If you’re a meat eater but are nonetheless concerned about the treatment of animals from farm to plate, you’ll want to check out the new database launched by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) found at EatHumane.org. It features more than 150 restaurants in 15 U.S. cities committed to serving humanely raised meat and dairy products that have not been factory farmed, a method which has been linked to environmental issues.

(Photo: CC2.0 tonythemisfit)

To build the database, WSPA selected 15 cities by region, metro population, and popularity as a tourist and business travel destination. WSPA experts scoured menus to identify meat, dairy and egg products that were sourced from places with a higher level of animal welfare than products from factory farms. Some labels that identify more humane standards: “USDA Organic,” “American Humane Certified,” “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Humane.” WSPA said it spoke with restaurant chefs to verify accuracy of the information.

Cities currently included in the list: Atlanta, Boston , Charleston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

I was quite pleased to see that many of my favorite restaurants in New York, Chicago and San Francisco made the list, including Spring Street Natural, Lula Café and Perbacco, to name one from each city, and hope to see even more venues and cities added in the near future.

WSPA wants to expand its database and encourages other U.S. restaurants that source humanely raised products to e-mail restaurants(at)wspausa(dot)org to apply to be added to the list. EatHumane.org also keeps a grocery store database to help users find brands of humanely labeled foods.

Like the rest of the world, the travel industry has picked up on the ever-growing sustainable travel trend. Recently, two airlines announced their plans to provide environmentally friendly flights.

Continental Airlines announced this past weekend that they will be the first carrier in the Americas to power a flight with sustainable biofuels. The company plans to fly a Boeing 737-800, with one of the two fuel tanks being filled with a 50/50 blend of traditional jet fuel and algae and jatropha plants. The plants are used as sustainable fuel sources, and don’t impact water resources or food crops.

Emirates airlines, besides announcing a new flight route between Dubai Interntaional Airport (DXB) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), plans to test its new eco program on the inaugural flight of this new route. The flight route will be “the longest green journey,” according to Emirates. The 16-hour long Emviormental flight, as it has been dubbed by the airline, is intended to save 2,000 gallons of fuel and 30,000 pounds of carbon emissions. Emirates worked closely in partnership with government agencies in five countries to plan this route.

In addition, the green flight will feature a number of new, fuel-saving measures, which include the following:

• A special pre-flight wash to minimize drag.

• The use of electricity while grounded instead of running an auxiliary power unit.

• Priority taxiing and landing positions.

• Optimized routing over the North Pole, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and more.

• All on-board newspapers, glasses, cans and paper will be collected for recycling.

• Use of the new and ultra eco-efficient Boeing 777-200LR.

Would environmentally friendly airline flights appeal to you if they became more available?