"Is my cheeseburger causing global
warming?” asks the concerned
blonde in a Lichtenstein-inspired
poster that was hung prominently in
many corporate cafés on Earth Day this
year, including at Cisco, Oracle, eBay,
and University of San Francisco.
Well, yes, it is—according to Palo
Alto–based Bon Appétit Management
Company, which runs those cafés plus
400 such others around America. And
Bon Appétit wants to persuade the eaters
of the 80 million meals it serves annually
to choose foods associated with lower
carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
(CO2e is a measure of the amount of
global warming from greenhouse gases;
see “Eating by the Numbers,” page 12 of this issue.)
But April 22 was merely the kickoff
of Bon Appétit’s Low Carbon Diet
campaign. This is no mere feel-good PR
blitz. Although Bon Appétit is owned by
the publicly traded Compass Group, the
world’s largest food-service corporation,
it has long led the way in responsible
food sourcing thanks to founder and
CEO Fedele Bauccio. It started its Farm
to Fork program, encouraging its chefs
to buy local produce and meat as much
as possible, in 1999 and was an early
proponent of rBGH-free milk, cage-free
eggs, and animal-antibiotics awareness.
And now it’s “the first company to
make the connection between agriculture,
the food system, and greenhouse gases,”
Bauccio said proudly in May. “We’re trying
to educate consumers and give them
choices. We’re not asking you not to eat
meat, just to eat it a little bit less. We’re
also looking at food waste and food miles.”
Bon Appétit aims to reduce its CO2e
emissions in the highest-impact areas
by 25 percent over three years through
initiatives such as purchasing all its meat
and vegetables from North America,
foregoing air-freighted seafood, and
cutting down on tropical fruits as well as
beef and cheese. Its cafés already cut beef
consumption 23 percent last year.
The company has also launched an
online Eat Low Carbon Diet calculator
(eatlowcarbon.org), which will tell you
the CO2e points associated with various
foods, as well as a phone-based service:
just send a text to 69866 with the letters
LCD and the food you’re considering.
While the latter service could be more
robust (“sardines” and “coffee” flummoxed
the text database), Bon Appétit has backed
both with an extensive website explaining
the science behind the lifecycle assessments
of food and why some choices (like
beef) are worse than others. Visit www.
circleofresponsibility.com or a Bon Appétit café—to learn more.
Bonnie Powell is Deputy Editor for ESF. She is a cofounder of the food-politics blog the The Ethicurean and has written for Wired, Photo District News, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.
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