Saving the Planet, One Dish at a Time
April 2009
By Michael Wall and Natasha Mack
Sustainability is one of the hottest buzzwords in America these days. Its presence in economic rhetoric, green marketing, political speech and corporate advertising threatens to dilute its true meaning and render the word itself empty.
Georgia is full of restaurant operators who are part of this massive effort. For starters, the single largest measure a restaurant can take to be gentler on the Earth is to buy from local, sustainable sources. Here’s why: The agricultural industry is responsible for roughly one-third of all greenhouse gas pollution. That puts “farming” on par with the thousands of coal-fired power plants around the world that belch CO2 by the ton, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
But one must use the word “farming” loosely. As the recent peanut scare proved, many food operations more closely resemble industry than farming. Most of the beef, chicken and pork on the market is raised not so much on pastures, but in industrial plants. And large-scale farms on which feed and commodity crops are grown are only able to produce plants because of an arsenal of petroleum-based fertilizers.
Avoiding foods from commercial farms goes a long way toward supporting the type of sustainable society that will leave the planet healthy for future generations.
Buying locally vastly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted by shipping conventional foods. On average, food travels 1,500 miles from farm to fork.
It’s impossible to catalog all of the statewide efforts to be greener, but some innovators are leading the restaurant industry down the path toward sustainability.
“I believe a huge part of sustainability is using local products when possible, and working with local farmers supports the local economy,” says Ron Eyester, Executive Chef and owner of Food 101 in Morningside. “I support them and they support the restaurant.”
In addition to cooking with local and organic foods, Pizza Fusion in Buckhead uses hybrid cars for pizza delivery, buys wind energy offsets and offers classes on organic food for children. The restaurant is in a LEED-certified space and is designed to be extremely efficient and environmentally friendly.
Watershed’s Executive Chef, Scott Peacock, is one of a handful of chefs who have taken the race for 
sustainability to a new level by giving his used fryer grease to a nonprofit that turns it into biodiesel, a fuel that can power any diesel-burning car with little to no greenhouse gas emissions. The operation that converts the grease to fuel, a nonprofit venture called Refuel Biodiesel, also collects grease from Emory University’s cafeterias for free, and in turn supplies the university with biodiesel for its shuttle buses.
“Restaurants may not know it, but they hold the key to fuel sustainability because their used grease is perfect for making a clean-burning alternative fuel,” says Rob Del Bueno, founder of Refuel Biodiesel.
Billy and Kristin Allin, the chef and owner of Cakes and Ale in Decatur, have gone so far as to plant their own 1/2-acre vegetable and herb garden. They are extraordinarily thorough about recycling, and convert another waste stream, leftover food scraps, into a rich fertilizer for their garden, utilizing worms for faster composting. “It’s really about planning, planning to use everything we get out of the garden and using our compost to put the food trash to use on making rich, fertile soil,” Billy says.
Dynamic Dish, operated by David Sweeney, in the Sweet Auburn-Martin Luther King, Jr. historic area of Atlanta, is also in a LEED-certified building. Sweeney drives to farms and farmer’s markets to buy the fresh, local produce he serves, and he returns his compost back to the farmers from whom he buys his food. Each day, he writes the menu on a blackboard, reducing paper waste.
His motivations, like those of other thoughtful Georgia chefs, are linked to seeing beyond today, beyond the shortsightedness that causes industry to pillage the planet and deny the next generation access to a healthy, thriving environment.
Sweeney says, “It sounds strange, but it’s actually possible for you to eat for a better way of life. It’s possible to eat in a way that’s healthier for you and healthier for the natural environment.”
Georgia Organics is a member-supported nonprofit organization working to integrate healthy, sustainable and locally grown food into the lives of all Georgians.
