AN INTRODUCTION FOR CHEFS
Thank you for your interest in the Better Burger Challenge! Friends of the Earth, Turning Green, along
with our partners and supporters, are asking chefs across the nation to serve a better burger on the menu
during Earth Week (April 17-23rd), National Hamburger Day (May 28th) and beyond.
Background:
The Better Burger Challenge aims to transform the iconic resource-intensive American hamburger into
a force for better health, environmental sustainability, animal welfare and opportunity for family farmers
and ranchers. A better beef burger replaces at least 30 percent of a typical 4 oz burger with mushrooms,
veggies or legumes, and uses the money saved to purchase better quality, grass-fed or organic beef*
from animals raised humanely on pasture without routine antibiotics or hormones. A better veggie burger
is made with certified organic veggies, legumes and grains.
Why serve a better burger? Most of the 20 billion burgers eaten in America today are made with meat
produced by polluting factory farms where confined animals are fed a diet of mostly GMO corn and
soy grown with large amounts of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, water and fuel. By replacing a grain-fed
burger on your menu with a better burger, you will
ʏʏ Provide a healthier and more humane option for your customers
ʏʏ Attract new customers: A Mintel study found that 80% of consumers would pay more for a burger made with
ʏʏ
ʏʏ
premium ingredients, and 43% want grass-fed burgers on the menu.
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water, pesticide and fertilizer use
Create new markets for local and regional farmers and ranchers that use regenerative, climate-friendly
practices, building healthy soil and habitats for bees and other critters.
To learn about more about the benefits of a better burger consult our FAQs and infographic.
The Better Burger Challenge is inspired in part by the work of the James Beard Foundation, the
Mushroom Council and Menus of Change whicah have been promoting a blended beef-mushroom
burger for the past few years. This Better Burger challenge makes blended burgers even better by
promoting sourcing exclusively from regenerative and organic farms and ranches and using more varied
vegetables and grains in the blended burger.
If you are excited about taking the Challenge, please visit our website and fill out a form with your
information. We will list your location on line, promote the Challenge with local and national media, and
work with students and others to support educational events that highlight the benefits of less and better
meat. We will also track the number of burgers served during Earth week ––and on National Hamburger
day, reporting back on GHGs and water saved from serving better burgers.
TIPS FOR CHEFS
1
Decide whether you can feature the better beef and/or better veggie burger on a single day (e.g. Earth Day4/22 or National Hamburger Day-5/28), or throughout the week (Earth Week), or permanently. Then, please
go to www.betterburgerchallenge.org and send us this form to let us know you are working on the Challenge.
2
Research the best options for switching your standard burger to a better burger. If you are a large institution
that would require a pre-made better burger, please contact us at [email protected]. We are
working to identify potential manufacturers. If you can prepare burgers in-house, ask your suppliers if they
can provide organic mushrooms, veggies, grains and better meat that meets BBC criteria.* Consult our
supplier list to identify local sources of organic products and regenerative beef. Here are some recipes to
inspire you.
3
Promote the challenge and the better burger with your customers. Doing a taste test before you put it on
the menu could generate interest and excitement among your customers and help you figure out the best
recipe to feature. Around Earth Week or National Hamburger Day, you could partner with advocates to host
educational events or promote the better burger in other ways. Contact us for collateral support.
4
Generate media stories. If you’d like your burger or the producers you source from to be featured in media
stories, let us know! We’re excited to help get feature stories written about chefs, restaurants and schools
taking the challenge; and show the collective impact of all these better burgers! It is even better if you can
reach out to media contacts that you know in your region to ask them to cover the many benefits of a tastier,
healthier, better blended burger.
5
Share with us recipes, pictures and videos and any lessons that you have learned along the way. With so
many endless recipes and flavors, we are excited to share your creations and tips on line so people can learn
from each other. Once you have served the burger, please tell us the total number of better burgers served
that replaced a regular burger so that we can calculate the full environmental benefits of the Challenge.
We will report that number out to all who participate. If you like, you can start serving these before Earth Day.
Please visit our website and sign up here!
*Beef in a better burger should be domestically sourced from local and regional farms/businesses that are either certified
by USDA Organic, American Grass-Fed Association (AGA), Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Grassfed by AGW, Global
Animal Partnership (Level 4 or 5), or Food Alliance. If third-party certified meat is not readily available, beef should be
sourced from known farms that raise primarily grass-fed animals on pasture with no routine antibiotics, hormones, growthpromotants or GMO feed. You can find a database of ranches that fit these criteria here. A better burger should aim to use
no more than 2.8 ounces of beef.
For more information, visit www.betterburgerchallenge.org
/betterburgerchallenge
@betterburgernow
betterburgernow