How To Eat Your Beer And Reduce Climate Change
My name is Dihan Chandra. I’m the proud recipient of 2018 Fall Carrot Cache grant and here’s my story.
Like you, I need to do something more about the climate crisis. I feel I should be doing alot more to have significant impact especially if there is less than 12 years before irreversible damage.
As a social entrepreneur, I am seeking a way to create a new model of business where I could afford a living yet not at the cost of people and planet.
According to Project Drawdown, food waste is an area that would have significant impact in reducing climate change as organic waste that ends up in landfills, releases greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide, which are major contributors to the climate crisis.
Photo Credit: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
I started working with the craft brewing industry that produces malted barley grains as a by-product of brewing.
Once the barley has been boiled to release sugar, the grains are considered ‘spent’ and traditionally provided as animal feed or disposed – 185 million KGs of brewery grains are disposed in Ontario every year.
Instead, if we took those spent grains and made food with it, we could feed every Ontarian 2 loaves of bread every week!
These brewery grains have twice the amount of fibre and protein compared to wheat (it’s the reason it’s used as animal feed) – Fibre is ideal for reducing cholesterol and is one of the whole grains listed on the Canadian food guide.
Thus, my company, The Spent Goods Company, diverts & transforms food by-products like leftover brewery grains into food.
Photo Credit: The Spent Goods Company
Spent Good’s Beer Bread sourdough is healthier, reduces climate change as we divert those grains that would have contributed greenhouse gases and is hyper local:
Our wheat flour is sourced from Beeton, Ontario from K2 Milling and is certified organic.
Our sourdough bread is brought to you by the collaboration of 4 Toronto businesses:
- Henderson Brewing – provides the barley grains (and also makes money through the sale of Spent Goods products like Butter Beer Crisps to their taproom customers)
- Drake Commissary – artisan bakery that incorporates the grains into delicious food
- Big Carrot – who ensures it meets their high quality standards, provided initial funding via Carrot Cache and stock it in their Danforth store bakery section.
- The Spent Goods Company – Executing circular economy model
However, all this immaterial if we didn’t have a good tasting product!
So if you haven’t had a chance yet, please visit the Danforth location and try our non-GMO, 100% Halal, 100% vegan, Beer Bread.
We believe you can do something about climate change (and your heart) on a daily basis, simply by eating our Beer Bread.
Thank you for supporting our mission.
Photo Credit: The Spent Goods Company
Dihan Chandra
Managing Director, @spentgoods
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