The future of food
What we eat and how it is produced affects the health of the planet, as well as our bodies. Revolutionising food and agriculture can combat climate change, biodiversity loss and help turn the planetary emergency around.
What the Eden Project is doing
Exemplar plant nursery
Growing Point, our state-of-the-art plant nursery, showcases regenerative sustainability and circular systems in both its construction and operation. Built from light, recyclable materials, it harvests rainwater from the sky and heat from the earth, via our on-site geothermal plant.
Food production started in 2023, and we can now harvest crops on the day they are needed, delivering them within minutes to our food preparation areas, reducing time, packaging and travel emissions, and increasing the freshness and quality of the ingredients enjoyed by over half-a-million visitors every year. As well as fruit, veg, salad, and herbs, our nursery allows us to produce speciality foods and spices that would otherwise have to be imported.
Unique food offer on site
Our delicious food is responsibly sourced, organic, fairly traded, seasonal and/or local and freshly made, often in front of your eyes. Our menus reflect the stories we tell in our exhibits, and our chefs work closely with our horticulturalists growing as many of the ingredients ourselves as possible.
None of our food is served in single-use plastic, and we run a reusable cup scheme for takeaway drinks. We've also made it easy for visitors to refill water bottles with free Cornish tap water stations and drinking fountains around our restaurants and gardens.
Progressive food waste recycling
We turn our kitchen scraps and food leftovers into compost, which we then use to feed our gardens and grow more food, creating a circular system. About one-third of all our food waste enters our on-site composter, and 80 days later, after an aerobic composting process, we are left with a nitrogen-rich soil enhancement. The other two-thirds of our food waste is turned into electricity and heat at a local anaerobic digestion plant.
Crops grown at the Eden Project
We are the home of an extraordinary global garden, growing many familiar foods from across the planet all in one place. Have you ever thought about where your coffee comes from, or how chocolate is made? From ancient olive trees to the spices you find in your kitchen cupboard, 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.
Building resilient communities over lunch
As well as providing nutrition for our bodies, food has the power to boost our health and wellbeing by providing a good excuse for a get together! The Eden Project is the home of The Big Lunch: the UK’s annual get-together for neighbours and communities, where millions of people come together for a few hours of food, friendship, and fun.
The idea is simple. Have lunch with your neighbours on the first Sunday of June each year. This simple act of sharing a meal together connects people and encourages friendlier, safer communities where people start to share more – conversations, ideas, skills, resources and friendship.
Our tips and tools for change
How better to celebrate and protect the natural world than through the food we grow, share and eat together? Current methods of food production, including packaging and transportation, are exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and pollution – significantly impacting the overall health of the planet. Changing our food habits has the power to positively impact all these things at once.
