Oslo Innovation Week 2017: Food 4.0 – Sustainable or not?

For the last 11 years, Oslo is hosting the Oslo Innovation week featuring a wide range of subjects, from high-tech to digital transition. 

This year, I was especially interested in an event hosted by Arena Innlandet talking about the sustainability of food production in Norway: Food 4.0 – Sustainable or not? In order to talk about this topic, they gathered people from different backgrounds: recycling company, cooperative leaders and Innovation Norway speakers.

Through the event, the issue of sustainability in our modern world has been explained and solutions have been given. Reaching sustainability is a complex issue in a world where profits and globalization are the focus.

In Norway, a tradition of cooperative farming, clean energy, and good recycling habits have set the perfect base for a sustainable food industry. To develop such economy, you need to keep several key points in mind: being Fair, Attrack positive storytelling, Innovate and Respect (both your customers and partners)=FAIR. These points were explained by Ragnhild Nilsen, leader of Nortura and founder of the Global Fair Trade. How inspiring it was to listen to her passionate speech. How many times do you wonder where your clothes were made or where your food is coming from?

A sustainable food business comes with the respect of our land, our cattle, our consumers and our planet. Developing such business, and more specifically in the food industry, is more expensive than having a classic company. It requires more work because you take in consideration all the modern issues: environment, fair-trade, fair-wage, animal welfare…etc. 

If it is a complex issue, it is still something reachable. In the food industry, it starts at the local scale: developing organic farming, cooperative farming, using less pesticides and antibiotics. By the way, did you Norway is the country using the least pesticides and antibiotics in the world? It is interesting to see that the Norwegian agriculture developed through the years cattle and grains that adapted perfectly to the harsh Norwegian climate to reach a great balance between efficiency and sustainability.

As a chef, this subject is important in my life both private and professional. At Hibiscus Dinners we try as much as possible to buy local organic ingredients directly from farmers. It is a complicated process in a country where most of the farmers are used to dealing with the wholesalers. Every step counts, there are no small actions! Working with seasonal and local ingredients if the first step of a sustainable diet.

Support your local farmers, stores, and farmer's market. A lot of farms around Oslo offer self picking or farm's market, I invite you to check them out.

Here are some links to help you support your local producers: Kooperativet Oslo, Linnestad Gård, Bergsmyrene Gård, Annis Pølsemakeri, Fishermen in Aker Brygge, Bondens Marked.

Check the providers we are working with: Our products.

Grow your own organic vegetables - Dyrkselv din egen økologiske grønnsaker!

What is more satisfying than growing your own food? Take care a plant from the seeding to the final harvest. On the top of that, doing it in the way you are actually respecting the natural cycles and all the environment around you.

For the first year, Hibiscus Dinners is growing its own vegetables! Well at least, we are trying to! We got a small lot in May this year around Bøler in Oslo, so we didn't have the opportunity for a full season yet. 

After years thinking about it, I decided to grow many different vegetables and herbs following a square planting system which means that in a box of 120*80cm you grow 6 differents type of vegetables. This system helps you fighting naturally the diseases and the parasites as well as helping the soil not getting too tired as you rotate often the vegetables.

This year I grew: salads, cucumber for pickling, beets, carrots, radish, parsley, chives, corn, squash, sunflower, mangold, borage, mint, dill, sage, cabbage, peas, tomatoes. Well, they didn't all grow to be honest, but we are pretty happy with a very good harvest of radish, salad, carrots, cucumber and tomatoes as well as all the herbs. 

Growing vegetables is important in my process to offer the best food and ingredients to my customers. As a private chef, I put a lot of care in the products I am using for my dinners. Getting organic products is not that easy in Norway, but at Hibiscus Dinners, we are very proud to try getting as much as possible!

Next year, we will get more vegetables which will hopefully end up on your dining table, right in your house! Just check out our Instagram feed to see the latest pictures of our garden and recipes!