Eat Local – Another Piece in the Sustainable Travel Puzzle
With the booming interest in eating locally grown, organic foods, green travelers now have another issue of concern while out on the road or visiting a foreign neighborhood – where to find hotels serving eco-friendly foods, and how to locate restaurants focused on regional cuisine made with local, seasonal ingredients.
But what exactly is local food? According to John Cloud, who discussed the subject for an article in Time magazine Time article, “there’s not even a standard definition.” This leaves consumers and travelers largely responsible for determining just how local their food should be.
Some hotel chains have taken the initiative to create sustainable menus, taking much of the stress off of guests who like to think of themselves as environmentally conscious. For example, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has a program called Green Cuisine, which this month was expanded to cover “sustainable seafood choices,” according to Hotels Magazine Hotels magazine article Fairmont properties will no longer serve Chilean Sea Bass and Bluefin Tuna, two endangered marine species. Other Fairmont hotels in Mexico and Hawaii have already made efforts to purchase fish from local purveyors, and avoid serving any threatened species of fish.
Xanterra Parks & Resorts has been implementing its sustainable menu for nearly a decade, reports The Green Meeting, Green Meeting article, which publishes news for sustainable event planning. Chris Lane, Xanterra’s vice president of environmental affairs, explained how devising a menu that furthers a sustainable business plan can be challenging, requiring thoughtful effort on behalf of chefs.
“Sourcing sustainable, locally grown and organic ingredients can be challenging, particularly in remote locations,” Lane said. “Our chefs have become quite adept at securing the products they need to create sustainable menu items.
Travelers have a few technological tools at their disposal to aid green-eating efforts. Joanna Kakissis, World Hum article of World Hum, wrote about the Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone, which gives diners instant access to information on specific fisheries and species through a mobile device. And Eat Well Guide Eat Well Guide article has a helpful search tool that locates “local, sustainable and organic food” near any address.
Sarah Amandolare
Valere
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