Eating local: a new take on an old theme

The 100 Mile Diet: A year of local eating by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
Toronto: Random House of Canada, 2007

Reviewed by Annie McKitrick

In her 1971 book “Diet for a Small Planet,” Frances Moore Lappé wrote that “feeding the earth’s people is more profoundly a political and economic problem then an agricultural one and that you must help to solve the problem.”

The 100 Mile Diet is a new take on this theme. This book is about a couple who made the decision to eat food only produced within 100 miles of their home. Fortunately they live in Vancouver, not in Prince George, so with some effort, they manage to find enough varieties of local food to meet their nutritional needs, with an occasional lapse. The story of their food foraging and culinary adventures is interspersed with discussions on how we humans are spoiling the earth.

By the time I read the book, I had heard the authors discuss their adventures numerous times in the media, and found the book itself to be too focused on the authors’ emotional state and their “yuppie” lifestyle. It was clear from the book that only those with a lot of disposable income can successfully eat a 100 mile diet, even in Vancouver with close proximity to the ocean and Fraser Valley farmers.

The book does create awareness of the environmental cost of all our food and the need to preserve agricultural land and support local farmers and food producers. It has sparked 100 mile dinners and activities throughout Canada.

While the premise of only eating food produced within 100 miles of your home is an interesting and worthwhile endeavour, it is impossible for most. So it may be time instead to find our copies of “Recipes for a Small Planet” by Ellen Buchman Ewalt and “More-with-less Cookbook” by Doris Janzen Longacre and adapt the recipes to use as much locally produced foods as possible.

CPJ board member Annie McKitrick is a local food enthusiast who is blessed with the opportunity to walk every Saturday through the woods to a local organic farm. She works to research and promote the Social Economy.