Now Google’s Cooking
Photo by Craig Lee/San Francisco Chronicle
“Yay!” news from the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Cafe serving local, sustainable organic food opens on Google campus.”
With big Northern California operations like Google, Bon Appetit and two major universities choosing to move toward relying on ingredients and food products that are local and renewable, the impact may eventually be felt by Northern California consumers in general.
“Google makes a significant difference,” says Brian Gardiner, founder of America Fresh, which distributes produce from small local growers. “They love fresh, and they order all sorts of interesting things.” “We’ve got one grower who wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for Google,” says Gardiner. “These large corporations are behaving ethically, even when they don’t have to. Bon Appetit and Google are our largest customers.”
He and other local producers say Google and Bon Appetit can account for as much as 25 percent of their income. Google has now succeeded in asking Sysco, one of the largest food wholesalers and distributors in the nation, to deliver an eco-friendly brand of dish detergent, in a shift that roughly equals Wal-Mart carrying organic cotton underwear.
Eat local! Not only does it benefit your local economy by helping out neighborhood farms, the food is also fresher. Food that’s not grown locally needs to travel further, using up more fossil fuel.
Find a local farm, local-produce market, or a restaurant that serves organic, regionally sourced ingredients here. Also see Locavores, a group dedicated to only eating food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius.
aleta said,
March 7, 2006 at 9:11 am
I had the opportunity to visit the Google campus in Mountain View and sample their food. Not only was it eco friendly but also extremely tasty and absolutely free to its employees, those lucky dogs. It’ll be interesting see if Google is able to maintain their current level of employee pampering which is so characteristic of the dot coms. I’m also happy to hear that Bon Appetit is going green; they provided the food at my college.
The Worsted Witch » Goooobly Gooook said,
April 17, 2006 at 1:46 pm
[...] Maybe it was the organic wine or the crispy tofu slaw, or the way you eloquently related ways I could clean my hairbrush , but for once I let my guard slip and actually entertained the notion that a megacorp could be ethical. That’s SO not me! [...]