Green Business Idea: Fresh Food Fast

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.