Ethical Food
Fair Trade
Pembroke was one of the first Cambridge colleges to become Fairtrade accredited. This means that we do our best to have Fair Trade products available to students as much as possible. Fair Trade products are used in all meetings held within college.
Each year we have three formal halls where the food is all either Fair Trade, locally produced, or from a sustainable source. The next one is on 15th October and can be booked in the usual way. If there's any Fair Trade food you'd like to see in college or have any idea for a Fair Trade event then please let me know.
The Fairtrade Foudation website has lots more information and ways to get involved.
Local and Seasonal Foods
Pembroke aims to buy food when it's in season. This means it can be bought locally and help reduce the 95% of fruit and 50% of vegetables eaten in the UK which are brought in from abroad. If all foods were sourced from within 20km of where they were consumed, the country would save £2.1bn!
Vegetarian / Vegan
Pembroke has a large section of vege and vegan food. You can get a vegetarian option for Formal Hall and there's always a vege main meal option in trough. Trough also has a vegan tapas bar and at brunch there's always plenty of vege options. Vegetarian food is generally better for the environment with a lot more of the energy taken in by a plant being put down in growth than in an animal. The carbon emitted in producing a vegetarian meal is therefore less than producing a meat meal (if anyone has any of the New Scientist issues in which this was raised please let me know!).
Free Range
All chicken and eggs sold in college are free-range so you can be sure that the hen had a happier life than most.
Sustainable Fish
Trough does not sell endangered species of fish and tries to source all seafood from sustainable or MSC certified fisheries. This helps keep stock levels balanced and stop the disruption of sea food chains.