The 100 Mile Diet

[Peter the eater]

The 100 Mile Diet is a new book, a website and a bit of a grassroots movement which seems to be getting a lot of media attention. In a nutshell, the two authors from Vancouver decided to only eat food that comes from close to home. Here's the opening line from the Webpage:

When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles—call it "the SUV diet. On the first day of spring, 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chose to confront this unsettling statistic with a simple experiment. For one year, they would buy or gather their food and drink from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia."

Pretty compelling if you ask me. What would your meal look like?

[dcress]

Pretty compelling if you ask me. What would your meal look like?

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It wouldn't look good Peter.

These sustainable agriculture theories all but fall apart in large metropolitan areas.

Unless the land surrounding New York City is repurposed, the area will remain dependent on food that is trucked/shipped in.

[Peter the eater]

Pretty compelling if you ask me. What would your meal look like?

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It wouldn't look good Peter.

These sustainable agriculture theories all but fall apart in large metropolitan areas.

Unless the land surrounding New York City is repurposed, the area will remain dependent on food that is trucked/shipped in.

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Just for fun I fired up Google Earth and I drew a 100 mile radius from Central Park NYC.

You are right, it doesn't look good. You barely get to the SW corner of Massachusetts, and heading the other way hardly looks like "the breadbasket of America". Going east out to sea might still get you some nice fish.

Incidentally, the authors claim to have done a 100 mile meal in NYC (although I don't know the details) as well as in some other "extreme" locations.

I'll bet it was not that long ago when just about everybody ate a 100 mile diet out of pure necessity.

[dockhl]

Peter~

I think we all found that it isn't easy.

We have a topic HERE

(several merged :Living on the 100 Mile Diet) and I was looking to have someone join me in it last summer here in Central Coastal CA.

Also, phlawless had a blog last summer where she tried it in North Carolina.

I'd still like to try it !

Good luck~

Kathy

[Peter the eater]

Peter~

I think we all found that it isn't easy.

We have a topic HERE

(several merged :Living on the 100 Mile Diet) and I was looking to have someone join me in it last summer here in Central Coastal CA.

Also, phlawless had a blog last summer where she tried it in North Carolina.

I'd still like to try it !

Good luck~

Kathy

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Thanks for that - I did several eGullet site searches and turned up none of these.

I was a bit surprised at the apparent lack of references - I guess now that the hardcover is out and a big book tour is happening (I believe the authors are in California today) there will be renewed interest.

[dockhl]

the eGullet search engine strikes again ! (I did, too......only turned up your post, but I remembered starting a topic myself)

I still think it is very interesting; the Thanksgiving challenge was fascinating. In NYC don't you have access to some good farmer's markets? I'm still trying to figure out who has local poulty and wheat. (I've found beef and pork and eggs.)

K