What does ‘sustainability’ mean to you?
There was an interesting piece on the Callendar McDowell (www.callandermcdowell.co.uk) website over the weekend. Their business is primarily in the marketing of farmed fish and salmon in particular.
It’s Fyne: Most newspaper restaurant reviews tend to be about new openings rather than well established restaurants.
Manchester Confidential, a local web based review site has just returned to Loch Fyne restaurant for a second visit and managed to create quite a storm amongst the armchair critics. Ruth Allen, Manchester Confidential’s restaurant reviewer enraged a number of readers by writing:
”Loch Fyne remains true to its ethical ethos, which is explained on a plaque by the door as you walk in. The Company is dedicated to the protection of our seas, our maritime communities and all forms of marine life, a mantra which is repeated by the staff, placemats, menu cards and comment cards. Lobster and sea bass are August and September’s best catches, they advise, drawing your attention over and over again to Loch Fyne’s thoughtful fishing methods and concern for the environment. ‘Oh for God’s sake shut up would you I thought’. Frankly, I’m not that bothered about where my food comes from, more about whether it tastes good.”
It was this last comment that prompted a few readers to respond declaring that how could any food critic not be concerned about where the food comes from but what was interesting was that a number of others responded suggesting that the time Loch Fyne spent on telling everyone about how green their food would have been better spent making the food more edible.
What began with a debate about the ethical concerns of food supply quickly turned into a rant about readers’ bad experiences at the various restaurants in the chain.
What’s clear is that issues such as sustainability and food ethics make little difference to consumers if the food is inedible. The environmental movement have hijacked issues relating to the supply of fish arguing that this is what is most important to consumers. This is not the case at all. What is important is that the fish they buy and eat tastes good and represents value for money. What the industry forgets is that if consumers don’t like the fish on offer, they won’t buy it. Then sustainability won’t be an issue because there will be no demand for the fish at all.
Read the article in full here: http://www.callandermcdowell.co.uk/relaks469.html
This argument can go a step further. If you buy the best tasting food we would argue that 9 times out of 10 you will also find that it is also the most ethically produced food. Quality producers are in it for the long term, they work in harmony with the environment and to the highest standards of animal husbandry. We don’t sell food just because it ticks boxes like ‘organic’ or ‘msc approved’, we sell the best tasting food we can possibly find from producers who really care about what they make and in the process we would argue that it XYZ.
What do you think? Are there ethical labels that you look for when shopping? Does ‘sustainability’ mean something to you? What does it mean anyway? Surely intensively factory farmed chicken and pork is just as if not more sustainable as organic or indeed conventionally produced food, should we all be eating that?
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