Why it's Important for Your Restaurant to Support Farmers and Fishers
As an influential link between producer and consumer, the F&B industry has a unique ability to shape our food system by supporting small businesses and ethical farming and fishing practices. In this article, we explore why this matters and what it means for your restaurant.
‘Support Farmers and Fishers’ is one of the 10 key focus areas of the Food Made Good Framework, under the ‘Sourcing’ pillar. Through this focus area, we aim to ensure that the hospitality sector values farmers and fishers and their communities. We believe that restaurants should ensure that their terms of trade are fair across the entire supply chain, working to encourage long term, mutually beneficial relationships in which farmers and fishers earn a decent living from their work and their human rights are respected.
What does it mean to support farmers and fishers?
Responsible sourcing means buying from environmentally and socially ethical sources that minimise the impact they have on the world. This practice starts at the very beginning of the supply chain, and includes taking care of the real people who grow, gather and harvest the produce you buy, as well as the communities and local environments where they live and work. It means guaranteeing a living wage for producers and supporting environmentally positive farming and fishing practices. For foods you can source locally, this is relatively easy to manage; however, it becomes trickier when you’re looking for exotic or out-of-season ingredients from other countries.
Why supporting farmers and fishers is important
Small-scale farmers and fishers are the backbone of global food production, but routinely earn less than half than their larger counterparts. Developing countries typically provide cheaper labour to cater to the growing demands of wealthier markets, and this can have a devastating effect on local communities.
Farming and fishing communities like these – often in the global south – are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, economic shocks and social instability. Many agricultural supply chains also carry a high risk of negative human rights impacts, including forced, exploitative and child labour.
If we are to build a more sustainable food system that can withstand and even mitigate climate change – ensuring food security for everyone – then farmers and fishers have an invaluable part to play. Ensuring that the human rights of these workers are upheld, and that the practices they use to produce our food are not environmentally damaging, should be the bare minimum in how we plan for this future.
The power of restaurants
The hospitality industry acts as an influential link between the producer and the customer. The decisions restaurant operators make about what they source, buy, cook and serve ultimately shape how we eat when we’re out of home. This provides an opportunity to make better choices for both people and planet – choices with the potential to help build a more resilient global food system and contribute to thriving farming and fishing communities. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘voting with our wallets’, and this certainly applies here: it’s crucial to consider what kind of world your procurement money is building.
Your customers want ethical sourcing
Consumers are more educated than ever around the ethical issues in global food production, and are increasingly choosing food and drink products that meet their criteria. A late-2021 global survey from OpenText found that 88% of consumers said they prioritise buying from companies that have ethical sourcing strategies in place – an increase of 10% from pre-pandemic data. Strongly influenced by the demands of younger generations, this attitude is likely here to stay: two thirds (64%) of 18-24-year-olds would never buy from a company again if that organisation was accused of working with unethical suppliers, compared to just 40% of respondents aged 65 or over.
What to consider in order to support farmers and fishers
1. Human rights considerations: Is your business supporting small businesses, local economies, families and communities? Have you carried out a human rights risk assessment across your supply chains? Look for suppliers that are aligned with international voluntary standards related to upholding human rights, and consider making a public commitment to eradicating child labour and forced labour from your supply chains.
Whether you’re sourcing directly or through a third party, it’s important to ensure that your terms are thorough, just, clearly defined and of benefit to the farmers and fishers at the other end of the supply chain. This includes fair pricing and timely payment; transparent and regular communication; agreed-upon dispute and/or conflict resolution procedures; and clearly outlined employment standards for farmers and fishers.
2. Environmental considerations: When it comes to the environment, are you using your sourcing policies to encourage environmentally-friendly practices, such as regenerative farming and sustainable fishing? Transitioning towards practices like these can often be costly, so one way to make a tangible difference is by putting in place a long-term strategy that guarantees support while the producers in your network make the necessary changes.
Sourcing from diverse producer organisations helps to foster economic growth and to ensure that money and power are not concentrated in the hands of the few. Prioritise sourcing from small-scale farms and fisheries, or those in disadvantaged communities; cooperatives or other community-run farms or fisheries; social enterprises; or minority- or female-owned and/or farms or fisheries.
High-risk products: It’s worth paying a particular focus to your terms of trade when it comes to your purchases of high-risk products. This is because for these products, there's more of a risk of social and/or environmental abuse in their supply chains, including forced or exploitative labour, child labour, land conflicts, climate change, the use of chemicals that negatively affect the environment and human health, deforestation, biodiversity loss and contributing to drought. These high-risk foods include:
- Avocados
- Bananas
- Beef
- Chillies
- Chocolate and/or cocoa
- Citrus fruit
- Coffee
- High-risk seafood products (including shellfish and seaweed)
- Nuts, including coconuts
- Palm oil (or products containing palm oil)
- Rice
- Soy (or products containing soy)
- Sugar
- Tea
For businesses that don’t take extra care in sourcing these foods, the issues inherent in these supply chains can often translate to reputational and financial risks. Using third-party certifications like Fairtrade – especially across these high-risk items – is one way to ensure that the farmers and fishers in your supply chain are being treated fairly. In recent years, we’ve seen some businesses take this a step further, reducing their reliance on these ingredients or even eliminating them from their menus altogether.
Don’t forget to share your story
Communicating about your support of farmers and fishers is key. For staff and suppliers, understanding your work to support farmers and fishers can help guide buying decisions and inform supplier practice in the wider network. Incorporating information on your ethical sourcing practices is also a valuable way to attract customers (and, increasingly, employees); moreover, it contributes to the broader discourse, educating more people about these issues and helping to make ethical sourcing practices the norm.
Interested in learning more about the Food Made Good Standard? Read about the process here, sign up to get started here, or drop us a line at standard@thesra.org.
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Jocelyn leads our Marketing & Comms team and is responsible for managing our content strategy, growing our audience and building our global reputation. Jocelyn holds a BSc in Hospitality Management and an MSc in Food Culture & Communications, and is a member of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild. Her background includes on-the-ground F&B experience; a decade of food writing, editing and publishing; content creation for some of Ireland’s biggest food brands; and developing the content marketing strategy for a suite of menu management and carbon tracking software.
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