Frederica Mathewes-Green sends along news of something she encountered on a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest: The 100-Mile Diet. It's an idea hatched by two Vancouverites who wanted to limit themselves to supporting and developing a local food culture. The idea is to only eat things grown within 100 miles of where you live. Here are 13 reasons to do the diet.
Any of you tried this? What do you think?
The 100-Mile Diet
Tuesday February 13, 2007
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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There was a book a few years back, called "Salt" (I forget the author) which detailed the ingenuity people have excercised over millenia in preserving, storing and shipping food (and for which salt was essential). BBC Radio 4 (yes, I realize listening to that means importing electrons... ;) had an intriguing series on food preservation a few years ago called "Potted History" - sadly, I don't think it's available on the website any longer. I just requested Sue Shepherd's "Pickled, Potted and Canned" from the library - has anybody read it? I'm also getting ready to drag out my wife's old copy of "Putting Food By" in preparation for this CSA season.
Erik--mostly off topic, but you might be interested in the FAQ for the google food preserving group. It's at http://rfpfaq.jaclu.com/rfpFAQ.htm and has a TON of information regarding preserving just about anything. New techniques, old ones, unsafe ones, illegal ones (distillation), etc. Not sure how many pages it would be if printed--it is lengthy and comprehensive.
Connie, Thanks! Not OT, I don't think... food preservation is an essential part of eating locally.
Hi, BKH2007: One group that's been working with native Hawaiians is at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. There's a well-cited medical article on it but I can't find the full text; just an abstract. One advantage I *can* see of an "eat locally" focus is that genetically, different people are adapted to different diets. Some people (native Hawaiians, Native Americans) seem to be particularly sickened by the "standard" American diet, which probably reflects some genetic predisposition. Similarly, I wonder if the reason Americans themselves aren't sickened by it, is because those of us with Northern European ancestry might just be better off with a high-exercise, high-protein and fat lifestyle (one with very few carbs - just like our hunter-gatherer-wanderer ancestors.) I didn't mean to come off as a purist or crank in my comments (and certainly didn't intend to contribute to this thread devolving into a contest of who was less of a hypocrite.) One advantage of local eating is that one gives less $$ to Big Food - which really doesn't have an interest in people of *any* background being optimally healthy.
wow
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