal menus increases the overall orders placed within restaurants by 26 per cent. (Goodman Fielder, 2018)
Exercise 12
With a partner, discuss the benefits of including seasonal foods and beverages on your menu. How can you find out what is in season in your area? Are there any disadvantages to adopting seasonal menus?
Create a seasonal food calendar in your journal. Write down the months of the year and find pictures/photos of 3 food items that are in season to match the month. Research a recipe utilising one of these items suitable to include on a mid-range local restaurant menu.
| Month | In-season food items | Recipes |
|---|---|---|
| January | ||
| February | ||
| March... |
Download the table to complete the exercise.
Self-directed learning
‘A vegan diet is best for the environment.’
Your tutor will organise a ‘Line Debate’ to consider this statement at a suitable time over Microsoft Teams.
- One half of the class will be for/in agreement with the statement and the other half will be against/in disagreement with it.
- You will be given time to think about any points you wish to make (you may want to do a little research).
- Your tutor will chair the debate, asking for a point from the proposition followed by a corresponding point from the opposition. The tutor will then ask for the opposition to start off a point, followed again by a corresponding point from the opposite side.
The tutor will end the debate and sum up the main points once everyone has spoken and the topic is exhausted.
