Grand Seminar of Sustainable Gastronomy 21 – 22.9.2018

Sustainable Gastronomy

Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Dur­ing the sus­tain­able gas­tron­omy sem­i­nar at Perho Culi­nary, Tourism & Busi­ness Col­lege (Malmi cam­pus), ex­perts ex­plored sto­ries of bio­di­ver­sity, sus­tain­able in­gre­di­ents, com­mu­nal liv­ing,  im­por­tance and the ben­e­fits of co-op­er­a­tive farm­ing, zero waste phi­los­o­phy and cir­cu­lar econ­omy.  Also, what we eat, af­fects our per­for­mance, our health, and the func­tion­ing of our brain. Switch­ing from one-time con­sump­tion to ro­tary econ­omy re­duces food loss. In this Grand Sem­i­nar, our ex­perts de­scribe the mean­ing of sus­tain­able gas­tron­omy and how we can all con­trib­ute cre­at­ing a more sus­tain­able en­vi­ron­ment and fu­ture for ev­ery­one.

Grand Seminar of Sustainable Gastronomy & Farmers Market

Green City Farm or­ga­nized the sec­ond an­nual Grand Sem­i­nar of Sus­tain­able Gas­tron­omy and Farm­ers Mar­ket in Sep­tem­ber 21 – 22.9.2018 in Malmi cam­pus of Perho Col­lege (north­ern sub­urb of Hel­sinki, Fin­land).   The Farm­ers Mar­ket in­cluded many small food pro­duc­ers and farm­ers who were sell­ing their prod­ucts along with food pre­pared by culi­nary stu­dents from Perho Food Truck. Vis­i­tors were also of­fered tours to the Green City Farm where they learned the sus­tain­able farm­ing prac­tices of the farm.

Commitment to Sustainable Development – how to get into the heart of sustainable development

Marja In­na­nen talked about the fu­ture of our planet and the im­por­tance com­mit­ments for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. We need to re­act now, be­cause oth­er­wise, the fu­ture gen­er­a­tions will have noth­ing left if we still keep over con­sum­ing our planet. She also pre­sented the com­mit­ment for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment (sitoumus2050.fi) on­line ser­vice where or­ga­ni­za­tions, com­pa­nies and in­di­vid­u­als can make op­er­a­tional com­mit­ments for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

Marja In­na­nen (Deputy Sec­re­tary Gen­eral, Na­tional Com­mis­sion on Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment at Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice Fin­land) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

WHY DO WE NEED A NEW AP­PROACH TO SUS­TAIN­ABLE DE­VEL­OP­MENT?

We are liv­ing in a time of great global change. Man­ag­ing this change will re­quire our de­ter­mined ef­forts, both col­lec­tively and in­di­vid­u­ally, in the decades to come.

Com­mit­ment 2050 ob­jec­tives and Agenda 2030 goals

Lataa tiedosto (PDF, 1.47MB)

Commitment of Sustainable Development by Perho College & ELO-foundation

Bet­tina Lind­fors (ELO-foun­da­tion) and Jarmo Åke (Perho Col­lege)

Perho Culi­nary, Tourism & Busi­ness Col­lege and ELO-foun­da­tion have made to­gether col­lab­o­ra­tive sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment com­mit­ments. Perho has com­mit­ted to of­fer new in­sights on sus­tain­able gas­tron­omy and tourism through ed­u­ca­tion.

The Perho Col­lege com­mits it­self to ed­u­cat­ing re­spon­si­ble fu­ture pro­fes­sion­als who af­ter grad­u­a­tion are am­bas­sadors of sus­tain­able gas­tron­omy and tourism. Re­spect for na­ture – now and in the fu­ture – is our start­ing point when we build new types of learn­ing en­vi­ron­ments and learn­ing mod­els in co-op­er­a­tion with the ELO Foun­da­tion as pi­o­neers.

Growing Vegetables at Green City Farm

Steven Lown­des (per­sonal farmer of Green City Farm) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Steven Lown­des, per­sonal farmer of Green City Farm, ex­plained the cul­ti­va­tion meth­ods of Green City Farm.

Biodiversity, Organic Farming & Co-Operative Farming

Heidi Hovi (per­sonal farmer of Co-Op­er­a­tive farm of Hert­toniemi) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Heidi Hovi, per­sonal farmer of Ur­ban Co-op­er­a­tive Farm of Hert­toniemi (omapelto.fi), talked about the im­por­tance of bio­di­ver­sity, co-op­er­a­tive farm­ing and the land care (pre­serv­ing the health of the land).

Or­ganic agri­cul­ture and soil bio­di­ver­sity

Soil or­gan­isms con­trib­ute a wide range of es­sen­tial ser­vices to the sus­tain­able func­tion­ing of all ecosys­tems. They act as the pri­mary driv­ing agents of nu­tri­ent cy­cling, reg­u­lat­ing the dy­nam­ics of soil or­ganic mat­ter, soil car­bon se­ques­tra­tion and green­house gas emis­sions; mod­i­fy­ing soil phys­i­cal struc­ture and wa­ter regimes; en­hanc­ing the amount and ef­fi­ciency of nu­tri­ent ac­qui­si­tion by the veg­e­ta­tion; and en­hanc­ing plant health. These ser­vices are not only crit­i­cal to the func­tion­ing of nat­u­ral ecosys­tems but con­sti­tute an im­por­tant re­source for sus­tain­able agri­cul­tural sys­tems.

Pollinators & Biodiversity – Honey Bees

Merja-Ri­itta Lau­rila (pro­fes­sional bee­keeper) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Im­por­tance of pol­li­na­tors, es­pe­cially the honey bees, was the topic of Merja-Ri­itta Lau­rila (pro­fes­sional bee­keeper).  Merja-Ri­itta ex­plained that bees are es­ti­mated to pol­lute about 75 to 85 per­cent of world plant species. What would hap­pen if we

She also ex­plained that the lo­cal land­scape can be ex­pe­ri­enced through the fla­vors of the honey:” the fla­vors of the honey acts as a map of the lo­cal bee pas­ture, its plants, cli­mate, soil and even the well­be­ing of in­sects within the area.” The land­scape gives honey the aroma, color and com­po­si­tion (the mouth feel of honey).  The col­lec­tion area of nec­tar and pollen for the bees is about 2 km ra­dius around the bee­hive.

The eco­nomic value of pol­li­na­tion, in mon­e­tary terms, is much higher than the eco­nomic value of the honey it­self.   The eco­nomic value of pol­li­na­tion in Fin­land is about 60 mil­lion eu­ros a year, up 11.5 times our an­nual honey har­vest. Sci­en­tist has de­ter­mined that the world­wide eco­nomic value of the pol­li­na­tion ser­vice pro­vided by in­sect pol­li­na­tors, bees mainly, is €153 bil­lion (2005) for the main crops that feed the world.  This is why a num­ber of Eu­ro­pean coun­tries have de­vel­oped a na­tional strat­egy for pro­tect­ing pol­li­na­tors.

Sustainable Development in City of Helsinki

Anni Sin­nemäki (deputy mayor of Hel­sinki) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Anni Sin­nemäki, deputy mayor of Ur­ban En­vi­ron­ment of city of Hel­sinki, high­lighted some of the key sus­tain­able prac­tices that the city of Hel­sinki has to of­fer to its cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors. Anni Sin­nemäki is re­spon­si­ble for the city’s ur­ban en­vi­ron­ment. She han­dles mat­ters such as land use, in­fra­struc­ture, en­vi­ron­men­tal  mat­ters, plan­ning and trans­port. 

Anni Sin­nemäki ja Merja-Ri­itta Lau­rila vis­it­ing Green City Farm and the bee­hives. Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Fazer Brainhow

Marika Laak­so­nen (Lead in Health, Fazer Lab)

Marika Laak­so­nen (Lead in Health, Fazer Lab) in­tro­duced Brain­how pro­gram of Fazer: “The foun­da­tions of Fazer Brain­how lay in Fazer’s re­search and de­vel­op­ment work. We con­duct clin­i­cal stud­ies and are ac­tive in the field of nu­tri­tion re­search, co­op­er­at­ing with uni­ver­si­ties and re­search in­sti­tutes. We do this to ac­cu­mu­late the knowl­edge we need to cre­ate prod­ucts that help boost your well-be­ing, par­tic­u­larly the well-be­ing of the brain. Our goal is to make sci­ence work for you – tasty, healthy prod­ucts that are easy to use, ev­ery day!” (Fazer Brain­how) 

“Your brain de­serves just as much at­ten­tion as you body” -Fazer Brain­how Photo: Fazer

Restaurant Nolla

Al­bert Sun­yer (chef & co-owner of Restau­rant Nolla) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Chef Al­bert Sun­yer of Restau­rant Nolla talked about the “zero-waste phi­los­o­phy” that is not only part of their food pro­duc­tion but also in­te­grated into the whole busi­ness op­er­a­tional con­cept.

Restau­rant Nolla has a com­poster that com­post biowaste within 24 hours. Photo: Restau­rant Nolla

“Refuse, re­duce, re­use, and on last in­stances, re­cy­cle and rot” – Restau­rant Nolla

We work di­rectly with lo­cal and in­ter­na­tional pro­duc­ers of or­ganic in­gre­di­ents to rein­vent, re­ject and con­trol pack­ag­ing. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with de­sign­ers, en­gi­neers, ar­chi­tects has al­lowed us to re­think waste man­age­ment, as well as wa­ter and en­ergy ef­fi­ciency. We also want to en­gage our com­mu­nity in all of this, by ed­u­cat­ing, in­spir­ing, co­op­er­at­ing, and also by hav­ing fun. We hope to in­spire other restau­rants to see that min­i­miz­ing and elim­i­nat­ing waste is not only fea­si­ble but also ben­e­fi­cial.

We show that tasty, in­ven­tive and cre­ative food can work hand in hand with sus­tain­abil­ity.

Hävikkimestari

Eveli­ina Lin­dell (Las­sila & Tikanoja) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Eveli­ina Lin­dell (Las­sila & Tikanoja – Hävikkimes­tari) pre­sented the on­line tool for track­ing food waste and how it can be used to pre­vent the growth of food waste.

The en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts of food loss have be­come a global con­cern. 50% of the Earth’s land area is used for food pro­duc­tion. 70% of pure wa­ter is con­sumed in food pro­duc­tion and 30% of cli­mate emis­sions are gen­er­ated in food pro­duc­tion. At a present, 1/3 of the food pro­duced ends up be­ing lost, which is un­ten­able when all the earth’s in­di­ca­tors are in red. The UN has the goal of re­duc­ing food waste by 50% by 2030.

Communal living

Heli Koti­lainen (Setle­ment­ti­a­sun­not Oy) Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Heli Koti­lainen, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of Setle­ment­ti­a­sun­not, spoke about com­mu­nal liv­ing. Set­tle­ment­ti­a­sun­not -apart­ment ser­vices of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ties for a va­ri­ety of com­mon ac­tiv­i­ties in hous­ing fa­cil­i­ties.

Circular Economy and it’s impact on Sustainable Gastronomy

Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

A group of pan­elists were dis­cussing about the cir­cu­lar econ­omy, it’s im­pact of sus­tain­able gas­tron­omy and how we can all con­trib­ute to more sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion. Dis­cus­sion panel was hosted by chef Sasu Laukko­nen (teacher at Perho Culi­nary, Tourism & Busi­ness Col­lege).

Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Pan­elists in­cluded the fol­low­ing key speak­ers: Server of the Year 2018: Noora Sip­ilä, Chef of the Year 2018: Kalle Tan­ner. Ex­ec­u­tive chef and owner, Sasu Laukko­nen (Ora Restau­rant). Ex­ec­u­tive chef Tapio Bergström (Vis­i­tors Cen­ter of Fazer), Restau­rant en­tre­pre­neur, Ilja Björs (Ju­uri Yhtiöt). Steven Lown­des (Perho Culi­nary, Tourism & Busi­ness Col­lege) and per­sonal farmer, Heidi Hovi (Co-Op­er­a­tive farm of Hert­toniemi).

Sustainable Food & Gastronomy

Af­ter the sem­i­nar, chefs, servers and stu­dents served food and bev­er­ages by the school cam­pus area.

School cam­pus area with pop-up restau­rants and food truck. Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Food and bev­er­ages pre­pared by chefs, cooks, servers and stu­dents. Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Pre­pared by us­ing lo­cal in­gre­di­ents. Photo: Yani Slava Har­to­nen

Green City Farm20186.9.2018