Think You're Dining "Green"?

Think again. In many cases, you may not be eating the "sustainable" food from small suppliers that you think you are. This article from today's Washington Post offers an example: a restaurant in the city's downtown called Founding Farmers:

The restaurant serves farmed Atlantic salmon, a no-no according to seafood watch groups that condemn the pollution and other environmental impacts of salmon farming.

Its supplier, Cooke Aquaculture, is one of the largest salmon farms in North America. And three of the small farms named on that November menu had not sold to [Founding Farmers] in nearly six months.

So what's up? Well, I think this may explain why restaurants are better at advertising their "green" qualities than they are at living up to them:

In an eco-conscious era, "sustainable" and "green" food are buzzwords that sell. ... The 2010 Zagat survey of U.S. restaurants reports that 61 percent of diners are willing to pay more for green products and menu items . . .