Margarita Alvarez (Ecohuerto) invited me to develop a project for selling "organic" vegetables grown on a ranch in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato. Due to Ecohuerto's background, we had established good relationships with chefs and individuals interested in the culinary industry.
The idea was to establish a contract-based agriculture model with premium restaurants in Guadalajara, ensuring a consistent supply of agricultural inputs that aligned with their culinary concepts of "farm to table". We offered different varieties of vegetables:
Multiple variety of Brassicas
Heirloom tomatoes
Heirloom lettuces
Heirloom cucurbitaceae
The concept was appealing to the restaurant industry, and chefs could leverage it for their personal branding.
The market for "organic" products among young families was growing, and there were limited truly congruent options.
Effective scheduling and constant communication between cultivators and kitchens are essential.
Ensuring product quality and shelf life for perishable items requires a prioritized and indispensable logistics infrastructure with cold chain capabilities.
To truly bring "from farm to table," it is crucial to have producers located within a radius of no more than 100 km.
Drawing from the recent experience with Ecohuerto, I recognized that achieving the necessary change through educating people with gardens alone would be challenging. To make a more significant impact, I needed to jump to larger-scale production. The objective was to introduce high-quality products to the culinary world, inspiring restaurants to promote organic ingredients and, in turn, re-educate kitchen staff. Although kitchen staff handle food daily, many have little knowledge about the production process of the ingredients they use.
With Brassica, I aimed to foster a movement in the culinary industry that would encourage people to choose food with organic inputs. By bringing quality products to the culinary spotlight, we hoped to shift consumer preferences towards more sustainable and organic choices, thereby supporting the principles of food sovereignty.
Through this project, I gained valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of sustainable agriculture within the culinary domain, contributing to my journey of answering the question of how we can create a more sustainable and regenerative future through agriculture.