As most of you guys know, I am a vegetarian. According to a University of Chicago study a vegetarian diet can lower your carbon footprint by as much as 1.5 tons. Unfortunately, I know that a chain of fast food vegetarian restaurants would not succeed, outside of perhaps a few niche cities like San Fransisco.
Perhaps though a chain of Fresh Food Fast restaurants could succeed. The idea would be that the basic assembly line method that has made restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King successful would be utilized, but coupled with local produce. Local franchisees would partner with local suppliers of meat, dairy, eggs, and seasonal vegetables. The economies of scale that McDonald's has would be lost, so prices would of course be higher. I for one, and I think a lot of educated folks who go out and drop $25-$30 at a sit-down restaurant, would be more than happy to pay $15-$20 to get great food while foregoing the sit-down service.
Green Business Idea: Fresh Food Fast
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4 comments:
I like the idea of a restaurant using locally grown meat, vegetables, etc. Similar to what Seasons 52 does (their menu changes weekly) but I doubt they are using locally grown produce.
I like it too. The price gap between that kind of restaurant and a traditional fast-food restaurant might narrow in the coming years if a carbon tax or cap & trade program is implemented. Restaurants sourcing supplies locally will have a tax advantage to help make up for their economy-of-scale disadvantage. Plus, if the U.S. continues to migrate towards progressivism, the marketing potential of a progressive restaurant would be enhanced.
In Athens, GA they have a sit down restaurant called Farm 255. It uses almost 100% locally grown ingredients. It's prices are maybe 10%-20% higher than a chain restaurant and the portions are smaller. The food is amazing though and it is cool to have a constantly changing menu. Oh yeah and the meal descriptions usually tell what farm the main ingredients came from.
It seems the same thing could work in a fast food type restaurant, although I imagine the price difference between a McDonald's would be more substantial given the low profit margins in the industry.
Matt,
If there was anything like that in good old Polk County, I would be a regular. Maybe that should be my restaurant idea down here. I'm cool with the smaller portions (our portions here in the US have gotten out of control). Do they play a lot of REM there?
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