At the Table – Sustainability

The good news is that according to a recent report by The Hartman Group, 72% of U.S. consumers believe that their purchases have an impact on society, meaning most people do understand that what they buy affects their community, the environment, their health, etc. The okay-but-could-be-better news is that just over 54% of consumers knew what the term “sustainability” meant and only around 12% know where to buy these types of products.

We’ve grappled with this issue for years. We’ve known that people find the term “sustainable” a bit confusing or it has no meaning for them, but we see it as a challenge and as our job to help educate the public. Sustainability can be a difficult term to grasp because it doesn’t have a cut-and-dry definition. It’s a philosophy or way of life – very broadly, you put back what you take out, you think of others, you treat yourself and the world around you with kindness. It’s basically an ethical way of life where you try to do no harm and where you think of others and not just yourself.

With regard to food and agriculture, our area, we’ve come up with a definition for sustainability that we use – “Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities.”

The challenge with the concept of sustainability is that it’s a very broad definition that can potentially be confusing, but the good thing about the term is that it is so broad. Each individual can choose to live their life as they see fit, with (seemingly…) simple concepts like “think of others”. With regard to food, thinking of others means looking for food where the workers weren’t subjected to pesticides (and neither are you or your family), where animals are treated humanely, where the environment is respected so wildlife can flourish and we can all breathe clean air and drink good water, where farmers are able to make a living – basically, our definition for sustainability is wrapped up in the simple term “think of others”.

But even though some consumers are grappling with the issue of sustainability, what’s so heartening is that there are people living a sustainable life and eating sustainable food without thinking much about it. It’s simply what they do.

I just came back from a vacation in England, which included a five day road trip to Cornwall (the western part of the country – think pirates in Penzance…). I actually didn’t know until I started planning the trip that Cornwall is so sustainable. Every bed and breakfast we stayed in served locally produced food, as did every restaurant we stopped at. And it’s one thing to see sustainable food served at Rick Stein’s restaurants in Padstow (he’s a famous chef over there) – but due to an unfortunate incident where I got locked in a pub bathroom and had to break out, and practically had a herd of cows trample me as they were coming down the road to switch to another pasture – we missed lunch in one of Stein’s restaurants. (In case you’re going to England, a lot of restaurants stop serving food around 2pm and then re-open for dinner. We didn’t get to the town until just after 2.)

We wandered around and found a local pub at the Old Ship Hotel, happy that there was at least somewhere to get food. I was overjoyed when I looked at the menu and saw that the ale was from a nearby town (Truro) and both the fish, meat and cheese were local. Even the sparkling water was from Cornwall! (It was a little too early for local vegetables though….)

What was so wonderful was that everywhere we went we found the same thing (okay, we did see a McDonald’s and a couple Burger Kings…). We stopped for afternoon tea in St. Just – the scones were made that morning in the bistro and the clotted cream was from down the road. (British afternoon tea, if you don’t know, is usually two scones, clotted cream, jam and, of course, tea. You can also get really fancy teas with sandwiches and pastries and more food than you could ever eat – definitely worth doing if you ever are in England.) In St. Mawes, we bought whole grain bread made in a shop that morning, local Cornish butter, and Yarg, a local cheese – one with nettle leaves, the other with wild garlic.

And this type of food is simply taken for granted there. The Cornish people don’t go around saying they need to eat local and that people have to be educated on eating locally – they simply do it. It was so wonderful to know I could go anywhere and find locally produced food from small farmers. I was equally as impressed when I was in Heathrow getting ready to come back and had breakfast in one of the airport restaurants – the menu actually said free range eggs. An airport restaurant serving free range eggs – there’s hope for us all!

That got me thinking. Of course, the US is much bigger than England and we have more challenges, but I started thinking about the local, sustainable movement here in this country. I actually think we’re more sustainable than we realize – and our road trip this summer is intent on proving that. I believe we already live in a sustainable society – people either don’t know they’re living that way yet, or they simply haven’t been informed that sustainable is the way to go. So we’re here to spread the message of sustainability – and we hope you’ll join us.

Ps: I’ve put up a couple photos from my trip below, in case anyone’s interested.