Green Cuisine: My Inaugural Grist Column

My new monthly column, Toiling Point, launched to day. This inaugural column focuses on how companies are greening their cafeterias and lunch rooms -- and what you can do to green yours.

An excerpt:

Company cafeterias and restaurants have not, to date, been a hotbed of environmental activism. A few have set up modest recycling or composting programs, or initiated some basic energy- or water-conservation measures. But food represents, arguably, their biggest environmental footprint, when you consider the petrochemical, water, and energy inputs of conventional agriculture; the groundwater contamination and worker health and safety impacts of most modern farming; the energy used for processing; and the vast distances food typically travels -- anywhere from 1,300 to 2,000 miles from farm to fork.

Reducing all those impacts isn't easy or quick, but some companies are figuring out how. They are buying seasonal, local produce and locally produced baked goods, which supports the nearby economy and reduces the impacts of transporting food. They are looking out for organic or fair-trade certified labels, in an effort to ensure that your lunch wasn't grown at the expense of land or people in other places. They are putting hormone- and antibiotic-free poultry, livestock, and dairy products, as well as sustainably harvested seafood, on the table -- to protect your health, and the health of the planet's other inhabitants.

More next month. Please send me your questions, comments, and story ideas.