TORONTO — Fast-casual restaurant brand iQ has partnered with Creemore, Ont.-based The New Farm to serve the farm’s regenerative greens across all of iQ’s locations.
The New Farm is a certified organic family farm — owned and operated by Gillian Flies and Brent Preston — that produces premium quality organic vegetables for restaurants, retailers and wholesale customers. Because of the way the greens are grown, using a technique known as regenerative farming, the greens pull carbon out of the atmosphere and trap it in the ground, helping curb climate instability.
Through the summer, iQ will be marketing two prices for its bowls featuring New Farm’s greens: its regular list price and a “suggested price” which sells for 50 cents more, leaving it up to customers to choose which they would like to pay.
“In a bit of alchemy that combines cooperation, commerce, savvy marketing and sales psychology, we’re excited to help create a market for a new type of product that, if consumed on mass, has the potential to reduce the amount of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere and make our planet livable for a long, long time,” says Alan Bekerman, founder and CEO of iQ. “We’re firm believers that good commerce leads to change.”
Within the first week of the campaign’s launch, 85 per cent of the chain’s guests opted in for the suggested price. “The greens we’ve committed to buying and serving this season do cost us more than conventional lettuce, but rather than forcing a price increase onto our guests like a traditional restaurant might, we’re including our guests in the decision-making process,” says Christine Flynn, executive chef and partner, iQ. “The suggested pricing is not just a way for us to help manage our food cost, it’s also a way to introduce the idea of regenerative farming to each and every one of the some 20,000 guests we serve each week.”
