Food marketers are quickly becoming key players in marketing sustainability. They’ve demonstrated their own commitment by installing solar panels, bioswales and green roofs; selling wind power credit gift cards at the front end; and even getting consumers involved by promoting reusable shopping bags.

It’s getting tasty, too. One of the more edible stories to cross our desk in recent months is the partnership between supernatural retailer Whole Foods Market; Bloomsberry & Co., a creative packager of premium chocolate; and Terrapass, a carbon offset marketing firm. The brainchild of this collaboration is called Climate Change Chocolate — a product is immediate gratification not only as a food, but as a way consumers can instantly start lessening their environmental impact. It starts with the inner wrapper. Each one depicts, in graphics and words, 15 ways the buyer can reduce his or her carbon footprint. Suggestions include switching off unnecessary lights and using a clothesline instead of a dryer.

And, in case you’re in it just for the chocolate, Terrapass has got you covered. For each consumer purchase, the firm will purchase exactly 133 pounds of verified carbon offsets. Why 133? That’s the current, average per-capita share of global warming emissions Americans create each day (we don’t want to know how). Even the facilities where the chocolate is manufactured have been retooled so they’re operating carbon-neutral when they make the bars.

Whole Foods is enjoying some exclusivity with the chocolates. Participating stores are selling bars with a wind farm motif on the outer box; while other retailers can merchandise them with a footprint logo on the box. Each one retails for $4.95.

Now, if they can just invent a food that will offset the 133 pounds you stand to gain from eating all of this environmentally beneficial chocolate.

The Food and Drug Administration is holding its first ever hearing on sodium regulation today in the nation’s capital. This is mainly an informational session, but that shouldn’t downplay the significance of the occasion. Sodium has long enjoyed GRAS status, but this first-ever hearing could remove the Generally Recognized As Safe designation.

For the medical community and watchdog groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, this hearing is a big victory. For years they’ve decried overconsumption of the popular flavor agent and have prodded the agency to take action. Numerous studies have subsequently backed them up. The CSPI has been particularly persistent, appealing to the FDA regularly over the past three decades, and going so far as to sue them twice — in 1983 and 2005. Armed with evidence and overwhelming support from the scientific community, CSPI and others want the FDA to reclassify sodium and limit the amount food retailers and restaurants can use. They’d also like the agency to require warning labels detailing the health hazards of consuming too much salt.

Studies show there’s an urgent need for regulation. The average American currently consumes around 4,000mg of sodium per day. That’s bad news, considering the recommended daily amount is almost half that. According to the American Medical Association, cutting the amount of salt companies now use by half could save 150,000 lives each year.

So will the FDA take action? If change happens, it’ll come slowly. That’s because sodium is entrenched in our food system, to the extent that we’re not even aware of its presence. Just reading the amounts found in most processed foods like frozen meals is enough to make you thirsty. Even seemingly healthy items like Caesar salads can hold as much as 1,500mg. Please pass the water.

Clorox Co. just received approval from federal regulators to close on its acquisition of Burt’s Bees, the personal products company that makes lip balm, soaps and other skin products. The $925 million deal approved by the Federal Trade Commission took many in the industry by surprise when it was announced last month, since Burt’s Bees always exhibited a strong independent streak — certainly not a hive player.

But it was no more a surprise than Kellogg’s quiet announcement earlier this month that it had snapped up both Bear Naked, the natural/organic granola company; and California-based Wholesome & Hearty Foods Co., which markets vegetarian foods under the Gardenburger brand. This deal, worth a combined $122 million, only came to light when Kellogg’s filed its quarterly 10-Q report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It seems the the whole health business is poised for more surprises in 2008. The question is: Will large corporations come out from behind the curtain and start providing the transparency health and wellness consumers have come to expect from the companies making their food?

It might come as a surprise to learn that, until this week, the American Heart Association didn’t have any criteria spelling out limits on trans fats. It’s not that the organization was ignoring them; the problem was that the federal government never established a Daily Value for them.

That’s about to change. Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, the AHA will require all products bearing its well-known heart-check logo to meet new criteria specifically developed for trans fatty acids. Officials say trans fats in any approved food item will be capped at 0.5 grams per serving — an amount that’s generally recognized (even by the government) as zero. Until this point, the amount of this uber-fat was simply lumped them in with every other fat. As long as the total amount of saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol was under 3 grams per serving, the AHA considered its requirements met.

The changes reflect a growing awareness of trans fats, a manmade product created when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil in a process called hydrogenation. The food industry likes hydrogenation because it increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. But faced with record levels of obesity and diabetes among Americans, the Food and Drug Administration began requiring manufacturers to break out the content of trans fats on a product’s Nutrition Facts panel as of Jan. 2006. By joining with its new limits, the AHA is answering consumer advocates who criticized the group for not keeping up with the times.

A list created by the FDA shows just how pervasive trans fats have become in our food supply: Americans consume roughly 6 grams of trans fats a day, most of them coming from cake, cookies and crackers. The AHA’s new criterion will apply to both categories in the organization’s Food Certification Program: Standard and Whole Grain. Standard Certification will basically limit trans fats to less than 0.5 grams per Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (RACC), as well as per labeled serving size.

The AHA developed separate requirements for whole grain foods, which customarily contain more of the so-called “good” or unsaturated fats. However, the trans fat criteria is still less than 0.5 grams per RACC and per labeled serving size.

Local sourcing in the supermarket industry is a complex, imperfect process. However, there are often happy endings that, unfortunately, don’t get publicized often enough. Take the story behind the local produce programs at two Virginia-based supermarkets, Ukrop’s and K-VA-T.

Both chains started sourcing locally nearly 10 years ago, and both grew by buying through a regional cooperative called Appalachian Harvest, which gathers products from farmers throughout southwest Virginia and northwest Tennessee. Working through intermediaries like this is nothing new to the supermarket industry, where the emphasis is on centralization as much as possible. But Appalachian Harvest’s story is a unique one. Started in 1995, the organization is largely comprised of former tobacco farmers who, seeing their subsidies dwindle throughout the ‘90s, decided it was high time they make a switch to food farming (federal subsidies for tobacco eventually ended altogether in 2004).

Partnering with retailers like Ukrop’s and K-VA-T was ideal. All three parties were looking to grow, and they were willing to think outside the box to do it. The former tobacco growers, like so many others in the region who found themselves out of work at the time, wanted desperately to stay in the farming business. In joining together, Appalachian Harvest’s farmers would become an authentic piece of the local movement, growing the tomatoes, lettuce, butter beans, squash, and more that Ukrop’s and K-VA-T customers wanted. Al Oliver, Ukrop’s produce manager, said he started out sourcing from five AH growers. Now, he buys from around 30. “It’s been a real success story with what they’ve done out there,” is how he puts it. K-VA-T CEO Steve Smith echoes that sentiment, crediting the health of his local produce program — which he says is almost 10% of the entire category — to tobacco country’s determined growers.

The interest in local products is booming right now. This is both an opportunity and something of a quandary for the supermarket industry. After all, these retailers want to take advantage of the trend, but it goes against their “buy it cheap, pile it high” business scheme. To operate a truly authentic local program requires supermarkets to adapt their business model to accommodate area farmers like those with Appalachian Harvest. While such changes might hurt short-term profits, the long-term benefit is better food, more robust relationships and a transparency that customers appreciate — and buy into. It becomes a different way of feeding the bottom line.

Who doesn’t love a friendly debate? Here, we’ve put Wal-Mart’s recently issued sustainability progress report up against that of a group calling itself the Big Box Collaborative, a consortium of watchdog groups. You may recall that in October 2005, Wal-Mart committed to three large sustainability goals: to be supplied 100% by renewable energy, to create zero waste and to sell products that sustain our resources and the environment. We’ve provided excerpts from each side as they summarize a couple of the big issues. Remember, we’re just the messenger:

On employee pay and benefits:

WM: At the global, national and regional levels, we pay Associates competitive wages and we find that the jobs we offer are truly needed

BBC: Wal-Mart’s CEO claims his vision for sustainability goes beyond green products to “people who live sustainable lives.” In reality, the company continues to squeeze workers and suppliers in a global “race to the bottom” in wages, benefits and working conditions.

On carbon neutrality:

WM: Ultimately, we see our carbon footprint as extending beyond our own buildings and trucks to include our suppliers and customers. By doing so, we could have a net negative effect on absolute carbon.

BBC: According to the Institute for Policy Studies and Friends of the Earth, the company’s supply chain creates more than 40 times the emissions the firm says it is aiming to eliminate. Combined with emissions from its retail operations, Wal-Mart’s greenhouse gases are the equivalent of about half the amount produced annually by France.

On the role of organics:

WM: Providing our customers with affordable access to items they want – such as organically grown produce and fair trade coffee – is another focus of our efforts.

BBC: The vast majority of all organic farmers and food marketers operate with high organic integrity. Wal-Mart’s interest in cashing in on organic’s stellar reputation—on the cheap—places ethical retailers, their suppliers, and organic farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

On Wal-Mart’s new packaging scorecard, which seeks to reduce packaging by 5% by the year 2013:

WM: With more than 60,000 suppliers around the world, the impact of this 5 percent reduction could be equal to removing 213,000 trucks from the road and preventing 66.7 million gallons of diesel fuel from being burned, per year. Not only will this benefit the environment, but it could save our supply chain more than $3.4 billion.

BBC: While we have seen improvements in Wal-Mart’s packaging designs, we have not yet seen how the new Packaging Scorecard will address fiber sourcing and how it will drive sustainable packaging down through the retailer to its suppliers and ultimately down to the forests of origin around the world.

On community impact:

WM: As we grow, we want to ensure that we do so in a way that is in tandem with the needs of our customers and communities. We want to work harder to ensure that our real estate process looks at both the quantity and quality of the stores we are developing and takes into account the desires of the community.

BBC: Wal-Mart’s massive scale undermines the small, independent businesses that form the fabric of healthy, sustainable communities. And despite the company’s claims to the contrary, numerous studies indicate that Wal-Mart destroys more jobs when it comes into a community than it creates.

Quick-service restaurants aren’t exempt from the health and wellness movement, even if their menu offerings are the antithesis of better-for-you foods. The Big Three — McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s — have tried to include more healthful choices, with mixed results (you had only 10 months to try Wendy’s fruit salads before they were pulled).

The QSR segment rarely makes apologies for what it is; after all, not every consumer wants to eat better, all the time. But there are always new operators testing the waters, looking for a point of differentiation. In California — the birthplace of the modern fast food industry — there’s a new concept that sells only grass-fed organic beef hamburgers. Burger Lounge currently has two locations in Southern California, in La Jolla and San Diego. The menu notes that the benefits of grass-fed beef go beyond simple nutrition. There’s talk about how grass-fed helps to reduce global-warming, and balance soil fertility. Those who aren’t interested in beef can try the turkey burger, while those looking to avoid meat completely can sample the vegetarian “quinoa” burger. The menu also boasts fresh salads, hand-cut French fries and onion rings.