The 100-Mile Diet

I heard this NPR story on a Vancouver couple, J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, who were stuck in a cabin in the Canadian backcountry in late summer and hatched a plan to live solely off the land around them. They would subsist entirely on locally grown food within a 100-mile radius. (Their website and blog is at http://www.100milediet.org)

"Local is the new organic." - J.B. MacKinnon

I thought it was a great story with a multitude of implications along with it - intersections with contemporary issues like environmentalism and globalization. The couple has set a wonderful example for all of us farmers' market devotees to emulate. Since the NPR story and their book tour this spring, they've started a fledgling movement of sorts. I think it's great. (Personal disclaimer: I'm no saint in the diet department - I don't eat entirely organic, nor am I a vegetarian - nonetheless, I aspire to improve, and am interested in the issues.)

My sister gets her "box" every week - a crate of organic produce from Pioneer Organics, a local Seattle outfit that does deliveries to your front door. They include a little newsletter with recipes and meal ideas, which she often utilizes. Sometimes I come over and help cook, and the meals are wonderful, the ingredients fantastic. You can really tell.

MacKinnon and Smith did acknowledge that some areas/regions are more bountiful than others. The Puget Sound and western Washington in general is exceedingly rich, both agriculturally and in wild bounty such as fish, and salmon as is well-known. I imagine if you lived in, say, Las Vegas or some deserty area, things would be different. And in urban areas pollution would be an issue. Therein lies one lesson for us: if many people were on a 100-mile diet, we might pay more attention to the kinds of pollution we put into our surroundings!

Again, I was especially intrigued by the 100 mile-diet's implications for our modern world. In the age of globalization, when an apple or banana likely will have travelled farther to our mouths than we have our selves ever physically travelled, there is something going on. Indeed, in their interview they mentioned what it means for community that 'local would be the new organic' - it would strengthen the local, community bonds. Much like a farmer's market en masse, applied wholesale to our Safeway-SUV, detached lifestyles.