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BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. (SNN TV) – In 1993, local waterfront restaurant Beach House was created with the goal of being good stewards to the environment.

The restaurant’s owner, Ed Chiles of Chiles Hospitality, said his goal over the past 30 years looks a lot like his goal for the next 30: to serve food “right.”

“I’m most concerned about our ability to protect these incredible natural resources that brought us all here,” Chiles said.

Chiles spoke to a gathering about why being a good steward to the environment remains as important today as in the 1990s.

“We need to eat food that [isn’t] from California where they’ve baked the soil, where they’ve killed everything in it, and then they do it in monoculture, and then they add all the fertilizers and ingredients back into it, and they truck it across the country,” Chiles said. “We need to grow it the way we used to grow it.”

Chiles said he believes eating local food promotes sustainability, which works in conjunction with his Gamble Creek Farm located in Parrish. The 26-acre farm can’t grow food for all his restaurants, but it has helped close the “food loop.”

“Everything that comes off of your plate goes to the farm,” Chiles explained. That compost is converted to soil, which grows produce used in his kitchens.

“We’re making our own fertilizer with the compost that would [have been] going to the landfill,” said Chiles.

He said these extra steps are important because the community is located near the Gulf of Mexico, the largest gulf in the world.

“This is the only place in the country that has three natural estuaries on its border: Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, Charlotte Harbor,” Chiles explained. And the increased population means more run-off in the water.

However, the extra steps his restaurants take have come with a heftier price tag.

“It’s more expensive to work here,” Chiles admitted. “Take the ingredients out [of the equation]. When you look at the property taxes here, the upkeep here, and the price of land here and all of that, that’s reflected in the pricing, but we think it’s worth it.”

Chiles said finding ways for the farm to become more profitable is one of his current goals.

“I like to call the farm my private plane. I’m flying a single engine turbo; it’s not cheap,” Chiles joked to the audience.

He also hopes his practices rub off on other restaurants hoping to take the plunge into sustainable farming.

In addition to Beach House, Chiles Hospitality owns The Sandbar Restaurant on Anna Maria and Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant on Longboat Key.