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Clearly, food is a hot topic these days. You see it constantly in the cultural dominance of things like the Food Channel, Martha Stewart, or The Iron Chef. But more fittingly, thankfully even, you also see a boon of discussions that look closely (we're talking maybe even academically) at our relationship to the food we eat. And a lot of this dialogue has been spurred on by the existence of well written and engaging books by respected writers such as Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) and Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life) (not too shabby!)
Locally in Vancouver, we're fortunate to have a similarly buzz worthy bestseller. This one is called "The 100-Diet Mile" and is written by Vancouver journalists Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. Basically, its premise is to see if one can subsist on a diet generated solely by the food produced within a 100-mile radius of your home. And along the way, let's see if the narrative can be used to examine the sometimes heady, sometimes mind boggling realities of food politics, economics and culture.
Suffice to say, the book rocks! In fact, it double rocks for us at UBC, because a lot of the anecdotes involve familiar BC locales:
"On March 21, the first day of spring, we took a vow to live with the rhythms of the land as our ancestors did. For one year we would only buy food and drink for home consumption that was produced within 100 miles of our home, a circle that takes in all the fertile Fraser Valley, the southern Gulf Islands and some of Vancouver Island, and the ocean between these zones. This terrain well served the European settlers of a hundred years ago, and the First Nations population for thousands of years before."This may sound like a lunatic Luddite scheme, but we had our reasons..."
To get taste of more, you can also see the series presented at the always great, Tyee.
The 100-mile diet
Anyway, James and Alisa are going to share their experiences with us at UBC, under the gorgeous roof of the UBC Chan Centre. Go get a ticket and check off your lunch hour on Friday November 23rd.
Environment
Comments
No Coffee, no Chocolate.
Those two are deal breakers for me :-)
Posted by: Robert Thille | October 29, 2007 2:12 PM
Here in California that's not as hard. One of the Google cafes is called Cafe 150 and everything comes from within 150 miles. I have to imagine though that this is quite a bit harder in other parts of the US.
Posted by: JYB | October 29, 2007 2:23 PM
And what if somebody (like me) lives in Parma (Italy)? Where there are ham and cheese factories? A diet made only of parmesan cheese and Parma Ham.... wow :D
Posted by: Pier | October 29, 2007 2:41 PM
Phew! Upon seeing the first few words of the title of this post, I had thought it would be about dieting by embarking on 100-mile endurance runs (that's 162 km to you, Prof Ng).
I think that eating food from within a 100 mile radius of my home will be far less challenging.
Posted by: Abel Pharmboy | October 29, 2007 4:08 PM
I think I might try the zero-local diet. I'd get lots of exotic foods that can't be efficiently grown in an arid northern climate, and the knowledge that in some small way I'm helping boost third world economies. I'd reduce deforestation and improve the local water table.
Posted by: RyanG | October 29, 2007 6:02 PM
Definitely not possible where I live: Anchorage, Alaska. All we really produce via agriculture in the area are carrots, potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, a few squashes, and milk from a dairy that operates at massive losses and was saved from shutdown only by controvercial subsidies by the state government. The rest would be the wildlife (salmon, moose, duck), the hunting and fishing of which is limited mostly to those living in rural areas.
Posted by: TheTwistedOne | October 29, 2007 6:12 PM
You've got the name of the book backwards: it's (I would gather) the 100-Mile Diet, not the 100-Diet Mile. That would locate it somewhere in California.
Posted by: Susannah | October 29, 2007 8:23 PM
Earlier in the year (May - June) the local CBC followed Wendy Martin White and her husband as they tried to follow a 100-mile diet in Winnipeg. As I recall (I was unable to find a link), they did quite well, discovering some unexpected local produce and stores, but found fresh fruit to be a problem.
Posted by: Richard Simons | October 29, 2007 8:33 PM
Well, I could try, but then I'm fortunate enough to live in Central Texas. I wouldn't even have to give up beer and wine!
But, um, yeah, coffee and chocolate are dealbreakers. I only buy locally roasted beans, does that count?
Come to think of it, so is fruit. I'd wind up with scurvy.
Posted by: Constance Reader | October 30, 2007 11:40 AM