Dihan Chandra (Managing Director of The Spent Goods Company) was invited to share his thoughts on “re-imagined sustainable food supply vision and why?” as part of a panel moderated by Rethink Sustainability Initiatives on May 19 2022:
Support circular businesses
We know humanity can no longer continue to add more carbon into the environment – For instance, organic food waste that ends up in landfill, releases greenhouse gases, and is a significant contributor to climate change. According to Project Drawdown, dealing with global food waste is one of the top 3 solutions that humanity needs to focus on to reduce climate change.
As an individual, you likely don’t waste food at home. However, what if the food you purchased directly helped to reduce climate change as well?
One solution is to purchase Upcycled foods – delicious foods that incorporate food by-products that are typically discarded like leftover juice pulp or barley grains used by breweries into food.
For instance, brewery barley still contains high protein, fibre and low sugar after being used. Spent Goods capture these nutrients and keep them in our food system.
By diverting these grains, we are reducing the eCO2 that would have resulted.
And Spent Goods isn’t alone – See list of participating circular businesses at Upcycled Food and Spent Goods Inside.
Why you need to support local
You hear it all the time – by supporting local businesses, you are investing in a local food supply chain, creating jobs and helping to build a robust supply chain so that if global supply chains are affected again, we have more confidence that we have access to food.
Working together, we are stronger
By partnering with other organizations, we can actively address local food insecurity. E.g., Spent Goods works with Foodshare, who offers a residential food delivery program in Toronto – they use the profit to fund their non-profit initiatives to address food insecurity and social justice. Individuals like you can directly support local food, food insecurity initiatives and receive fresh local produce delivered to your home – Explore these alternative grocery models without giving up on convenience, choice and price.
But are these solutions scalable?
Yes! To scale, simply match local bakeries and breweries in close proximity to one another – then replicate this model across different neighbourhoods, cities, to have a significant impact.
Given all these benefits compared to how we consume food today, the beauty of these solutions is that it has the potential to nudge society away from a single use to a multi-use mentality. i.e., when you purchase a product in the future, would you reflect on whether it could be repurposed into something of value when you are done with it?
Thank you for your time – hopefully, we’ve given you some food for thought 🙂
Dihan Chandra
Managing Director, The Spent Goods Company / Organic Lifestyle
Try Spent Goods at one of our online food delivery partners: https://grazeandgatherfood.ca/discount/rsi2022
They cover all communities between Etobicoke (southwest), Aurora (northwest), Peterborough (northeast) and Cobourg (southeast).
Enter coupon code RSI2022 to receive 10% off your first order (valid until July 1 2022)
Else, find a retailer near you at https://spentgoods.ca/retail