But this time with a twist. The “carb” stands for carbon! The Los Angeles Times syndicated a story a couple of days ago about college cafeterias that are offering low-carbon fare. You can read the whole story here.
Photo by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times
It seems a little gimmicky on the surface, but overall I think it is a good idea. If nothing else it brings attention to the intensive resources needed to grow beef and lamb for market. It is also encouraging to see publicity by the media that looks beyond just the distance traveled by food in order to assess the foods “carbon footprint”. This campaign comes complete with catchy artwork like a poster asking: “Is my cheeseburger causing global warming?”, and “You have changed your light bulbs, now change your lunch”.
Whatever you think about the global warming warnings, the changes touted by this campaign have benefits that reach way beyond that debate. Sustainable food production is an important issue that hopefully will not get sidelined because of the current world wide food shortages. Read the article, and skip a burger or two this month. I guess the logic followed by this campaign is a few less burgers = a few less cattle = a few less cattle farts = a few less pounds of methane into the atmosphere. Makes sense, I guess.
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Makes sense to me. I think we’re all accountable for doing whatever we can – large and small – to keep our planet as pretty as it was when we first got here.
Although the terms being used are new – carbon footprint, green house gas emissions, etc. – the basic principles are no different than they’re always been.
Oh, almost forgot: the buildings in my last WW submission each have their own separating wall. They call it a mitoyen wall – it ensures a fire in one will not damage the adjacent structure.
I’m just glad to see that somebody is finally getting the big picture. Actually, what it all boils down to is energy conservation. Everything on the food shelves should have an energy number included in the ingredients label, so that we can compare apples to apples in this whole carbon issue.
Nice post.
I’m glad that this post is about low carbon and not about low carbohydrate. Certainly we should all attempt to reduce our carbon footprint in all that we do, and give a thought to how we can reduce everyday and in every way. As for carbohydrates we need not make that much of an effort,the body needs carbohydrates as much as other nutrition to so trying to cut out carbs can only be counter productive in the long run.
Kudo’s to Bon Appetit for bringing up this issue and making an effort to educate. Too bad no one has brought up the fact that the production of ethanol and bio-diesel is just as polluting as all those millions of acres of cattle, if not worse. We’re being fed the line that these fuels are “green” and you better believe big money in government is going to try and make sure we don’t learn our lesson about it too.
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Yes! I’ve seen a couple of these college cafeterias, and I believe that seeing them in effect seems to trigger a mindset in the students and let them start to think about what they are putting inside themselves, also the slogans actually drives home the message.
The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy food products that are grown close to where you live. Eat locally grown apples instead of mangoes from the Philippines, buy eggs from local producers and get your veggies from the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning.
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This sounds great especially when the oil prices were going through the roof but I think the times may have changed and if a low carbon meal costs more most people are going to look elsewhere.