is my lunch causing global warming?

Did you know, the food system is responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions?

With every meal you eat, you have the power to reduce climate change.

Eating right

By Trystan L. Bass

You've heard of low-carb diets, right? Atkins, South Beach ... but what about a low-carbon diet?

Just like our cars and the power plants the light our houses create CO2 emissions, the food we eat can contribute to climate

change. Livestock creates 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, so meat and dairy products have a high carbon count.

Processed, packaged goods shipped across the country consume a lot more energy than fresh, local foods.

You can calculate the approximate climate impact of your meal at EatLowCarbon.org, a nifty tool created by the food service

company Bon Appétit. Just drag and drop ingredients into your virtual sauté pan, and dish up an earth-friendly dinner.

I visited a couple places where Bon Appétit provides food service and encourages eco-friendly dining. See for yourself how college

students and tech workers went low-carb this Earth Day.

Bon Appétit brought its low-carbon diet to more than 400 corporate and university cafés across the U.S. this year. The company

contracts with places like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, adidas, Seattle Art Museum, Oracle Corporation, eBay, Monterey

Bay Aquarium, Best Buy, and even Yahoo!.

At Santa Clara University, I talked to students and staff to see how they enjoyed the sustainable lunch choices. The response was

very positive. An environmental studies major complimented the cafeteria for emphasizing local produce. The students also

admired how Bon Appétit and the university worked together to educate people on making smart food choices.

Lindsey Cromwell, the university's sustainability coordinator, pointed out that the low-carbon diet is in line with the institution's

long-term goal of going carbon-neutral. "As a Jesuit university, we're concerned with the ethical implications of all our decisions,"

she commented. Stewardship of the planet -- down to the food we choose -- is part of the life education Santa Clara University

provides.

Bon Appétit's Director of Culinary Support, Marc Zammit, gave me a tour of the university's kitchen and pointed out what made the

Earth Day meals 'low carbon.'

Cutting out beef is a big part of it, but this doesn't have to mean going totally vegetarian. Raising chicken, pork, and fish uses

fewer resources than beef. If you can go meat-free a few days a week, that's great (and pretty healthy too). But trying a tilapia fish

taco instead of a hamburger like some satisfied students did is a start.

Cheese is a tough one for many of us to give up. But at the university deli, Zammit showed how you can create delicious

sandwiches without a slice of cheese. Yummy spreads like hummus and pesto add creamy texture and loads of flavor without

dairy. Definitely worth trying at home!

I also checked out the corporate café at SAP Labs. Executive chef Melissa Miller showed me around her kitchen, where she makes

tasty meals like chicken pho. This Vietnamese noodle soup traditionally has beef, but her low-carbon version was just as popular as

the standard.

Miller's crew also makes potato chips from scratch -- this avoids packaging, since they can serve them from big glass jars. And fresh

chips taste better too! What a treat.

The café also provides crackers for soups in jars (instead of individually wrapped), and condiments like ketchup and mustard are

served in refillable containers (not packets). All of this reduces garbage.

This is something we can easily do at home too. Buying in bulk is often cheaper than buying lots of individually packaged items.

We'll spend less and have less trash, so it's a win-win.

Both cafeterias encourage diners to use real china and silverware whenever possible. Paper and plastic to-go containers are

frequently not recyclable or just not recycled, so they end up in the landfills. At Santa Clara University, the cafeteria uses 7,200 to-go

boxes each week. If you stacked them up, that'd be almost as tall as the Empire State Building!

That's something we should remember when we get take-out food or are tempted to use paper plates at home for parties.

Want to learn more about how you can go low-carb? Check out Bon Appétit's low-carbon diet tips, including research behind

why this helps the planet.

And get a recipe from the chef at San Francisco's de Young Museum for seafood stew to whip up your own sustainable dinner

tonight.