Looks like we're not the only ones voting with our feet. Last year, Atlanta lost the opportunity to host a convention that opted to use a "greener" city instead.

As you may have heard, this is not the first time Atlanta's been burned and it's a city that knows how to bounce back. Led by Holly Elmore of the Green Foodservice Alliance, the folks at Recycle Atlanta and eco-awareness consultant Laura Turner Seydel, the town rallied its troops and began work on creating the state's first Zero Waste Zone (ZWZ).

Hi-yo Hyatt Regency! As a major player in the downtown convention traffic, the Hyatt served almost half a million meals last year. Although the hotel already recycled some waste items, such as plastic and glass, tons of trash still came to its final rest in landfills. Now, as part of the ZWZ, usable leftover food goes to the Community Food Bank and what cannot be used is composted, every tiny little scrap of it.

The compost is then purchased by farmers and used to renew the soil where crops are grown. Daron (Farmer D) Joffe is quoted in this informative CNN story on the ZWZ, as saying that the use of compost such as that produced by the Hyatt's recaptured waste increases the vitality of the soil.

Plants grown in this enriched soil are then more resistant to drought and disease. They are hardier and healthier. And it's this healthier food source that then finds its way into your belly when you're a smart shopper who looks for organic, nutritious food - like that grown from the compost Farmer D supplies to the agricultural markets and to urban farmers like you and me.