Regenerating fast-food
Making sustainable options enjoyable and affordable
Imagine if making sustainable food choices became easier, rather than a compromise. What if options were available that enable families to enjoy an affordable, guilt-free meal that shifts the needle in sustainability, helping us all to do our bit, one step at a time.
We explored this idea with the fast-food industry, speculating a future for both healthier and more sustainable meals together. Whilst veganism has boomed over the turn of the decade, sales of processed plant-based alternative meat products are declining. They are often more expensive than the real thing too. When it comes to people health, plant-based products are lower in saturated fat but are still highly processed with high sodium levels.
However, when it comes to climate impact, Bath University claims that replacing just 5% of beef consumption in a country the size of Germany with pea protein could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 8 million tonnes a year (1). To put that into context, that is the equivalent of 8 million flights from Frankfurt to New York (2). This demonstrates that small changes to what we eat can have a big impact.
There is tension when weighing up planet health, people health, and cost. Can you really have it all?
With a challenge so complex, we have broken this down as a series of ideas within the fast-food service space, that could stack up to deliver significant change.
Image credit: Lee Campbell on Unsplash
1. Making informed choices:
Clarity and guidance can enable people to make informed choices for personal or planet health. Where fast-food is, well fast – sharpness of information is even more critical to engage people.
Imagine if the climate impact of food was presented in a relatable format to enable better incremental choices? A simple itemisation of the carbon footprint, akin to a store receipt could enable people to compare and contrast the impact of meals on the planet.
Imagine if at a glance, you could see where the produce came from and trace the origin of the ingredients? We recognise people are time short and see the potential in information being presented in a simple, yet engaging way.
Imagine if simpler guidance on where to recycle or reuse packaging could encourage people to do more? Creating a simple colour-coded recycling system to enable easy location of the right recycling streams.
With sustainability being such a complex topic to navigate, a helping hand can empower people to choose, feeling more informed about the impact they are having.
2. Creating incremental gains:
How do we make incremental shifts towards better health for people and the planet, without taking the joy out of family mealtimes in fast-food outlets?
Imagine if we could create subtle introduction of plants or whole foods into meals that can contribute to benefits or awareness of improved gut health or higher fibre? The 5% reduction having a benefit on both planet health and people health.
Imagine if nutritional options didn’t come at an increased cost, looking back to traditional methods of frugal eating by preserving, fermenting, and the use of grains or pulses to layer in goodness.
Imagine if flavour or texture was from plants in their purest form, rather than refined sugars or processes that reduce the nutritional value?
A small addition or exchange of ingredients could have a big impact, as illustrated above with the effect a 5% reduction in beef can have on carbon footprint. In relation to health, gut health has been linked to many benefits such as reduction in depression and anxiety. The key is range and variety, ensuring balance on what is consumed. Whilst we recognise that people don’t necessarily go to fast-food for healthy options, we do believe there is a way to nudge people towards introducing new ingredients in day-to-day meals. The introduction of seeds, pulses, fermented foods such as sauerkraut or kimchi can have a big impact on the microbiome. Not to mention the planet, if meat reduction can happen authentically.
Image credit: The Matter of Food on Unsplash
3. Future food and farming:
There is a need to think at a systems level for the food industry, to make the impact that is needed on the planet. Eating ingredients that are local or seasonal is nothing new, but it isn’t something we have seen become readily adopted in the mainstream. We depend on air-miles to bring us the food we crave.
Imagine if key ingredients could be grown within miles of restaurants, where vertical farms could supply key produce to reduce air-miles and transportation, as well as occupy abandoned retail and office spaces?
Imagine if a regenerative system could be created to replenish and put back in what we take out of the soil? Regenerative models in agriculture are on the rise as the benefits of key principles are being recognised, for example, maximising crop diversity, integrated livestock is creating a healthier ecosystem. Drawing more carbon into the earth is a goal worth aiming for.
We believe regenerative farming and agriculture will be necessary to sustain our consumption. This movement is moving beyond niche into the mass market, where McDonald’s UK is three years into a four-year project to follow regenerative guidelines (3) for beef. We must address putting back in what we take out, to regenerate and nourish the earth.
Image credit: Jones Food Company, Gloucestershire - UK’s biggest vertical farm
Planet Health is People Health
Holistic health and wellbeing for all is a big opportunity. There is potential to create a healthier, sustainable, and joyful future for all, by thinking about the total food ecosystem. One dimension will not address the scale of the challenge. Incremental gains can amount to a seismic shift over time, with the power of scale that mass market brands can reach.
References:
(1) https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/plant-based-meat-healthier-and-more-sustainable-than-animal-products-new-study/
(2) https://www.myclimate.org/information/faq/faq-detail/how-much-is-a-tonne-of-co2/
(3) https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jul/18/sustainable-isnt-a-thing-why-regenerative-agriculture-is-foods-latest-buzzword
