Salad chain Sweetgreen is adding steak to your menuan announcement that generated strong reactions online, with customers questioning how it would impact the company’s carbon neutral plans.
Founded in 2007 and known as a fast-casual restaurant serving salads and bowls, Sweetgreen says it will be carbon neutral by 2027 — meaning it plans to offset its own emissions by implementing strategies that also remove carbon from the atmosphere.
But beef production is resource-intensive and contributes to climate change. And the largest agricultural source of greenhouse gases globally, emitting enormous amounts of methane into the atmosphere and requires extensive land use.
Sweetgreen’s justification for its controversial garlic-flavored caramelized steak menu addition this week includes using regenerative agriculture. The chain also states that carbon offsets are part of its commitment to combat climate change and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
A Sweetgreen spokesperson referred a request for comment to its menu expansion details.
What is regenerative agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture it means farming and ranching in a way that not only produces food from a landscape, but also sees that landscape improve ecologically, said Jason Rowntree, co-director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at Michigan State University.
This means “minimizing disturbance, keeping the soil covered,” Rowntree said, “improving biodiversity below and above ground by adding animals to your cropping systems or improving biology below ground.”
Many grocery and restaurant chains are beginning to turn to regenerative agriculture to source animal proteins, grains, fruits and vegetables while meeting climate goals. Starbucks cited regenerative agriculture as a way to halve carbon, water use and waste by 2030. Chipotle It is Burger King were also involved in this.
“It all depends on what you do and how you implement it,” said Allen Williams, farmer and founder of agricultural consultancy Understanding Ag. “It allows for the repair, rebuilding and restoration of our ecosystems – and that is extremely important if we are to mitigate changes climate.”
Some experts question whether regenerative agriculture can offset all emissions from beef production in particular.
What are carbon offsets?
Companies, including restaurant companies, also buy carbon offsets. They buy “credits” as part of a voluntary and unregulated market for projects that claim to absorb carbon dioxide, which otherwise would have happened.
These offsets are an effort to offset carbon dioxide pollution itself. But it’s not an exact science.
While companies like Sweetgreen should be applauded for their efforts, “we all know that compensation schemes over the last few years have been really problematic, to say the least,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. .
What can be done instead?
Even if a chain employs productive regenerative agriculture and offsets, experts say the use of plastic, paper or non-renewable energy can negate these practices.
Therefore, the priority should focus on a restaurant chain’s total carbon footprint, promoting and improving landscapes that are more resilient for food security and improving water cycling, experts say.
“Ultimately,” Rowntree said, “I think these challenges that we’re going to see with aridity, with the increased intensity of rain events followed by longer periods of drought, are probably the biggest challenge facing agriculture in the future.”
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Alexa St. John is a climate solutions reporter for the Associated Press. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Contact her at ast.john@ap.org.
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