The second in our series of blogs wrapping up the key takeouts from the various speakers at the 2021 Trend Summit, with Foundation Earth, Luminary Bakery, The Food Foundation and The Ethical Butcher.
All of the talks and keynotes are from our 8th Annual Food & Beverage Trend Summit, connecting thousands of industry influencers from across the globe with a host of insightful guest speakers and keynotes to inspire and 'make sense' of the future food and beverage trends horizon for 2022/23.
Here are the key takeouts from the morning session covering Climate and Social Impact of the food and beverage industry.
Cliona Howie - Foundation Earth
Foundation Earth CEO, Cliona Howie shone a light on the work that her company does to allow us all to make more educated and impactful decisions through the products we purchase as consumers, thanks to front-of-pack environmental scores. Foundation Earth is tackling this labelling system head on at a time when the impact that the food system has on our environment and also on climate change continues to become increasingly relevant.
Credibility is paramount with steps such as front-of-pack labelling to ensure consumers have the right knowledge and understanding to be able to make better decisions. It's for this reason that Foundation Earth also provides you with online certificates linked to the products to fully understand their lifecycle. Such impactful additions to retail products are what we need to create change momentum and to inspire innovation as we all look to make better choices.
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Lucy White - Luminary Bakery
How to balance impact and commerciality - this was one of the big topics covered by Lucy White, Commercial Director of Luminary Bakery. Luminary is a social impact business which empowers women to build their own futures and careers through baking. In an inspiring discussion with Charles, Lucy covers how exactly the brand meshes quality, experience and impact, as well as how to scale this impact as the business grows.
Lucy and Charles also discussed the changes both the business had to make during the pandemic, namely a successful pivot to eCommerce, and also the choices consumers were making too. As expected we're seeing more non-gluten and dietary requirement cakes being sold, but also in late 2021 Luminary saw a trend in downsizing of celebration cakes but an increase in consumers finding reasons to celebrate.
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The young people of this country and further afield have a voice that needs to be, and can be, heard - this was one of the powerful messages shared by the speakers from The Food Foundation. Hearing from today's youth brings to life the struggles faced with food poverty and how we can all work together to bring about change.
The pandemic created a whole new problem when it came to the fight for school meals but those at the Foundation reacted to help bring about change and their voices were heard by others with the profile to amplify their message. Through collaborations between young people and businesses, change can easily be effectuated, something that's already being seen through the work of The Food Foundation.
We also heard how food production needs to be a bigger part of the agenda in discussions around the current climate crisis, such as at COP26. Actioning change to food waste on a large scale can, and will, have huge benefits to the planet and there's a lot that can be done by business to make an impact.
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Farshad Kazemian - The Ethical Butcher
It is possible to continue eating meat, but in a regenerative way that puts carbon back in the soil and works with nature, not against it. This is one of the key discussion points covered by Farshad Kazemian, founder of The Ethical Butcher, an online butcher selling regenerative meat.
It's not about the cow, it's about the how. This phrase sums up succinctly the way that The Ethical Butcher goes about its purpose, working to bring back diversity through better agricultural practices and nurturing our land. Farshad discusses the logic in going back to practices used in the early days or farming and local farming, but then using the technology and knowledge we possess today to have a positive impact.
Finally, one to look out for - Regenuary, for those who don't want to give up meat but can still make better choices by opting for regenerative produce at the start of the year. Making impactful choices at a consumer level to have large scale environmental impacts.