In honor of Earth Month.
We want to highlight the issue of wastefulness in the food industry.
My next guest founded a company working to combat this
very problem with its zero waste strategy of food production.
So joining me now is Camila Marcus, founder of Westbourne Camila.
Thanks so much for coming on the show. And let's just talk about the baseline here.
How big of a problem is this
while the climate crisis is looming and the biggest area
of focus should and needs to be food and agriculture.
It's the only system that can pull down carbon in time.
So I should say pretty important, uh very important and how do we fix this?
What's a tangible solution on the horizon?
Look, it all starts and ends right now with regenerative farming,
it's proven to work and it is the single biggest
impact we can make on the climate crisis again,
that's looming
and that starts in the grocery store. It starts with our food and beverage choices.
Each of us has the power to make different choices.
We make more decisions about food and beverage than anything else in our daily life.
And that has quite a compound impact.
So really thinking about where your food is from, how it's sourced, how it's made.
And
you know,
the financial market is starting to back solutions that live with
the land knowing that that's where the long term solution lies.
So as a consumer Camila,
what are the right choices that you should be making even when it comes to food waste,
right?
If you have extra food and you're thinking about throwing it out,
what's the best course of action?
Look, we each have the ability I think to be part of this solution.
You know, looking again when you're at the grocery store,
looking at things and companies like ours that are sourcing, regenerative,
looking at new material science packaging, you know,
we're plastic free from the start.
All of our packaging is home compostable.
And when you're cooking at home, thinking more plant based in your recipe decision
and also really using whole ingredients.
You know,
a lot of our content on our website and on my own
social media is trying to help people realize it can be delicious,
accessible and easy to make a zero waste planetary focused uh you know,
cooking at home.
And for us, we're on a mission to marry planetary and personal health.
And that's a simple,
is this affordable for shoppers Camilla?
I think in this environment,
I would hope that everyone wants to make the planet safer and reduce food waste.
But of course, a dollar and cents have to add up to
if anything focusing on conserving your food and using all of it,
I think is the first way to think about your food budget at home buying locally.
I do think is approachable if you're creative about
meal prepping and how you're producing food at home.
Um You know what's out in the grocery store, I think is evolving.
I think there's a lot of options that are more accessible and again,
the less you waste, the more that's in your pocket.
So I do think even for corporations,
buyers and grocers really thinking about the
wedge of the potential for upcycled products,
which we do a lot.
We use a lot of what would be wasted,
brings down ingredient costs, brings down product costs and again,
brings more into your wallet and into your home,
better for the environment and better for our households.
Um What kind of stats can you give us Camilla in terms of where we stand across the
globe and even the savings that your company is
contributing in terms of sustainability to the climate.
Yeah, again, when you look at the data, this single
Pinkel issue is regenerative farming.
We have a massive transition underway 500 million acres
in this country is moving towards regenerative agriculture.
That's the largest land transition since the Louisiana purchase.
And it is the only system that can pull down carbon in time. That's the key and vis
a vis
us West
saved nearly 20,000 trees and protected 23,000 acres of forest things.
Start packaging innovations.
We've also saved the plastic equivalent of nearly 3000
straws and paper equivalent to 86,000 sticky notes.
That's in our recent regeneration report and that's in just one year of business.
I like the name Westbourne. I think it is kind of a play on words here, Camilla.
Maybe you can talk to me more about that.
Uh But also I think for our viewers watching who
might want to learn more about regenerative uh regenerative farming.
What did they need to know?
Well, first off,
they can go to our website W w w dot Westbourne dot com or follow us at Westbourne.
Uh We share a lot of our information and our research and data.
We work very closely with planet forward,
which is our third party emissions uh validator and we've worked in
close partnership with them since the start and we do a tutorial on
home com posting as you mentioned what to do with your food
waste as far as the recipes as well as sort of a,
a basic one oh one on regenerative farming.
Mhm.
It really is focused on bringing, you know,
bringing nutrients back into the soil about crop rotation and biodiversity.
And again, what's better for the land is better for you and your health, you know,
produce that's grown, right is far better for your bodies and you know
us at Westbourne, we focus very much on clean formulation,
high nutrient density as well as climate center.
And how would people see the changes,
the positive effects of this in their day to day life?
Oh, I think it percolates into everything we do.
As I said, you know, the way that your food is grown,
uh the way that it hits your body,
the way that you're gonna feel and you know what's better again all around.
We believe that the synergy is between planetary and personal health,
that it doesn't have to be a tradeoff.
And if anything, it's meant to live in concert,
we were meant to live in harmony with the land.
And that's really the basis of our mission as a company.
It's,
we always say we're so progressive that we're going
back in time really the way that nature intended.
And a lot of that is really nutrition focused. Um while also being carbon neutral,
right? Camila Marcus, founder of Westbourne.
Thank you for having me, Camila. Thank you for joining a mid
month.