Growing for the Next 7 Generations: How Flavour Can Shape a Sustainable Food Future

Is flavour the answer? Can it be a gateway to a more sustainable and thoughtful food system?

In this conversation with Clementine Hain-Cole, Head of Education at Natoora, we discuss how flavour can allow us to reconnect with seasonality, embrace diverse crops, and could be the key to a more resilient food future. 

Can you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming Head of Education at Natoora, and what drew you to focus on food diversity and seasonality?

My journey has always been about understanding raw ingredients and flavour. From working at Daylesford Organic to my time with at Taylor St Baristas, I’ve been fortunate to work only in places that value not just nutrition but taste and sourcing. At Natoora, I started in the brand team, and my job was to write newsletters about produce. To do that well, I needed to understand the farmers’ choices - why they picked certain seeds and how those decisions impacted flavour. Over time, that knowledge expanded, and now my role is about sharing it both within Natoora and beyond.

Natoora sits at an interesting crossroads—we act as a bridge between farms and kitchens. Most restaurants don’t have the time to communicate directly with farmers, and many growers don’t get to see where their produce ends up. We bring these two worlds together. For farmers, seeing how chefs transform their produce is invaluable. And for chefs, understanding the story behind their ingredients deepens their appreciation for seasonality and sourcing.

Natoora aims to be transparent in a food industry often clouded by greenwashing. With so much noise in the industry, how do you stay true to your mission?

It’s not always easy. We’re not strictly organic, nor do we fit neatly into a single label. Our work is about telling the specific stories of each farm and explaining why a producer makes certain choices. That’s a challenge - how do you communicate all of that in a way that resonates quickly with a customer who only spends five minutes in a shop? The answer is always flavour. If someone tastes a tomato or rhubarb that’s unlike anything they’ve had before, that’s our entry point. Once we have their attention, we can tell the deeper story.

In a globalised food system, where produce is sourced from different countries, what does seasonality mean to Natoora?

Seasonality to us means growing something in the conditions naturally suited to it, without excessive inputs or artificial manipulation. Natoora operates in six cities worldwide - London, Paris, Copenhagen, New York, and Melbourne - so we think about seasonality regionally. Some things make sense to import, like forced rhubarb from Yorkshire or radicchio from Italy, because those farming traditions don’t exist elsewhere.

The message to “buy British” is great, but it’s important to dig deeper. If a tomato is grown in the UK in April, how is that possible? If it requires artificial conditions, it might make more sense to source from a place where tomatoes are naturally in season. The goal is to balance regional sourcing with maintaining traditional farming methods that produce exceptional flavour.

Have you noticed growing seasons changing due to climate change?

Absolutely. Extreme weather - flooding, hailstorms, unpredictable temperatures - is affecting what and when we can source. Last year (2024), many British farms couldn’t harvest anything outdoors until the end of the year. In Italy, we’ve seen stone fruit crops wiped out entirely in some seasons. On the flip side, warmer UK temperatures have made it possible to grow incredible heirloom tomatoes here. Adaptation is key. Farmers with generational knowledge can often find creative ways to work with these changes, but the unpredictability is concerning.

How do you engage customers with complex topics like soil health, crop diversity, and seasonality?

It starts with flavour. If something tastes incredible, people want to know why. That curiosity is our opportunity to explain farming methods and sourcing. Striking visuals and storytelling also help; our “Radicchio Not Roses” campaign, for example, put a seasonal vegetable in the spotlight on Valentine’s Day, sparking conversations about food choices. But ultimately, it’s about meeting people where they are. For a busy parent, the message might be, “This tomato is so full of flavour, you’ll need less of it, and it’ll save you time cooking.” For a school child, it might be as simple as letting them pick seeds out of a tomato, connecting them to the idea of saving and planting for the future.

Sustainably sourced food is often seen as expensive. Should good food be cheaper, or do we need to shift mindsets about its value?

It has to be both. The UK spends the lowest percentage of income on food compared to other European countries. Supermarkets have conditioned us to expect artificially low prices - think of carrots sold for 9p a bag before Christmas. That’s not sustainable for farmers. Policy change is needed, like Denmark’s initiative requiring schools to buy organic food. At the same time, we need to equip people with the skills to cook nourishing meals affordably. Education is key—teaching young people how to cook simple, seasonal meals could make a huge difference.

If you could change one thing about the food system, what would it be?

Making supermarkets seasonal. If they stopped selling strawberries in February, it would reshape consumer expectations overnight. When we work with restaurants, we encourage them to swap out-of-season produce for alternatives - like using rhubarb instead of berries on a breakfast menu. Customers rarely complain because what replaces it is delicious. The same approach could work at scale, shifting consumer habits toward more natural eating patterns.

With gene editing and other biotech developments on the rise, how do you see these fitting into the future of food?

The temptation is to see these as quick fixes for climate-related challenges, but they aren’t long-term solutions. Instead, we should focus on preserving landrace varieties and supporting farmers who are adapting naturally. One initiative we’re involved in is the Global Farm Metric, which aims to assess sustainability holistically rather than reducing it to a single label or certification. The key is thinking seven generations ahead - what will the long-term impact of these interventions be?

Natoora exist to fix the food system, and believe people are more cut off from the origins of their food than ever. This makes flavour, nutrition and farming practices that protect the planet, almost impossible to find.

By working directly with growers, they create a more sustainable way forward for farming. By giving everyone the tools to understand the power of our food choices, they empower everybody to become drivers of change.