How did Fresh Earth Bistro get started?
It all starts with an idea.
Back in 2012, when I was stationed in Hawaii, I would frequent this awesome coffee shop. It had great vibes, cool people, and awesome fresh food. They also had a huge event space where they'd host poetry readings, art expos, and even yoga sessions. I decided I had to have a space like that one day. I wrote out a business plan for a farm-to-table coffee house concept and then...did nothing.
Years later, I was living in Maryland and commuting to D.C. every day, and listening to a lot of radio and podcasts while sitting in D.C. traffic. I heard a story on NPR about how a "Grocery Walk" would be held in D.C. to highlight the challenges of impoverished neighborhoods in the District that didn't have access to grocery stores. I was a bit stunned-in one of the wealthiest countries and just a few miles away from the most powerful people in the world, people had to shop at gas stations because the food distribution infrastructure broke down.
Noticing a problem.
I later read a news article about the protest and discovered that nearly 200,000 only had three grocery stores to service them. Imagine the limitations but then imagine the opportunities-200,000 people mobilized towards a cause. My research took me further down the rabbit hole and I discovered an estimate by the United Nations that the world will need to produce nearly 70% more food by 2050.
By that time, most of human civilization is likely to occupy unimaginably large cities. The problems like the ones that inspired the Grocery Walk would only be worse than if nothing changed. Most of the modern-day starvation occurs in rural farming communities and in destabilized places where war or natural disasters have disrupted the food supply.
COVID was the wake-up call I needed.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the spotlight on this issue in my mind. When the global supply chain couldn't meet the demand, people were fighting over toilet paper and masks. Imagine starving people fighting over food.
Whether in rural communities with monoculture farming, where everyone grows the same crop for tens or even hundreds of miles, or in large cities that are far removed from the food source, the solution is the same. The solution is polyculture farming which supplies food to the local community by growing nutrient-rich and diverse crops while maximizing limited land resources.
Aside from the heavy issues of building redundancy into the food supply chain and producing more food to prevent starvation in the coming decades, we believe growing plants to be a fun and exciting activity for the whole family. Our three-year-old has marveled at the radishes and broccoli growing at our home that she helped plant a few weeks back.