We’ll be carrying out planned website maintenance on Tuesday 29 September from 4pm, so the website may be temporarily unavailable during this time.
Why does what I eat matter?
This is your hub of everyday tips to make a positive, planet-saving change through what you eat.
Roughly half of the planet’s habitable land is used to produce food for humans. The way food is grown, reared and produced can do great harm or great good. Today it's the leading cause of habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, water pollution and freshwater extraction.
There are many solutions, including regenerative agriculture (farming with nature at its heart), new technologies and waste management.
What can I actually do?
-
Eat more plants and less meat, fish, and dairy
Switch out meat for wholefood, plant-based alternatives where you can. Try oat milk in your daily cuppa – it generally has less impact on land, water and climate. -
Reduce your food waste
Compost all your unavoidable scraps and use as much of your veggies as possible (stalks and leaves are great in soups and stews!). Meal planning before shopping helps reduce waste and save money. -
Grow your own
Start small with a simple window box of lettuce or beansprouts. If you don’t have time or space to grow food, find a community garden to participate in. -
Save water and protect waterways
Save water in your garden by not using your hose and installing a water butt. In the home, take shorter showers and fix any leaky taps.
Avoid using pesticides or washing your car or clothes with harsh chemicals, as they can get into soils and waterways.
Doers
Can how I shop make a difference?
-
Seek out seasonal, local food
Make a point of visiting your local farmers’ market, butcher and green grocers instead of supermarkets. -
Buy water-friendly products
Choose cleaning products and detergents carefully, being mindful of what goes down the drain and into the ocean.
Also seek out water-efficient products like flow aerators, taps, and shower heads, or put a water saving device in your cistern, run full loads in your washing machines and dishwasher.
-
Buy sustainable produce
Look for certifications on food labels – like the Marine Stewardship Council, the Soil Association, Fairtrade, organic, and B Corp.
-
Avoid packaging where you can
Take your own bags to the shops so you don't need to use single-use plastic. Look for products with less (or more eco-friendly) packaging.
Shoppers
How do I get the word out?
-
Have conversations about food
Don't be shy. Share your thoughts (and food!) with your family and friends. Maybe they’ll pick up a few tips!
Listen to our Plate to Planet podcast to hear conversations between food experts at Eden and WWF-UK discussing food, community, and sustainability.
-
Turn the weekly shop into an activity
Team up with your family or friends to look for products with the least packaging or play spot the sustainable food symbol at the supermarket. Others might wonder what you’re doing! -
Share your food successes
Share your home-grown crops with family and friends or swap it with other growers. Share pictures of your produce or a new plant-based recipe you've nailed. -
Share your top tips and lend a hand
Offer your new-found expertise to others. Perhaps that's helping to clear some space for their own growing or taking them out to a farmers' market.
Shouters
Can I find out more?
-
Be curious about where your food comes from
Ask in restaurants or markets where products have come from – especially meat and fish. Are they local, seasonal and from sustainable sources? -
Ask food brands the big questions
Contact a brand if you have questions about their products – share with them any suggestions you have. -
Check water quality in your area
Be aware of any pollution events near you, by visiting trusted sources e.g. The Environment Agency, especially if you swim, fish or grow your own.
-
Learn about your food footprint
The Soil Association, Earth Day, and The BBC all have handy online advice for reducing our carbon footprint through our diet, as well as ways to conserve water.
Learners
Eden's food and water initiatives
The food we serve in our cafés reflects the stories we tell. Our food is responsibly sourced, fairly traded, single-source, seasonal and/or local and freshly made, often in front of your eyes.
As a major consumer of goods and services, we are committed to spending our money wisely on products that make a difference to the world. We choose our products either because they have a low impact on the environment, a social benefit for the people who produce them or a positive influence on the consumer's lifestyle.
Our family food came first in the 2022 Soil Association’s league table of healthy children’s food at UK attractions, which ranks the nation's top family attractions according to the healthy eating value of the meals available.
We sort and measure over 20 different waste streams at our on-site recycling facility, enabling us to analyse the data to make decisions about where to focus waste reduction efforts. We make it easy for our visitors to separate their leftovers into our clearly labelled recycling bins, helping them connect with the sustainability story behind their food.
We work closely with local recycling companies to ensure as much as possible is being recycled into new material or, as a last resort, into energy.
We also turn kitchen scraps and leftovers from our cafés into compost for our world-famous gardens. An on-site composter converts food waste created here into a nitrogen-rich soil enhancement that our gardeners use to feed their impressive collection of plants.
We’re proud that around two-thirds of our water needs are met by water we collect ourselves. Because we’re situated in a big hole in the ground – a former clay mine – we have set up an underground drainage system that collects all the water coming onto the site, which we use to irrigate our plants and flush our water-efficient loos.
We also harvest the rainwater that falls on the Biomes to irrigate the plants inside, top up the rainforest waterfall and maintain the high humidity inside.
Our new on-site plant nursery is a demonstrator of regenerative sustainability and circular systems. It has the capacity to produce over a million plants per year.
Operations at Growing Point began in June 2023, enabling our horticulture team to produce all the plants for the Rainforest Biome, Mediterranean Biome, Outdoor Gardens, our shops and other local suppliers, as well as food for the thousands of visitors that we welcome every year – all in food metres rather than food miles and with little or no packaging.
The nursery will eventually produce over a million plants per year in an energy-efficient, climate-positive way using peat-free composts, recycled and recyclable pots and without pesticides.
We water the plants we grow using rainwater harvested from the roof and held in a dedicated lagoon that is bigger than an Olympic swimming pool!
At the Eden Project we are striving to practically demonstrate what the future of food could look like. As described above, this includes growing food for our restaurants in our geothermally-heated plant nursery metres away from where we serve our customers, and how we recycle our water and food waste, which is part of our journey towards becoming climate positive.
We are the home of an extraordinary global garden, growing many familiar foods from across the planet all in one place. Our incredible collection of plants demonstrates where your everyday ingredients come from, and tell the stories of the impact growing these foods can have on people and the planet.
With over half a million people passing through our doors every year, we have a rolling programme of events designed to help people of all ages engage with the planetary emergency, offering practical hope for the future. Some of these events specifically focus on food. Find out what's coming up.
We have introduced an innovative returnable cup system into our hospitality venues.
Visitors pay a small deposit for a returnable cup, which is then returned to a reverse vending-style machine. The deposit is then refunded almost instantly upon cup return. The technology-driven scheme uses latest payment advances by Mastercard Send so that visitors get their deposit back on their preferred card simply by tapping the terminal on the return machine. The cups are then collected, washed, and reused.
The scheme is estimated to save around 220,000 single-use coffee cups per year, eliminating around 4 tonnes of waste and a 72% CO2e saving.
