Learn About Food's "Carbon Cost"

Release date: May 11, 2007 |

In keeping with its mission to support environmental sustainability, Goucher College will host a talk by Helene York, a food service executive who educates consumers and chefs about how their food choices affect the global environment. York will discuss the “Low Carbon Diet” on Friday, May 11, at 2 p.m. in the “T” Building Classroom RES 128. This event is free and open to the public.

York, the director of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation, arrived at the idea of the Low Carbon Diet to raise consumer awareness about the impact the food system has on climate change and to implement changes in corporate purchasing and operations.

Food — and all the energy that is spent to grow, harvest, process and transport it — is one of the largest human activities contributing to global warming. The average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emission each year by eating, according to recent research. This compares with the 2.2 tons generated by a person’s driving.

Bon Appétit has 400 cafés in corporations, specialty venues, and colleges and universities — including at Goucher — and serves 80 million meals per year. The company has spurred the farm-to-fork movement at Goucher, whereby the college purchases much of its produce and proteins from local farmers and artisans.