US – The food division of outdoor clothing company Patagonia has crafted its first sustainable beer.
Kernza is a laboratory-developed perennial wheat that is more ecologically viable than typical wheat crops because of its long roots, which help it to prevent land erosion and means it can grow in more arid conditions because it requires less water.
Patagonia Provisions worked with research organisation The Land Institute to harvest the wheatgrass, which was first used on a commercial basis by San Franciscan restaurant The Perennial in its bread. Patagonia Provisions is appealing to farmers nationwide to grow Kernza as a means of mitigating climate change, and the company has promised to buy any that is harvested.
The beer is brewed at Hopworks Urban Brewery, the first brewery to be certified Salmon-Safe in disposing of waste water in a way that doesn’t harm native salmon. ‘Our goal at Hopworks is to make world-class beer as sustainably as possible,’ founder and brewmaster Christian Ettinger told Cool Hunting.
Brands are using Whole-system Thinking and working with scientific organisations to introduce more sustainable farming methods.