Meeting with Olivier de Meuron and Craig Penlington

Le Regard Libre special issue «Ecologie - Pour un revirement intégral» - Hélène Lavoyer

Olivier de Meuron, creator of Label Bleu, welcomes us to his small grocery store in Les Gouttes-d'Or, Neuchâtel, soon to be joined by Craig Penlington, tenant and chef at the majestic Palais du Peyrou in Neuchâtel for the past twenty years. The interview begins. The two men, long-time friends and committed to their passion, tell us about their vision of a coherent life, and offer their criticisms of current consumer trends.

Hélène Lavoyer: What is Label Bleu and what was the driving force behind its creation?

Olivier de Meuron: When I came back from Brazil, I noticed the incredible choice of exotic fruits and vegetables on Swiss shelves. When my children saw a mango, they took it in their mouths and immediately spat it out. It tasted nothing like a Brazilian mango. I realized that I myself, despite years in the hotel business, couldn't remember whether leeks grew in a particular season or where fennel came from. It made me feel guilty, and I wondered how others must feel, and what kind of ignorance we live in. Label Bleu has been around for ten years. This label started out on an ethical foundation, which is the short circuit. More than ecological means of production, it's regional products that I wanted to promote with this project. We sell a range of Neuchâtel and Swiss products, from craft beer to fruit and vegetables, and other processed and unprocessed products.

Mr. Penlington, do you manage to cook locally and seasonally in your restaurant at the Hôtel du Peyrou?

Craig Penlington: More and more. It's impressive. In 2011, we launched the Festin Neuchâtelois. It's the culinary event of the year for Neuchâtel - a bit like the Bénichon or Saint-Martin's Day. It's a day when everything you eat comes from the region. Wines, carrots, lamb, fish... everything. And it's thanks to this day that we've discovered many more producers of various products in the canton. We found a network in the region that made us realize that the canton of Neuchâtel is rich. We have the lake, lots of winegrowers. It's clear that we can't count on certain tropical products, so we have to go elsewhere for pineapples or bananas in season, and fish from the sea too. But when it comes to beef, pork, lamb, poultry and vegetables, we've really succeeded in sourcing from local producers.

Mr de Meuron, can you tell us more about production methods?

O. d. M.: In the space of sixty years, the Swiss countryside has lost 37,000 to 38,000 farm workers, and agricultural land has shrunk by more than a third. To reverse this trend, we need a real political will and firm decisions to protect agriculture in Switzerland. We need to put the farmer back in his place, as the strong man who feeds people, and no longer as the slave who does what he's told. Today, he must once again become the entrepreneur he has always been, and no longer the worker who does what his lobbyist tells him to do. He's the master on board when it comes to food. If we were to invest as much in organic farming or manual machinery as has been invested in mechanization to be able to dump seeds or pesticides and reduce labor effort, I'm sure it would be to everyone's advantage.

Is the government reacting effectively enough to control the environmental situation?

C. P.: Yes, but we need to start with education; we need to teach new generations how to manage waste and explain why we recycle or sort it. The big problem, whether with communes, cantons or the country as a whole, is money. Sorting costs money; so does waste. The state gives a certain amount of money to this sector, and it's a budget that has to be respected, without having many options when it comes to recycling. A friend of mine lives in Canada, he's in charge of a sector in a waste collection center; he tells me about the cubic meters of recyclable products they sell and how much money it makes them. In Switzerland, we really need to innovate.

Apart from state action, how much responsibility do individuals bear?

O. d. M.: We can ask the citizen to make a certain effort, up to a certain level. At home, I think we can all do the job of sorting and composting. It's important to look after our own homes first, and then our neighbors if we can do better, and even further afield if we can.

C. P. : First of all, it's up to the individual to do the right thing. That takes time. I've been working at the Peyrou restaurant for twenty years, and it's incredible to see the increase in allergies over the last few years. In my opinion, they're linked to the use of pesticides and intensive production.

O. d. M.: We also make genetic mutations in the seeds to create more volume, so that the finished material is larger - and at the same time the amount of gluten, for example, has been increased. If we use old strains of wheat, there are no problems, but all these genetic modifications have denatured the product.

When it comes to catering, do you feel encouraged to develop an ecological ethic?

C. P.: Restaurants produce a lot of waste, and we pay dearly for it. Vegetables, poultry carcasses and so on. It's alarming to see what it all costs. We take a product destined for the table; we cut it up, we prepare it, and the other things we have to throw away because nobody wants to eat them. So I pay companies to take care of my waste. In Peyrou, we've set up a sorting system. But I could also put everything in a single garbage can bag, and pay the same price for disposal. That would save me time. I'd like to reach a situation where I have no waste or no waste costs. There was a time when vegetable waste could be offered to farmers who had pigs. Today, we can't, because of strict hygiene rules.

So, what future prospects do you see in this field?

C. P. : In the canton of Vaud, for example, there's a company that has a machine where you can put all your waste: fish bones, poultry bones, vegetables, wood shavings and pieces of cardboard - very important because they will absorb the fat. The machine runs overnight and everything is cooked and dried. In the morning, you have fertilizer of exceptional quality, which you can donate to your local community, for example, so that the short circuit is respected from start to finish. Why not imagine a center that recovers all this waste and transforms it into fertilizer in the communes? Afterwards, this fertilizer would be returned to the Parks and Promenades department, which would benefit from it free of charge.

O. d. M.: There are ways of recycling waste so that it once again becomes a saleable product. In any case, the value will be lower, but the aim is that at least it won't cost any more.

Write to the author : lavoyer.helene@gmail.com

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Ikiwaner