Citizen Zero: stories spotlight ft. Aduna Superfoods and Arda Biomaterials
Welcome to our weekly roundup of our favourite stories, insights and innovations from the latest issue of Citizen Zero. This week we're taking a deep-dive into food and drink, including a chat with Aduna Superfoods about the incredible baobab 'tree of life'. We also take a quick peek at the incredible process of turning used beer waste into alternative leather. Find out more below and let us know what you think.
Healthy people, healthy planet: how Aduna Superfoods is transforming lives and inspiring change
Aduna Superfoods 's Andrew Hunt talks superfoods and the ‘Tree of Life’, empowering female farmers and entrepreneurs, and tackling the challenges in Africa’s Sahel
Tell us about your journey to starting Aduna, particularly how you ended up moving to and working in West Africa for four years?
I grew up in London and started my working life in advertising, investing all my energy and creativity into promoting products I didn’t believe in, for clients who mostly didn’t appreciate it. Although I was doing well, I started suffering from anxiety and questioning my purpose in life. It eventually spiralled into a full-on meltdown; I ended up quitting my job, and my mind turned in on itself. For six months I was unemployed and clinically depressed. At the age of just 25, it felt like my life was over.
At my lowest ebb, I got a random phone call from a family friend, offering me the opportunity to volunteer with a farming-based social enterprise in The Gambia. I didn’t want to go, but thankfully my friends and family put me on the plane. Having planned to be there just six weeks, I ended up staying for four years. I discovered a form of grassroots business, where sales translated directly into tangible positive impacts in the lives of people who needed it. It was the inspiration behind the creation of Aduna as a vehicle to connect remote rural communities in Africa with Western health-conscious consumers, through delicious, nutrient-rich superfoods.
What did that period teach you about life and work in that region, the challenges faced by local communities, and the impact of climate change on marginalised people?
Living and working in West Africa was a breath of fresh air. I was embraced by the people and fell in love with their warmth, vibrancy and culture. At the same time, I gained insights into the challenges faced by rural communities in the Sahel region of Africa, who are cut off from economic activity while bearing the brunt of climate change, as manifested by unpredictable rains, drought and deforestation. With environmental degradation comes poverty. They are two sides of the same coin.
Themes like entrepreneurship and impact clearly underpin your approach. Where does that come from and did your time in the Sahel influence your view on what ‘impact’ really means to people and communities?
My dad was an entrepreneur in urban regeneration and was always most concerned by the impact of the built environment on the community – I guess I inherited some of his traits. The social enterprise I ran in The Gambia connected neglected communities to the market, and the impact was very visible. Just two weeks after a good tomato harvest, for example, we would return to the same household farm to find the kids were now in school, or the family was building a new room to their house so that everyone didn’t have to sleep in the same bed anymore.
I started thinking about ways to scale it up: how could we connect these remote communities, many of which are struggling for survival, with affluent consumers in the developed world, to the benefit of all?
Going against the grain
The ‘Bermondsey Beer Mile’, home of historic London’s beer brewing and leather industries might, on face value, seem an unlikely place to start a sustainable biomaterials revolution. But only if you don’t move with the times. What if, for example, you harnessed that rich, artisanal history for your benefit? Or combined the abundant waste feedstock from the still-active local brewers with a touch of science and ambition?
Now you’re thinking like Brett Cotten and Edward 'TJ' Mitchell, two entrepreneurs who – after experimenting around TJ’s kitchen table – found a way to turn brewers’ spent grain (BSG) into a sustainable, circular alternative to leather for use in fashion, home goods, automotive, and other applications. The apparel industry is responsible for more than 9% of global CO2 emissions, 20% of wastewater, and the use of over two billion animals every year.
To mitigate this impact, they founded Arda Biomaterials on a simple premise: brewers take raw barley grain and extract the sugar to make beer – for every 100 litres of beer there are 20 kg of BSG, which is rich in protein and fibre and can be mixed with other planet-friendly ingredients to create New Grain, the company’s alternative leather. New Grain is 100% plastic and animal free, can be coloured and treated like natural leather, and is biodegradable at the end of its life.
The guide: films for the weekend
Fashion reimagined: Amy Powney’s mission to create a sustainable collection from field to finished garment. Learn more
ACTIVATE: A six-part National Geographic documentary series on the work of Global Citizen Learn more
Deep rising: Journeys from the deepest oceans narrated and executive produced by Jason Momoa. Learn more