What we choose to eat doesn’t just affect us here and now. It has repercussions for the planet, for humanity and for our future.
We’re the first to advocate tucking into some quinoa and starting your day with an egg (or three!). But these healthy foods can often come at a price. So how do you ensure you’re getting the amazing nutrients from these sources while still eating in an ethically and sustainable way?
Luckily, there are some smaller ethical and sustainable producers out there making a huge difference.
The Pines Kiama.
Our recipe developer Meg brought this biodynamic farm to our attention. “It just tastes like normal milk,” she says. Indeed, the milk is chemical-free, batched and bottled by hand and unhomogenised – leaving the classic layer of cream on top.
But it wasn’t always this way. Less than five years ago, owners Kel and Mahlah Grey were under huge pressure to deliver to their commercial contractors.
“We were trying to get as much milk out of the cows as possible. We put nitrates and fertilisers on the grass to increase production, but we were struggling to meet our quotas,” says Mahlah.
Realising this wasn’t sustainable, The Pines Kiama privatised and decreased their working dairy cows from 40 to eight. They switched to natural fertiliser, started using wind and solar power, and let the cows graze on seasonal grasses rather than forcing them to eat grain.
“The milk’s taste reflects what the cows are eating in the pastures – sometimes thicker, sometimes sweeter,” says Mahlah. “And ironically, now that they are eating their natural diet, the cows also produce more milk!”
Papanui Open Range Eggs.
Once you go Papanui, you can’t go back – or at least that’s what we say in IQS HQ. We are obsessed with Papanui eggs, mostly because the egg yolks are so orange they’re almost red. Seriously!
The trick is the hen’s natural diet, says Papanui co-owner Mark Killen. “Our chooks eat a wild variety of foods – grass, weeds, soil and even insects. This naturally changes the colour and taste of the eggs.”
Papanui also refuses to be categorised as “free range”. We can see why – with some “free range farms” stocking up to 10,000 hens per hectare, 213 million eggs were falsely labelled in Australia last year. Instead, Papanui goes by “open range”, meaning the chooks are free to roam for kilometres.
“They live a very happy, natural life. Now that we know how it can be done, we could never stick chickens in a cage. If we didn’t do it this way, we wouldn’t do it at all.”
Kindred Organics.
Most quinoa comes from Bolivia and Peru and, aside from the carbon miles, reports show that the massive craze has actually made the staple grain too expensive for the locals to eat. That’s why we were excited to find Kindred Organics, a Tasmanian producer founded in ethics and sustainability.
“Our product is natural, certified organic, sustainable and ethically produced,” says co-founder Henriette Damen.
Instead of using harsh fertilisers and chemicals, Kindred Organics take cues from nature. The paddocks are planted with clover, which keeps the soil fertile and the crops verdant.
“We saw a lot of health problems with people who used chemicals. Healthy soil provides all the minerals that are absorbed into the plant for you to eat!”
Meru Foods.
Supermarket foods are often as far from the traditional recipe as you can get. That’s why Meru Foods decided to make authentic miso paste using ancient texts – despite an obvious language barrier!
“We grow the miso culture from scratch, and that’s something that only very few miso houses in the world still do. There’s not much English literature on how to do this so we’ve had a bit of trial and error,” says co-founder Chris de Bono.
Meru Foods ticks all the ethical boxes too: organic, biodynamic and produced in Tassie.
“We saw that the food system was completely broken. There was just so much unnecessary waste. Rather than just looking at the problem, we had to be a small part of the solution.”
I Quit Sugar.
Naturally, when we decided to launch our own line of products, we wanted to make sure they were sustainable, too.
A particular focus was our I Quit Sugar: Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. So many oils we looked into were harvested in extreme poverty and used just one per cent of the coconut husk.
After rigorous research and a lot of hard work, we became the only certified Fairtrade coconut oil available in Woolworths. We also found a manufacturer who used the whole coconut (to make milk, flour, water and more) and even the tough husk for textiles and fuel sources. Phew!
What other sustainable food companies are making a difference? Let us know in the comments below!
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