Bright Green Business Idea: Organic, Delicious, Sustainable Food on Wheels

-

This is one of those ideas that is so good, I wish I’d thought of it myself. And I hope it spreads cross-country.

Green Truck, based in Culver City, Calif., makes its way around the L.A. area doing catering gigs and events, but also just parking anywhere at all (a la Roach Coach) and letting the customers come to them. They can be located via GPS.

Menus are local, sustainable, organic and sassy – as evidenced by the name of the signature vegan burger, The Mother Trucker. Other items include grass-fed beef hot dogs, sustainable fish tacos, falafel and salads.

They seem to be doing everything right – the packaging is green, the commissary is solar-powered the trucks are powered by veggie oil, natch.

I can’t help thinking of extending this idea to different cuisines like ramen, sushi, donuts, bread, and pizza (there’s already a Korean truck in San Francisco called Seoul on Wheels). Why not expand into different concepts? Because if you really think about it, it’s not just a practical and fun idea. Done right, it can be a Deep Green Idea. Instead of 30 people getting in their cars and going somewhere for lunch, one truck drives to where the people are and serves them.

Itinerant sellers have been an important part of nearly every culture at one time or another. Once upon a time, there were rag men and cutlery sellers in the developing U.S. In Vietnam, they have roving Pho sellers (on foot). In Mexico, there are fruit trucks. We still have ice cream trucks in my neighborhood. When I stayed in the Caribbean, a bread truck came around every night. It certainly makes sense in places where clusters of people are dispersed and not everyone has a car. Places like our future suburbs.

Itinerant trucks, powered by alternative fuel, and selling eco-friendly necessities, could very well be part of the recipe for making our suburbs livable and community-oriented places as our current culture of driving, by necessity, comes to a close.

Image: Green Is Sexy

Vanessa Barrington

Vanessa Barrington is a San Francisco based writer and communications consultant specializing in environmental, social, and political issues in the food system.