Hamburgers and bananas are just two food choices being questioned by Bon Appétit Management Company. Out-of-season tomatoes and berries are other items folks at many universities and corporations across the U.S. may not find on their menus as often as they have in the past.

Promoting Food Services for a Sustainable Future, Bon Appétit will be introducing a new low-carbon diet to its clients in celebration of Earth Day 2007. But Bon Appétit's newest initiative isn't just jumping on the latest bandwagon. The food service provider's online pressroom is chock full of stories about sustainable food projects–like their recent Eat Local Challenge, which showed 200,000 diners at 400 Bon Appétit cafés across the U.S. what a meal made entirely of food grown within 150 miles of a restaurant looks and tastes like.

In an interview with Washington University's student newspaper, Massie Greenawalt, the director of communications and strategic initiatives at Bon Appétit, said the premise behind Bon Appétit's low-carbon diet is simple:

Agriculture accounts for one-third of greenhouse gases. In many ways, food choices are more important than car choice. It was clear we had to do something.

In St. Louis, you can't get tomatoes year-round locally. We might stop serving tomatoes with every hamburger in winter…The overarching message is that conscious food choices reduce climate change.

Livestock production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions…If you currently have a hamburger four times a week, could you cut back to three and reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent?

Bananas are a very high-carbon item. They are grown far away and must be brought rapidly back so that they don't spoil…do you have to have a banana every day, or can you eat dried cranberries?

These aren't major trade-offs but are small things that can have a really big impact.

So, as we all look forward to this coming Sunday's 37th annual celebration of Earth Day, let's join the folks at Bon Appétit and the students at Washington University and try to make a few simple, conscious choices to reduce the carbon footprint of our own diets.

Carbon Neutral Journal's choices are brought to you by Jorgensen Associates.

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