Food and Beverage, a drain on resources or a regenerative lever?

Hello all,

I was so grateful to be invited by Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand to contribute an article to the Hotel Year Book 2026 on Hospitality Net, alongside my husband and co-conspirator in the Delicious Revolution, Adam Maclennan.

It was a fantastic way for me to wrap up 2025 while looking ahead - distilling both my two decades of work in the hospitality industry and my post-corporate, interdisciplinary research into and around food systems into fewer than 1,200 words. This article also reflects my personal transition from an investor's perspective to food systems activism, after experiencing waking nightmares about how current economics models and finance algorithms are putting us on a self-destructive trajectory. 

Please find the full article, Food and Beverage, a drain on resources or a regenerative lever?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

I was especially excited about this invitation as it aligns closely with the work I've been focusing on since late last year through the London Doughnut Economy Coalition (LDEC), where I’ve taken on a co-lead role for the Food Project alongside Tansy Drake.

LDEC is a registered CIC (community interest company), the London “chapter” of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, inspired by Doughnut Economics by Oxford academic Kate Raworth. The framework invites us to rethink economic systems: rather than measuring success purely through economic growth, it asks how societies can thrive within the planet’s ecological boundaries while ensuring that everyone’s basic needs are met.

Our Food Project, one of the three key pillars within LDEC, begins with a simple belief that nourishing food should be a right not a privilege. The central question guiding our work is: What if London transformed the way big cities are fed – contributing to a regenerative system in which everyone can eat nourishing food?

Our “earthshot” is to position London as a contributor to a regenerative food system grounded in ecological boundaries and reciprocal relationships between urban and rural communities. We aim to re-establish food as the catalyst for connection – with each other and with nature, while blending local initiatives with system-level change.

If you know of any organisations that we might collaborate with, please feel free to reply to this email and let me know.

The journey continues!

with love,

Bumjoo