By: Georgie Hextall – Great Plains Foundation – Impact Programs Manager & Sustainability
At Great Plains, we have always believed that luxury is defined by two things: Time and Space. But, we also know that a true experience is defined by Connection - specifically, our connection to the very earth that sustains us.
For years, it has been a point of fascination for some of our guests to see how our teams are able to provide world-class culinary experiences in the most remote corners of the Earth. You might expect us to rely on long supply chains. Fresh greens from distant cities, berries flown across borders, and the heavy carbon footprint of refrigerated trucks traversing fragile ecosystems.
But as conservationists, we knew there was a better way. We knew that to truly protect these wild places, we had to look at our plates as closely as we look at our predators.
Welcome to the Great Plains ‘Farm to Fork’ initiative, a revolution in safari dining that begins not in a kitchen, but in the soil. We have on-site vegetable gardens in our camps, bursting with fresh produce to nourish our guests.
The Philosophy of Zero Food Miles
The concept is simple, yet its impact is profound. “Zero Food Miles” means that the vibrant salad on your plate at ol Donyo Lodge or the rich mushrooms at Tembo Plains didn’t travel hundreds of kilometres to reach you. They travelled meters.
By establishing on-site organic vegetable gardens at our camps, or “shambas” as they are known locally in Kenya, we have effectively reduced the reliance on long-distance supply chains. This isn’t just about logistics; it’s about integrity. Food transport is a significant contributor to global warming, so by reducing food miles, we avoid the carbon emissions of transport. Other hidden ecological costs to food transport include the plastic packaging required to keep produce “fresh” during the journey into the wilds of Africa, and the need for ‘travel-hardy’ produce.
The gardens don’t just offer fresh produce, but also act as an educational space for the kitchen team and all camp staff. Learning about soil health, regenerative farming and food security.
Seasonal Wisdom: Eating with the Earth
In the modern world, we have forgotten what it means to eat seasonally. By moving to a Farm to Fork model, our menus have become daily decisions that change with the seasons. We have returned to a way of eating that our ancestors would recognise, one dictated by the rains and the sun.
This seasonal approach doesn’t just lower our environmental impact; it elevates the health of our guests. Produce picked at the peak of its ripeness is denser in nutrients and bursting with flavour. There is a vitality in a leaf that was still attached to its stem twenty minutes before it reached your fork, a life force that no supermarket shelf can replicate.
By sourcing our own ingredients grown from the same soil, your plate is an extension of your game drive, a way to connect the landscape, rainy seasons and sun. A way for guests to connect even deeper to the surrounding environment.
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Landscapes
At Great Plains, our founders, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, have long championed a plant-based lifestyle. This ethos filters through every kitchen in our Réserve and Explorer Collections. Our chefs are trained to treat vegetables not as side dishes, but as the stars of the show.
The Farm to Fork initiative allows us to guarantee the purity of what we serve. There are no synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilisers in our gardens. In fact, clean soil is a natural probiotic. Produce grown in healthy, organic soil carries a diversity of beneficial microbes. When you eat food pulled directly from a healthy ecosystem, you introduce these diverse microbes into your own gut microbiome, which is linked to a range of benefits from better digestion to immunity. Knowing where your food comes from allows for a mindful, connected dining experience.
Circular System
In our camps, we use all our waste products as an opportunity. When it comes to our food waste, we use biogas systems to produce renewable energy. This waste-to-energy system transforms organic food waste into clean, renewable cooking gas. The kitchens then use the biogas to fuel their cookers. The byproduct of the biogas process is a nutrient-rich slurry that serves as a powerful organic fertiliser. We feed the soil with the organic fertiliser, our “waste,” and the soil, in turn, feeds us. It is a natural circle of life.
Empowering Communities
Our vision for Farm to Fork extends far beyond the borders of our camps. The Great Plains Foundation is built on the belief that conservation only succeeds when local communities thrive alongside wildlife.
In Botswana, local communities in the Okavango Delta are living alongside wildlife such as elephants, who also enjoy produce from gardens. Great Plains Foundation supported the establishment of a farming cluster, which brought together over 100 farmers into a fenced farming cluster of fields to support human-elephant coexistence and food production. By having a fence around the farms, the elephants are unable to enjoy the harvest, and the local community have a conflict-free harvest and livelihood.
In Kenya and Botswana, we have various farming projects to support communities and supply our safari camps with locally-sourced community-led businesses, spreading the impact of the camp into the region. When procuring our ingredients, we look first to the small-scale farmers living nearby. This creates a “conservation economy” where a local farmer sees a direct, tangible benefit from the presence of the lions and elephants nearby. Their success is tied to the health of the ecosystem. A Great Plains-supported honey business in the Maasai Mara employs 75 community members to produce delicious honey for the camps.
Experience our Interactive Kitchens
Guests are invited to visit the gardens in our Kenya camps, following our chefs a few dozen steps from the kitchen to harvest crisp spinach, fragrant basil, and snap-bright peppers. The “mileage” is measured in footsteps, not fuel. Our chefs are proud to showcase their gardens and, especially, the decorative flowers you’ll find scattered on your plates.
For our guests, the Farm to Fork journey is an invitation to participate. At Mara Expedition Camp and Mara Plains Camp, our Interactive Kitchens allow you to sit with our world-class chefs as they compose a meal from the morning’s harvest.
You might see a chef pairing a hand-picked herb with a delicate vegetable consommé, or watch as they create a vibrant salsa using freshly picked chillies. There is no mystery to where your food came from. You can walk to the garden, touch the soil, and see the very sunlight that grew your dinner.
This transparency is the ultimate luxury. In an age of processed, anonymous food, knowing the “biography” of your meal is a rare and beautiful thing.
A Legacy of Conservation on a Plate
Every choice we make at Great Plains is a vote for the future of Africa. When we choose to grow our own food, we are choosing to leave a lighter footprint. We are choosing to respect the delicate balance of the Okavango Delta, the Maasai Mara, and the Zambezi Valley.
The Farm to Fork initiative is more than a culinary trend. It is positive on our planet, wildlife, local communities and the health of our guests.
As you sit down to a meal under the African sky, we hope you feel that connection. Because at Great Plains, we don’t just want to show you the wild. We want to feed your soul with it.
