100-Mile Diet Launches Website
by Ruben Anderson– Vancouver, BC on 04.26.06
Vancouverites Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon have just launched an exciting expansion of their 100-Mile Diet, a new website. From the press release...
...Smith and MacKinnon launched 100MileDiet.org, an online guide for anyone looking to dig into local eating. The site features a unique mapping tool to instantly find your own 100-mile ‘foodshed,’ tips for tracking down local markets and farms, unusual food facts, and the couple’s 11-part series on a year of local eating.Smith and MacKinnon finished their one-year trial on March 20, 2006, but plan to continue to shop at farmers’ markets, tend their community garden plot, and preserve local foods for the winter. “We started the 100-Mile Diet because so many people feel disconnected from where their food comes from,” said Smith. “Now eating locally is a part of who we are, and we didn’t want to see it end.”
A book version of their adventure, The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, will be published in New York and Toronto in spring 2007.
::100-Mile Diet Website. See also: ::Living On The 100 Miles Diet, ::Living On The 100 Miles Diet, Part 2, ::100 Mile Diet, Meet Oliver Rowe: Restaurant Serves Local Food
I just wanted to say that I think this is a really cool idea that has inspired me to also buy more produce from local farms. I still have a ways to go, but I do believe locallity is the future (and the past) of many great crops. Some things inevitably must still be shipped long distances, but in bulk transport, I still feel this is ok.
Living in the heart of Amish country, about the only things I won't be able to get are tropical fruits, coffee and chocolate. Heck, even fish from the Chesapeake are within range.
Shame there isn't something like this for those of us living outside North America :o(
I am delighted to find this site. I want to introduce you to another new site based on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. This site is an island response to the 100-Mile Diet. 20 years ago, Vancouver Island produced 90% of it's food requirements. Now it is down to 3%. We are inviting farmers and other food producers and value added producers to sign in and register their products. Consumers can use the search form to find local producers. There is information on local news and events, education and discussion pages.
We believe everyone should have access to healthy, locally grown foods and that food producers deserve a decent price and a decent lifestyle.
Please come and have a look. I will link to you and request a reciprocal link.
www.vancouverislanddiet.com
People, in so many "developing" countries use this method of eating - that is consuming food not too far from where they live and resourcefully growing a lot of their own food. I am glad the "developed" world is catching on to this concept and hope it won't be just a passing fad.