Kirsty KawanoAiming to reduce landfill by 20,000 tons this year and every year thereafter, an Australian company has changed the diet of its lambs to create a tender, marbled meat on par with wagyu beef.
The name of the meat, and the company, is ‘Mottainai Lamb.’ Mottainai is a Japanese word that refers to the ability to prevent wastefulness. In this case, organic waste that would otherwise be dumped in landfill is being fed to the lambs: carrots too misshapen for the market, carrot tops and pulp leftover from juicing, olive oil and the remains of pressed olives.
It is said that almost one third of food produced in the world is thrown away. Between 20% and 40% of fruit and vegetables grown in Australia each year are thrown into landfill because they do not meet specifications.
Sheep farmer Suzannah Moss-Wright came up with the idea of feeding the waste carrot and olives to sheep, but it took three years to work out how to do that. The repurposed ingredients, which are sourced from a nearby associated farm, make up about 80% of the lambs’ diets, with the rest consisting of typical sheep feed of grass, hay, and grain. The rich feed produces rich meat.
World’s first premium lamb, now at Grand Hyatt Tokyo
Mottainai Lamb has a similar melt-in-the-mouth consistency to the high-grade Japanese wagyu beef, with about 35% marbled fat. It is rich in oleic acid and Omega 3 fatty acid and is the world’s first premium brand lamb meat.
In Japan, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo has been the first to put Mottainai Lamb on its menu. It has been serving various cuts of the meat in a range of dishes since February.
The Grand Hyatt Tokyo’s Executive Chef, Andreas Fuchs says, “It is not an overstatement to say that Mottainai Lamb, with its exceptional quality and taste, the value of its existence and the story of its creation, fulfills the traits that will be sought of ingredients in this new era.”
The hotel sees Mottainai Lamb as part of a larger trend for restaurants and related industries. It expects people to become more concerned about the sustainability and globalization of food, and as their awareness of diet and health issues also further increases, hotels and restaurants will need to provide offerings that are even more advanced in those respects.
Changing the public discourse on environment and sustainability
Given that sheep and cattle farming are considered the top causes of farm greenhouse gases, pro-environmental purists will likely find it difficult to support any kind of lamb meat. At least, the methane produced by these sheep is offset by the methane no longer released by the carrots and olives that would otherwise go to landfill.
The genius behind Mottainai Lamb is that by tasting fabulous, it has the potential to raise awareness of food choices among lovers of lamb meat – a sector of the public that otherwise might not bother about such concerns. If it can affect the public discourse on the environment and sustainability, it may be worth more than the sum of related greenhouse gases.
Many people will continue to eat beef and lamb even though they know its farming is harmful to the environment. If we can’t change the people, then it makes sense to change the meat.
[Website] Mottainai Lamb[Website] Grand Hyatt Tokyo
