There are already lots of great examples of high quality local, seasonal, vegetarian and vegan menus throughout the FSC. Most dining rooms have information supporting a move to low-carbon diets through eating less meat and reducing food miles. We are proud to have achieved the Food for life Award from the Soil Association this year and some centres promote this to customers and support the ‘Meat Free Mondays’ initiative.
Radio 4 the Briefing Room: Climate change and meat – what’s the beef? Has a really useful bit on what works and what doesn’t work in trying to get people to change their behaviour. Listen from 12 minutes in.
Some of you may already have been joining in the email discussions about this issue and providing ideas and the all-important feedback from our visitors. This has helped shape some initial ideas, but we want to hear from all staff on both the principles and the practicalities of serving lower carbon food.
Some of our customers expect us to be adopting a science based approach to serving meat free or more radically, vegan meals. Others see having a meat choice as a very important part of their stay. We don’t want to risk losing valuable bookings over the menu, but we also want to lead on environmental issues. We will be sending out a survey shortly to gather your comments and ideas which will be used to inform discussion at the November Environment and Sustainability Committee.
On the topic of meat and its carbon impact, an article titled “Sacrifice” by George Monbiot, first published in The Guardian in 2015, struck me like a hammer blow. Perhaps because it was Christmas. Here’s an excerpt:
“A kilogramme of beef protein reared on a British hill farm can generate the equivalent of 643 kg of carbon dioxide. A kilogramme of lamb protein produced in the same place can generate 749 kg. One kilo of protein from either source, in other words, causes more greenhouse gas emissions than a passenger flying from London to New York(2).”
Here’s the full thing – worth a read:
https://www.monbiot.com/2015/12/22/sacrifice/
But meat is one of those issues that is very hard to change minds on. It’s an issue highly susceptible to the Backfire Effect (https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe)
Interesting to hear of group discussions happening via email. Can we open these up somehow so that anyone in FSC can jump in? Most orgs these days use tools like Slack for this sort of free flowing open discussion (hence why it became the fastest growing business app of all time). Or failing that, a company-wide Outlook email group? Would be great to get involved in more discussions like this, even if only to listen in to better understand our organisation and its user needs.