Who is anthropomorphizing here?
"Sustainable is all well and good but the realities are that profitable drives sustainable, not the other way around. " Huh?
There is A LOT of discussion about the cost/profitablity of organic foods. What the basic consumer doesn't realize is the cost of conventionally grown food. In my mind the biggest costs are :1)cleaning up the environment, 2)healthcare (diabetics, overweight, ADD...). These are not outright costs but come, bascally, from taxes. First let me say I am generalizing way too much to defend my next statement but ...these are issues not created by "organic/sustainable", yet this system is still be taxed to help support the conventional mess. Pay now or pay later?
You can't change the world, but you could:
serve a split seafood entree with a least one environmentally friendly item
Oceans Alive - Best & Worst Seafood Choices
switch to heritage pork and cut the serving size if your cost is up
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy - Conservation Priority List
switch to cane sugar (beets will be GMO's in 2008)
ask your vendor where your produce is from and don't buy it from another continent!
If your fronthouse is good, or if you have good marketing, sustainable is such a hot topic you can take a few baby steps now and you might be suprised how fast the news will travel.