Seasonal dining
Local produce would go a long way to limiting our carbon footprint
Eating seasonal, local produce would go a long way to limiting our carbon footprint so it’s good to hear that Starwood Hotels is introducing menus with food sourced only in Belgium and mostly from organic farms, in four of its restaurants.
Eco Warrior drooled when she read the menus, which include delights such as sole cooked in white beer and desserts made with Speculoos biscuits. She was also delighted to hear many customers, when offered the choice, plump for the green option.
Chefs at L’Epicerie in the hotel Le Méridien, Le Crescendo in the Sheraton Brussels, Gullivers in the Sheraton Brussels Airport hotel and La Fourchette in the Sheraton Four Points are all taking part in the parent company’s initiative ‘100 percent Belgian’ which runs until June 20.
Eco Warrior is wary of criticising such an initiative as it’s hard to argue with the comment by sales and marketing director Dean Bannon that “every little helps”. For sure, it’s better than nothing, as is the Starwood policy to cut its carbon emissions 20 percent over the next five years.
But if a chef or restaurant really wants to take a stand on environmental issues then how about having the rest of its menus only listing local and seasonal produce too and making sure that all rather than “most” of the products come from organic farms?
Inevitably, the restaurants will be using ingredients which do not come from local sources, such as coffee, so perhaps they could kindly make sure these are fair trade.
Your comments
Jobs listings 
Shopping tips
Advertise with us
For advertising queries, contact us at advertising@ackroyd.be or on
+32(0)2 373 99 09. See our rate card
Comments
Greenwashing again
Rarely am I sufficiently angered to respond in these forums but the shoddy journalism that supports such 'greenwashed' claims cannot go unchallenged. Carbon footprint (CFP) calculations are incredibly complex that measure the envmtal impact of a product from the farm to the market. While transport is a valid component of these calculations, it should never be used selectively. In most cases the production activity makes up the vast majority of a CFP. In Europe, this cost is very high due to the intensity of the system and the inclement weather that we suffer. You will often find therefore that the CFP of imported product is much lower than local product. Please present facts to your readers. Leave the advertising to the hotels.