Looking to Be More Sustainable? Add Beans to Your Menu!

Diners looking for sustainable eating options are on the rise. Looking for a more sustainable menu item? Beans are your ticket! A fiber-rich, plant-based protein, beans come in a variety of textures, suitable for soups, blended into dips, formed into patties, as a base for bowls and more! We love using beans even WITH meat, reducing the need for meat slightly. Try cutting back on the chicken used in a tortilla soup and sub with pinto beans. Or, offer a Mexican burger on your menu, subbing some of the weight of the ground beef in a patty for black beans. Delicious and on-trend. Beans are affordable and can be dressed up or down to fit your menu and your diners needs.

Check out some of the ways beans are a sustainable food source.

Beans are Good for our Soils & Farm Land

They are known as regenerative agriculture because unlike other crops, they add nutrients back into the soil, rather than taking nutrients away. They are a nitrogen-fixing crop.

Beans Reduce the Need for Herbicides & Fertilizers

Because beans are used as a cover crop, (meaning they crowd out weeds and pests around crops) they improve soil health and our farm lands by reducing the need for fertilizers and herbicides as well as reducing the amount of tillage needed in a field.

Beans Have a Smaller Carbon Footprint

Being plant-based, beans naturally have a smaller footprint than animal proteins, using less water and energy to grow. If your program has goals to reduce greenhouse gasses, it would be helpful to know that beans have a fraction of the amount of greenhouse gasses as other foods, especially meat items.

Beans Support Farmers

We all know that farmers are a critical part of our supply chain and survival. Growing beans reduces the need to apply chemicals to make other crops grow, which reduces costs for farmers. We know that farmers’ window of success is narrow when extreme weather, drought or pests are all variables. By buying their bean crops, we are helping support their farm overall and their sustainable cover crop practices. 

Beans Are Low Waste

When you cook with beans, you use the whole bean. There is very little waste in the process!

Beans Sustain Our Health

Beans are not only good for the earth, they are good for YOU. They promote good gut health, reduce heart disease and diabetes risks. Beans are high in antioxidants, which means they prevent and delay cell damage.

Check out our fully-cooked beans HERE!

Want to try a sample?

Ready Foods products are available through major broad-line distributors around the country. We are regularly stocked in California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Texas and more!