In This Section:
Energy Star Tightens Controls
Food Carts Okayed In Minneapolis, Atlanta On Hold
S.F.'s Meatless Monday Vote Has No Teeth
This issue's Economic Report Sponsor: Henny Penny
Industry Report Sponsor: A.J. Antunes & Co.
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Energy Star Tightens Controls
On the heels of a recent Government Accountability Office report criticizing abuses of the Energy Star label, the Energy Star program has distributed a letter to its manufacturing partners announcing the following changes, effective immediately:
- Products (including packaging, literature, Web sites, etc.) may no longer be labeled by manufacturers until qualifying product information has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. This policy, which had been in place for certain product categories such as residential light fixtures and CFLs, has been extended to all product categories and is applicable to any product that has not already been approved and posted to the applicable Energy Star qualified products listing.
- New Energy Star partners will no longer be granted access to the Energy Star mark upon joining the program. Going forward, the mark will be made available to partners only after a qualifying product is submitted and approved.
Other changes were announced as well, but they did not address foodservice equipment categories.
The letter further addressed issues that did include foodservice equipment. "Qualifications will continue uninterrupted for the following products, which currently are subject to review through certification programs or have pre-qualification requirements in place: battery charging systems, CFLs, ceiling fans, central air conditioners/air-source heat pumps, commercial griddles, commercial ovens, commercial refrigeration, decorative light strings, insulation, residential light fixtures, roof products, solid state lighting, ventilating fans, and windows, doors, and skylights," the letter noted.
To read the entire letter, go to www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/downloads/Letter_to_Stakeholders.pdf
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Food Carts Okayed In Minneapolis, Atlanta On Hold
Portland, Ore., is full of food carts; local experts say more than 400 vendors troll the streets there. Los Angeles has such a big street-food scene, it's written up in restaurant reviews and travel sections. Yes, the Twitter-directed street-food phenomenon—kitchens humming in vans, trucks, busses and carts and serving up everything from fish tacos to falafel to crab cakes and Korean-Mex fusion—is bubbling along, and should grow ever bigger as the weather warms up across much of the country.
But a number of cities are still arguing about the right to serve food on the street. The Minneapolis city council just voted to allow more food carts on downtown streets. Prior to the April 2 vote, the city only allowed carts to sell hot dogs, pizza, popcorn and pre-packaged foods. But the council voted unanimously to allow anyone who leases commercial-kitchen space, including restaurants, to prepare and serve food from a truck within the city's downtown improvement district. The city will start taking license applications May 1; new carts can be up and running by mid-summer.
In Georgia, citizens have formed the Atlanta Street Food Advocacy Coalition; they're hoping to get approvals passed by the city council for the dining privileges enjoyed elsewhere in the country. Since the group launched in February, it has collected more than 1,200 online signatures for its pro street-food petition. The coalition says Atlantans are more than ready to dine out on their city's many Peachtree streets and plazas, but blames a maze of outdated regulations and claims bureaucratic indifference.
According to one of the coalition founders, Georgia state laws simply have not been developed or been updated for the rise of the gourmet food-truck phenomenon. For more on mobile-food trends and regulations, go to www.streetvendor.org. For a look at Portland's mobile-food scene, click www.foodcartsportland.com.
S.F.'s Meatless Monday Vote Has No Teeth
The announcement of San Francisco's new resolution for "meatless Mondays" shouldn't send tremors through foodservice operators, grill manufacturers or meat purveyors. On April 6, the city's board of supervisors passed the resolution for no-meat Mondays. The vote, like others that day—including one banning smoking in sidewalk cafes—reflected the board's endorsement of environmentally conscious living. The resolution holds no legal weight; it cannot stop the city's operators from serving meat or its residents from eating meat. Instead, its intent is to call attention to the relationship between diet and climate change.
The resolution cited a number of other cities and reports for the resolution, such as last year's Green Cincinnati Plan, in which the Ohio city recommended replacing some meat in the diet with fruit and vegetables. None of the reports mentioned the use of cooking equipment, but rather focused on carbon footprints and health. The San Francisco resolution's sponsor leaned heavily on the 2009 World Bank Report, "Livestock and Climate Change" which found livestock to be responsible for at least 32.6 billion tons of CO2 per year, or 51% or annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
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