It's been quite a while since my last post here - I admit, things have been quite hectic with school and deadlines, but I am now back from a much needed break. So, where did we leave things off? In short, we took a journey from the past to the present to see how global food production impacts the environment. We covered a really wide range of topics, but there is so much more to the story of how humans produce food. In the next set of posts, we will focus on present environmental issues surrounding food production. I'd like to explore some of the topics I didn't have time to cover in the fall, such as organic farming, pesticides and nutrient enrichment, composting, factory farming, biofuels... this list could go on forever, so please come visit regularly!
Seeing as it's my first day back from my blog holidays, I'd like to keep things on the lighter side. So let's dig in!
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| Salade Niçoise in Nice (you can find a great recipe here) |
Have you ever heard of an organisation called the Sustainable Restaurant Association? If you haven't, don't worry - I hadn't either, but was certainly excited to learn that something like this existed. In a nutshell, the SRA is a not for profit membership organisation that seeks to assist dining establishments to transition towards sustainability. In addition, it also assists diners in selecting sustainable options when eating out. The organisation's definition of a sustainable restaurant comes in a lovely three course meal format: sourcing, environment, and society. These values are broken down into various compartments such as supply chain, fair treatment of people, and local and seasonal sourcing, among many others. The SRA's key focus areas can be seen in the diagram below.
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| SRA's 14 Key Focus Areas (source: SRA) |
What's more? The SRA has compiled a guide for sustainable restaurants that is searchable by location! Quickly searing London has brought up something like 22 pages of results - I'm looking forward to combing through the list next time I go out for dinner. Sustainable dining at restaurants is something that has always interested me, but was not something that I have been actively making an effort to do, essentially because I found it challenging to know where to obtain information on the topic. The SRA has made this easy, so I no longer have an excuse! Recently, I visited a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca, which is a member of the SRA, and had a great sustainable dining experience.
What are your thoughts on the work that the SRA does?
