Eating out Green

Before you sit down to dinner, take a long, hard look at your plate.  The ingredients for an average American meal typically travel between 1500 and 2500 miles.  That's a lot of carbon emissions going into the air.

So one restaurant in Rochester is trying something different.

At Lento, located in Rochester's Village Gate, the cuisine is a carefully selected creation.  "I really want to know where my food comes from. I am really committed to the fact that we only have one earth," says Art Rogers.  

He is both the chef and owner of the restaurant, which has been open about nine months.  From the start, he has been committed to helping the environment. By using as many organic and local ingredients as he can. "The majority of stuff on my menu is local, for the obvious reason that is less fossil fuels burned to get the product to my back door for us to serve here," says Rogers.  

You can find out where the ingredients come from just by looking at the menu.   Some of their meat is from Whitney farms in Avon.   Most of their vegetables are grown locally too.

"More and more people are coming in and are really happy there is a restaurant that is fully committed to being environmentally friendly," says Rogers.  

Of course his commitment does have some drawbacks.  Not everything is in season in our area all the time.  Plus, organic food, which is grown without the use of conventional pesticides, does come with a larger price tag.   Rogers says, "my prices are a lot higher than a lot of other places but I hope people realize it's because what I'm paying is more."

He hopes the extra money will end up saving the environment.  "We're doing everything we can to leave as small of a footprint as we can."