Our food system is complicated and currently unsustainable, involving convoluted supply chains, ultra-processed foods, deforestation, and over reliance on chemicals. Raising and then killing at least 80 billion land animals every year for a global population of eight billion people is an inefficient, destructive and carbon intensive means of feeding ourselves. These are complex causes with wide-ranging impact.
I “stepped back” from the restaurant business in September 2022 but even at a distance I can see that a restaurant industry at breaking point is further evidence of an unsustainable food system. More than 600 restaurants and cafes closed in just one year, including Nash 19 (after 33 years in business), Blazing Salads, Shanahan’s and Assassination Custard. A cumulative total of more than 100 years in business between them. Our own Monck’s Green, formerly Woodstock, was around for more than 30 years.
These establishments were not fly-by-nights: they were groundbreaking and cutting-edge, they were top class, and they were everyman eateries. They represented some of the best food and service Ireland had to offer and brought people together over food in a distinctly Irish way.
At the end of Covid, I wrote for the Gloss magazine that “the devastation wreaked on hospitality businesses [by the pandemic] has highlighted the role they play in our society, the employment they create, and the producers they support. We were defined by being the Small Open Economy, dead without our export competitiveness, and tech firms got all the glory. That has changed.” Or so I thought. Now, once again, it feels like the tax receipts of international tech giants have spoken louder than the unique contribution of the small food businesses that are Irish cafes and restaurants.
A feeling of despair is what drove the recent protest march by those involved in hospitality, tourism, retail and other small businesses. The faces in the crowd were distinctly grey, unused to protesting. On his podcast Path to Power Ivan Yates, who was MC for the event, remarked, “these people wanted to be anywhere else, rather than outside Leinster House. They’re not the protesting type of people. It was actually a cry for help. It was actually quite sad.”
The average business at that protest in October has a turnover of just €20,000 a week and employs about 16 people. But the bottom line of these wee eateries does not reflect the key role they play in our communities.
If the cost or lack of accommodation doesn’t outstrip them once more, labour market measures recently or currently being implemented to better the lives of everyone working in Ireland – including significant increases in the minimum wage, auto pension enrolment with employer contributions, sick pay, more parental leave, and an extra public holiday – will add to the pressures on all businesses. The fact they are all landing together, coupled with food and energy cost inflation and the reversion of VAT to 13.5 per cent, makes them unmanageable for the Irish restaurant industry. And this hollowing out of hospitality is also a threat to our food system, communities and our quality of life. These cumulative costs and the collective impact were recognised in the last days of the current Government with approval of enhanced impact assessments for small businesses and the establishment of a cross-government network to discuss for new measures that will directly or indirectly affect small businesses.
Local restaurants are essential to the character and fabric of any resilient and vibrant neighbourhood, whether it’s donating the umpteenth raffle prize, giving experience to your nephew in transition year or being that place to celebrate family milestones and even final goodbyes. They are also critical for tourism in a country famous for its aimsir fhliuch. But right now, the cost of accommodation and the cost of eating out is making Ireland an expensive place to stay or to visit. We risk losing our foodie appeal.
Most importantly, independent restaurants are a key part of a sustainable Irish food system because they showcase Irish food and support short supply chains, Irish farmers and other food producers. Not only is food service an important market, restaurants – and their customers – treasure good food and champion organic produce, often providing the early name recognition and stamp of approval that helps those producers transition to bigger markets at home and abroad.
In the US, there is a Starbucks on every high street. In the UK it’s a Costa Coffee. Of course they have a function. Everything in moderation – apparently the Pecan Crunch Oat Milk Latte is seriously good. But the food on those menus is made in a production kitchen, wrapped in plastic, and delivered to the store where it requires minimum handling before service – with not a chef in sight. The owners are anonymous to the community. These businesses thrive where independents fail because only scale and uniformity can beat the tightest of margins. When we push independent cafes and restaurants to breaking point, we are creating the conditions for a McDonaldisation of the Irish hospitality sector, with repercussions for our society, our environment and our food systems.
Angela Ruttledge is a former restaurateur who writes about food and sustainability
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