100-Mile Diet Launched!

[Oscar]

100-Mile Diet

http://100milediet.org/

May 31, 2006

Friends,

When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has
typically traveled at least 1,500 miles from farm to plate. Last spring, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chose to confront this unsettling statistic with an experiment. For one year, they would buy or gather their food and drink from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia. The 100-Mile Diet was born.

Response to their new take on local eating has been overwhelming. And
today, Smith and MacKinnon are building on this energy with the
launch of a public campaign at 100milediet.org

Will you pledge to get involved and help grow the local-food movement?

<http://100milediet.org/i/joinhere>

At the site, you'll find an online guide for anyone looking to dig into local eating; 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.

Help make 100milediet.org a locus where local-food enthusiasts can
get the information they need to try their own lifestyle experiments,
and to exchange ideas and develop campaigns.

The goal is to grow the membership through the summer. Once you've
joined up, spread the word to friends and family. We've even put
together a fun little tool to help: <http://100milediet.org/i/send>

There will be lots to keep tabs on in the coming months as we ramp up
this campaign. Together, lets turn an idea into a movement.

Exciting times ahead,

Alisa, James and the 100-Mile Diet Team.

[Oscar]

Philadelphia journalist Elisa Ludwig took up the 100 mile diet for 12 days to learn more about the foods she eats.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1463.cfm

The everyday-American meal contains an assortment of foods that have traveled an average of 2,000 miles to get from farm to fork.

For those concerned about energy conservation, greenhouse gases, and oil dependence, the types of food we choose to eat are as important as the types of cars we choose to drive (or avoid).

Industrial agriculture and long-distance food transportation generate between 20-25% of all climate destabilizing greenhouse gases in the U.S.

Given this fact, buying food that is locally or regionally grown can dramatically reduce energy consumption and greenhouse pollution.

The local food movement has received a recent boost with the new trend of the "100 mile diet," the brainchild of Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.

"We're the kind of people that ride our bikes everywhere, so we wondered why we were going to all this effort when our food was flying around the world," says Smith.

The diet trend, which requires participants to only eat foods grown within a 100 mile radius, is catching on across North America.

Philadelphia journalist Elisa Ludwig took up the 100 mile diet for 12 days to learn more about the foods she eats.

"If eating local is a moral imperative, then every meal is an opportunity to do the right thing," says Ludwig, who kept a daily journal of the experience.

Read her journal entries here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1463.cfm