Future of Sustainable Food (5)

The "Plant Forward" approach of our diets, supporting our personal health, and our environmental impact at the same time, was my main topic in the #FOSF (4) story last week, where I explained how important a change to a more plant forward approach really is.

One of the best and most impactful "plant forward" products we have available on our planet, will definitely be BEANS.

Today i want to share with you the critical and significant role, beans should and could play in our plant forward approach for better healthy diets and for a better planet.

Beans are the seed of several plants in the family "Fabaceae", which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. Beans can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and they are used in many traditional dishes throughout the world and throughout all diverse cultures. Beans are often included among the crops called "pulses" or "legumes". Beans, and the entire pulses family, are an excellent source of fibre, proteins, iron, calcium, folate and more. Beans are also known to produce nitrogen on their own, which reduces their need for fertilisers and means that they can be easily grown in nutrient poor soils.

Beans have very often, throughout many societies, gained a negative reputation as being perceived as a cheap and low-income food, but from a sustainable, plant forward and plant protein point of view, Beans are the food of the future

To summarise, beans are sustainable, versatile, omnivalent, nutritious, healthy and especially very easy to grow, and on top of that, beans are also hearty, delicious and very resilient. Beans are found in almost every corner of our planet, and can grow in even the most difficult conditions. So taking all this together,

"Beans offer a triple Win, Win, Win: for our Planet, for our Health and for our Wallets".

Beans also can and need to play a key role in alleviating both hunger and malnutrition in the future, because they are rich in nutrients and protein, and cost a fraction of animal-based proteins. Taking beans as a part of a healthy diet, beans can address obesity and prevent and help manage chronic diseases but not only that, dried or canned beans maintain their health benefits over a much longer shelf life, and therefore especially can also support preventing food waste.

Over the past century, the amount of human caused nitrogen compounds in our water, our soil and in the air have more than doubled. Experts describe this mainly as a result of the rising use of synthetic fertilisers. These fertilisers are negatively impacting water, plants, animals and humans, while driving climate change through increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Beans, meanwhile, draw atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, keeping it healthy, with much less need for synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. As concerns grow over the price and availability of fertilisers, it would do well to remember this special quality of Beans.

Beans can also grow in arid lands requiring very little water, another crucial Characteristic in a time of global warming and increased occurrence of drought, using beans as part of intercropping systems – growing two or more crops in close proximity, this can support the needed increasing biodiversity on our planet. It is really time now, that we stop chasing after the latest fancy or trendy so called superfoods and instead focus our attention on the many, neglected and under-utilised species, of Beans, and this as well in the production of beans as in the consumption of beans. Beans definitely have the power to help us to beat the global thread of hunger and poverty, unhealthy diets and the increasing climate change.

At the moment, the SDG2 Advocacy Hub is launching "Beans is How" a campaign that aims to double global bean consumption by 2028, so within the next 5 years (including peas, pulses, lentils and legumes). This campaign will engage key audiences across all food systems and industries and beyond, to advocate beans as the "food of the future", in the work of the farmers who grow them, scientists who study them, companies who sell them, chefs who serve them, and all human beings who consume them. This campaign will be launched alongside a coalition of partners, which already include many, diverse global players .

Beside the many global initiatives, everyone, everywhere can play an important role in elevating beans to their rightful place. With todays Blog i want to create and prioritise more global and public awareness around beans, in order to support and incentivise their increased production and consumption.

With better data and more investment in research on nutrient-dense and climate-smart species and varieties, this will enable us to fully leverage the power of beans as our most sustainable and plant forward "food of the future"

Various regions of the world are home to some of the most delicious bean dishes. Travel to Tuscany and try Ribollita, a hearty, broth-based soup similar to minestrone with the addition of stale, day-old bread to thicken the consistency. In Mexico, beans take the center stage in Frijoles Refritos (Refried Beans), a classic dish featuring cooked, mashed pinto beans made with pork lard and onions. “mashed and fried beans can appear on a Mexican table three times a day: with breakfast eggs, as the main meat course at midday, and with evening tacos.” Pinto beans are the most commonly eaten bean in northern Mexico, while black beans are more common in southern Mexico. In Asian kitchens, you can find Rajmah, red kidney beans cooked with garlic, ginger, tomato sauce, and spices like cumin seed, turmeric, coriander and garam masala. These dishes are only a few of the thousands and thousands of variable possibilities of culturale, nutritious and delicious bean dishes

Different places prepare beans in a variety of ways. For instance, in China broad beans are mixed with soybeans and chili peppers and fermented into a paste. In Croatia, and Greece people prepare a traditional dish made of stuffed artichokes with fave beans and peas. The Southern United States eat a “Hoppin' John” - a dish made of black-eyed peas and rice. In West Africa and the Carribean the Cuisine called “akara” is a traditional cuisine where mixing mashed black-eyed peas, salt, onions and peppers and then frying the mixture creates many diverse national dishes East Asian adzuki beans boiled with sugar and made into a sweet paste are being used as an ingredient for many desserts. Mung beans being cooked with coconut milk, sugar and a little ginger are made into a porridge, and used as a dessert snack . On the other hand, when the mung bean is made into a fine paste with ginger and salt it can eaten as a breakfast or salty snack.

The following bean varieties are globally well known and omnivalent available, but there are of course hundreds of others, that can also be used to create extraordinary dishes that represent a place or a culture somewhere in the world

• Adzuki: Himalayan native, grown throughout Asia. Small, nearly round red bean with a thread of white along part of the seam. Slightly sweet and starchy.

• Anasazi: New World native is a white speckled bean with burgundy to rust-brown. Slightly sweet.

• Appaloosa: New World native. Slightly elongated, curved, one end white and the other end mottled with black and brown. Holds it shape well. Slightly herbaceous and with a pine flavour.

• Black Bean: New World native. Shiny, true black with a creamy texture when cooked. flavour has an unusual, faintly sweet note, reminiscent of chocolate.

• Cannellini/White Kidney Bean: New World (Argentina), very much loved and used in Italy. Creamy texture, slightly nutty.

• Cranberry: New World (Colombia) native. Ivory or tan, beautifully mottled with striations of red, burgundy, even bright pink. A melty, creamy texture, a little nutlike.

• Great Northern: New World native. A white bean, slightly larger than the navy, meltingly textured.

• Kidney Bean: New World native. kidney shaped, shiny dark-red seed coat. Cooks up creamy, with a little sweetness. Mild in flavour.

• Mung: India/Pakistan native. Small, almost round, green with a small white stripe along part of its seam. Mild and starchy.

• Navy: New World native. Smaller white bean. Soft but not creamily so. A pleasant neutral flavour.

• Pinto: New World native. Pink-puff bean mottled with a deeper brown-burgundy. It cooks up plump, creamy, a little sweet, mild.

As you can see the versatility of beans and bean dishes are so flabbergasting, immense miscellaneous, diverse and wide-ranging, and there are no limits in your personal creativity in cooking them, which will definitely deserves them to become the "food of the future"

Next time when you go food shopping, have a look at the variety of beans available int he store of your choice, buy some and start experimenting with cooking them and if your not sure what dish to create, search through the internet for some great recipes. I'm convinced you will become a Bean fan very quickly and together we can support the plant forward approach that our planet and also our health needs so urgently.

PFJ / 14.07