Here's a great article from Biocycle magazine about the impressive increase in compostable packaging products that are available to restaurateurs and grocers who want to green up their operations and to individuals who want to green up their homes. This may be the most thorough and informative article written for a general audience that I've seen yet but if you're not interested in all the technical details of different compostable materials, let me share one idea from the article that caught my eye.

Buzz Chandler, President of Asean, a manufacturer of compostable products, is quoted in the article as saying, "...when something goes to a landfill, it’s being sealed in a mummy’s tomb where nothing goes away.”

Uh-huh. So true. And he's not just talking about Styrofoam here; he's talking about his own (and everyone's) compostable products.
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The Mercantile in Candler Park is celebrating its one-year anniversary on September 20. They'll be handing out chocolate chip cookies between noon and 3 and Larry and I plan to be eating chocolate chip cookies between noon and 3. Sweet.

Want a side of milk with your cookie? Russell Johnston of Johnston Family Dairy near Madison (no Georgia; I know what you're thinking) and a Mercantile vendor, will be a featured guest at the soiree. The Johnston Family Dairy does what unethical producers(un)scrupulously avoid - invites people to come in and take a look at their operations.You can arrange to visit the farm, tour the milking barns in between milkings and even pet and feed the cows.

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After our trip to Cedar Key, when we first started noticing all the trash that gets dispensed in the service of carrying out leftovers so as not to waste food, Wahoo! Grill in Decatur was one of the first restaurants we saw using compostable take-out containers. WooHoo!

We were already crazy about their food and observing this act of thoughtfulness toward the world made us feel even better about them. It was like finding out that someone you've already fallen in love with just happens to be independently wealthy and you didn't even know it. It was icing on an already sweet cake.

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We recently had dinner at Max Lager's American Grill and Brewery in Atlanta with our beer-loving Athens friends. When JR, Max Lager's owner, manager, CEO, executive chef and brewmeister, stopped by our table to see how we liked the beer (as brewers always do when we're with Owen) I took the opportunity to snap his photo and ask about the brewpub's green practices.

I was happy to hear that this restaurant is taking steps toward the greening of their operations. Max Lager's has recently switched to compostable take-out containers, which was especially good news for me since we were running behind to catch the Los Lobos concert at the Botanical Gardens (great show) and I had forgotten to bring my little plastic tub in with me. The veggie Maxadilla was just too good to leave half-eaten on the table like a tip, so it was nice to have something I felt okay about carrying it home in. Well, to the concert and then home.
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Last month Larry and I attended the first meeting of the Mission Zero Meetup. We met some very nice, smart people whose mission is to treat the world with care and integrity so that it will last long enough to host the next generation and beyond. Not a bad goal, eh?



When we left the Interface building it was pouring outside so we decided to dash over to WaterHaven and ask them to pour us one inside. Behind the bar we met Tom, a 30 year veteran of the restaurant industry and another nice, smart person who aims to treat the world with care and integrity so that it will last... It seemed to be the theme of the evening.

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For the locarnavores out there who are interested in purchasing meat, cheese and dairy products from farmers who raise animals with kindness and engage in sustainable environmental practices, eatwild.com is a superb resource.

The Eat Wild web site is owned and operated by Jo Robinson, author of Pasture Perfect, a book that educates readers about the superiority of grass-fed livestock over animals that are raised in factory-farm conditions. Robinson's research into this subject has concluded that meat from grass-fed animals is higher in Vitamin E, beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids than meat from animals raised with more conventional farming methods.

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Who wouldn't want to cash in on a trend? Now that green is all the rage, it can be hard to distinguish the restaurants and groceries that are really making substantial changes to lower their carbon footprint and which are just trying to cash in on the public's interest in all things sustainable.

The latter often engage in a process called greenwashing. Greenwashing includes all actions that are adopted in an attempt to appear to be green, without any real consideration as to what impact, if any, these actions will actually have on the environment.

Take plastic bags (please...). True green practice in this area means not contributing to the world trash problem by handing out plastic bags to your customers. There are environmental problems with paper bags too, primarily in the energy spent to produce and recycle them, but they aren't going to last past your lifetime in a landfill, leaving your children and grandchildren to solve the problem that you (we) created.
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Larry claims that James Joyce in Avondale serves the best Guinness on tap in Atlanta, so we pop in every so often just to make sure he doesn't develop some kind of crazy beer deficit or something. Although you couldn't exactly call it green yet, James Joyce is starting to make some changes in its restaurant operations. They recently coaxed chef Bobby Hall out of Five Seasons in Alpharetta, which is more than I can do with Larry at times, and he is starting to tweak the menu in the hopes of bringing in new diners. As for us, we would appreciate a few more vegetarian offerings, even though we plan to keep on ordering that roasted garlic/olive app as long as it's available.

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Now you can be good to the planet and to your pocketbook at the same time. Half Off Green, a joint venture between the Atlanta Intown newspaper and restaurant environmental educators, Green Plate, are issuing coupons that are good for deep discounts at select Atlanta area restaurants.

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Bon Appetit included Billy and Kristin Allin's lovely green Decatur restaurant, Cakes & Ale, on their list of the Top Ten New Restaurants in America. Bon Appetit noted that the theme for today's most exciting restaurants, including the ten that made the final cut on their list, "support local farmers, sustainable agriculture, and regional cuisine." That's good news for the environment as well as for diners who desire fresh and healthy food.

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