The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating

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Product Details

Author : Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780679314837
Edition : 1
Number of Pages : 272
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-10-02
Publisher : Vintage Canada
Release Date : 2007-10-02

ASIN : 0679314830

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.ca

It's not surprising that authors/partners Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon's attempt to eat locally for one year--that is, consume only foodstuffs cultivated and harvested within 100 miles of their Vancouver pad--became a sensation first on the web and then in book form. As the green movement catches fire worldwide, heaps of people are discovering with alarm (as the authors did) that most meals consumed by North Americans travel a planet-busting average of 1,500 miles from farm to plate.

While no one denies that New Zealand lamb served with Peruvian asparagus, California lettuce and German Riesling is mighty fine and ridiculously affordable at present, it's also a fact that the cost detailed on the supermarket receipt does not reflect the true cost (environmentally, politically, socially, spiritually) of hauling that bounty across the globe.

Indeed, Smith and MacKinnon's local (and thus, seasonal) eating experiment reveals all sorts of truths that are disturbing, debatable, fiercely readable and enormously important for the welfare of our environment. Readers are bound to see themselves in the authors' shoes throughout 100-Mile Diet, never more so than at the start of the trial when Smith and MacKinnon hit the local grocery store looking for chow that meets their criteria.

"There was nothing there for us. Nothing. It would be a year without ice cream. A year without salad dressing. A year without all-purpose flour, soup mix, olives, olive oil, Miracle Whip. Without ketchup, Cheerios, Peek Freans Fruits Cremes, peanut butter, Rip-L-Chips, Philadelphia cream cheese, Tabasco sauce, Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder, creamed corn, Minute Main orange juice, no-name cola, Eggos, bulk pine nuts, Orville Redenbacher's popcorn, chipotle peppers, High Liner Multigrain Tilapia Fillets…"

"A single supermarket today may carry 45,000 different items; 17,000 new food products are introduced each year in the United States. Yet here we were in the modern horn of plenty, and almost nothing came from the people or the landscape that surrounds us. How had our food system come to this?"

Underpinning the drama of the authors' quest to discover whether eating locally is even possible is their own 14-year romantic relationship, which teeters on the edge of collapse throughout the year. The 100-Mile Diet is a revelation and required reading for anyone who eats. Cheap grub will never look so cheap again.--Kim Hughes

Customer Reviews

Great Food For Thought (2008-04-04)

I loved this book! Well written, funny, thought provoking - and all without being holier than thou. I have recommended it to many, and now find myself checking all food sources - just why does our food have to travel so far, hmmm?

Very inspiring, and very well written (2008-01-08)

This very personal account is a very inspiring and motivational book. While reading this, I couldn't stop telling people about the ideas, the stories and the passion of what i was reading. I checked the local farm market schedule midway through the book and am very excited to be going this week.I think some other people are missing the point. This book isn't trying to convert everyone to a local diet. They don't always make the most environmentally friendly decisions, but it's the connection with the food and where it comes from, that's what is the moral of this story.Between knowing your own fisherman, to making your own salt... to just knowing the season of what is fresh and local. The simple concept of 'who knows what asparagus season is' hit home... and I immediately downloaded the local crops information.Too often, we are trying to cut spending and we hurt for it. Paying good money for good food is something definately worthwhile. I'm not going to pickle my vegetables, and live on beets for the winter... but it's a story that really makes me question what I'm eating, and where it comes from.Consequently, I haven't been to a fast food place since reading this. Much better of an argument for me than fast food nation, or supersize this. The was truly a gem.

How shall we live? (2007-05-31)

Is it possible to eat locally, and what would it be like? To answer that question, the authors embarked on an experiment: a year of local eating.But why eat locally? The authors start with the obvious carbon-footprint reason - the 1,500 or more miles that a typical meal travels to our plates, a number only made possible by cheap oil. Other more subtle reasons quickly emerge, and much of the interest of the book comes from exploring these reasons.The book is the product of two specific people, living and writing in a specific place. It is a personal narrative, and needed to be written in the first person. This is done by simply alternating perspective - first chapter MacKinnon, second chapter Smith, etc. It works, and is far preferable to the third person they resort to for the short epilogue, or a fused first person where "I" becomes meaningless. (Yes, I've seen it done.) The format is straightforward: a month-by-month diary. Food is shared with friends; family crises, work assignments and relationship troubles come when they will. All are woven into the story, all somehow adding to the themes of the book. Also added to the recipe is a significant amount of research and interview: scientists, farmers, fishers and natives are given a voice.The specific place is Vancouver, on Canada's Pacific coast. European civilization came late to this region, and not all the changes to it's ecology have yet been forgotten. As a resident of the same city, my familiarity with the area certainly enhanced my enjoyment of the book. (But no, in case you're wondering, I don't know the authors.) However, readers in other parts of the world will be compensated with the challenge of thinking about what constitutes local eating for their region, and how the experiment would be easier, more difficult, or otherwise different for them.There are no villains in this book. The authors tell us how things are, and what they can learn of how they were. The reader is left to ponder the role of industrial food producers, governments, oil companies - and us, the consumers. The authors are conducting an experiment, not trying to form a new religion. 100 miles was their definition of local, not the only one. One chocolate bar or one working lunch at a Thai restaurant does not send them (or you) to hell. They don't claim it's easy for city-dwellers to eat locally today - they describe the challenges as well as the pleasures and possibilities. (Just because a species doesn't grow here, doesn't mean it can't.) They don't tell you that you have to do what they did (and let's face it, not everybody has their commitment, resourcefulness or culinary skill), but they do give you reasons why you might aspire to. They don't claim that everyone in Vancouver, or the rest of the world, could switch to a 100-mile diet overnight. The point is that they did it, and they wrote a book with the power to make you think.By choosing to embark on their adventure, the authors have explored a parallel universe of local eating. By writing about it, and with with such skill, humour, intelligence and accessibility, they have become our guides to that possible universe. In the words of my university's PhD regulations, they have made a "contribution to knowledge". They deserve our thanks.

A great story, well told, but a fundamentally flawed idea (2007-05-20)

I followed the original serial of articles in the Tyee (an online newspaper) and felt that the premise behind the 100 mile diet is in itself inherently flawed. Notwithstanding that you can in fact eat everything you need from what Nabhan dubbed your local foodshed, it ignores the reality that the vast majority of people don't have the time and effort available to them to make this plan work. Further, if the entire population of Greater Vancouver made this switch, it cannot be sustained. And that is its fundamental failing.While the authors are very engaging and their story is very well told, a far better book, in my opinion, is "Coming Home to Eat" by Gary Paul Nabhan. He too writes about his eating experiences over the course of a year, but has a much more realistic view.For one thing, Nabhan, who lives in Arizona, uses a 400 mile radius for his foodshed, which for Vancouverites would allow the cattle from the interior, the wines from the Okanagan, and a much broader array of fresh produce - the weekly Farmer's Markets in Vancouver provide a huge bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables that for the most part simply do not grow in Vancouver.For another, Nabhan further allows 1 out of 5 things to come from outside the radius; Nabhan rightly recognizes that not everything can (or even should) be supplied locally. Even the ancient Greeks traded olive oil for wheat across the Mediterranean basin.I respect the authors' point of view, and strongly endorse the concept of seasonal, local, and fresh. However, no matter how engaging their story is, it's unfortunately not a workable idea. Nabhan's is.

Ohhh I can't wait! (2007-04-26)

I have only read exerpts and reviews, but from these I can say -- without a doubt -- that these two authors have crafted a seriously engaging, entertaining, and fascinating account of their year eating locally. I can't wait to get a copy and really dig in. Full disclosure: I've known and worked on-and-off with JB MacKinnon for about 5 years now, and I'm infinitely impressed with his storytelling and ability to craft sensational reads. The trend towards local food, towards taking care of our planet by taking care of where our meals come from is probably one of the most important of this generation. And in Alisa and JB, you couldn't find more fitting or inspiring protagonists.

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