Café Makes Efforts to Reduce Beef Consumption

Low Carbon Day gave information to students that outlined Bon Appétit's reasons for reducing carbon-producing foods. By 2010 Bon Appétit plans to reduce their food waste by 25 percent.

Kelsey Heng

Two large posters and a table full of pamphlets welcomed students to the cafeteria yesterday, introducing Bon Appetit’s Low Carbon Diet Day. Low Carbon Diet Day was planned on April 22 in conjunction with Earth Day, and is kicking off Bon Appetit’s goals to reduce their carbon impact on the environment.

“Today is our kickoff day,” said Steve Rall, Biola’s Bon Appetit general manager, explaining that they are focusing on raising awareness as they implement their long term plans. Rall pointed out that the food industry contributes to up to one third of global warming. This is a Bon Appetit calculated number, based upon research done by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Food is not like an iPod. You don’t buy just one—you buy it every day,” Rall said, expanding on why the numbers were so high. He said that food production is a constant process, and the carbon emissions come from the perpetual production, refrigeration, transportation, and waste involved.

Rall said that the long term goals of Bon Appetit include reducing dairy and beef purchases by 10% this year, as compared to last year; their two year goal is a 25% decrease.

One of Bon Appetit’s websites—circleofresponsibility.com—further outlines their goals. By 2009 they plan to reduce their purchases of tropical fruits by 50%, and by 2010 they plan to reduce their food waste by 25%.

“We’re an all-you-can-eat environment so people don’t think about wasting food at all. In their minds they paid for it,” Rall explained. He said that Bon Appetit is hoping to change that attitude by raising awareness and making customers more accountable. Low Carbon Diet Day is one part of raising this awareness.

Posters, food carbon charts, and a big screen television were spread out in the cafeteria, giving facts about the food students consume daily. The TV flashed messages of warning about global warming, including a prediction that in 20 years environment changes will create 30 to 40 million refugees in Bangladesh.

At each food station there were examples of carbon friendly foods, including locally grown lettuce and soy milk. Each station also had lists of foods in order of their “carbon points”; each carbon point is worth one gram of a carbon dioxide emission of greenhouse gas. Beef was the worst offender, climbing the lists with roast beef sandwiches at 1269 points and beef stir fry at 1685 points.

“Beef is the bad one,” Rall said. “Cow is the number one cause for greenhouse gases.” He said that cows are problematic because they breathe and emit carbon dioxide, and it’s also in their manure.

There won’t be a real dent in beef production until the demand goes down—another reason for Bon Appetit’s desire to raise awareness among consumers.

“We need the student body and the general public to say ‘Hey, we don’t want beef,’” Rall said. He said that this was particularly a problem at a christian university like Biola where the number of vegetarians is substantially lower than secular schools.

This attitude was apparent in Carter Kaminski, a freshman Biochemistry major. A self-proclaimed beef lover, Kaminski said that he didn’t eat any of the special food.

“I’m kind of a picky eater—it didn’t look appetizing,” Kaminski said, and added that he had eaten an English muffin and cookies.

Other students were more optimistic about the low carbon food selection.

“Most of it kind of scared me…but they had strawberries, and the chicken sandwich was amazing!” Heather Patterson, a junior ICS major said.

For more information, go to circleofresponsibility.com.