So I've been hearing about this concept lately, made popular by Barbara Kingsolver in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about the 100-mile diet. I first heard about it last summer, when I was working for an organic farmer who was reading the book during our lunch-hour, and would read passages aloud at the table, as we ate yummy produce that we had grown. I've always been a big fan of supporting local farmers, since my dad, one of my house-mates, and most of my male cousins and uncles are farmers. In short, I know a lot of farmers, and they are some of the loveliest, most genuine people you'll ever meet. All of my house-mates, except one have worked on farms at one point or another, and two of us grew up on farms. So we are all well-aware of what it takes to grow food, and the environmental impact of growing food. Also, when I was traveling in Africa I realized that much of what Africans where growing was not to feed their own malnourished children, but rather was shipped to richer, European nations. This was in effort to pay off loans to the world-bank, which they had acquired while being colonialized. In my world-view, this is akin to families in the US who had formerly owned slaves finding the families descended from the slaves and demanding to be paid back for them shipping their families from Africa and "housing" them for so many years. In essence, this is what the world-bank is doing.
So, needless to say, I am outraged that some of the food I may be eating could be coming from developing places (like my precious avocados from Mexico,) where people generally don't get enough to eat. The potato famine my ancestors endured came about in a similar fashion; basically, Ireland was growing enough food for everyone, but it was all being shipped to England...many Irish landed in jail for trying to steal food off of cargo ships being loaded up with food for England...
So it is time for me to start "practicing what I preach," that is, eating foods not acquired from peoples who are struggling to feed themselves (sadly, this means no more avocados from Mexico...) I am lucky that I live in a place like Portland...not only do I live in a climate that is ideal for growing foods of all sorts year-round, but we've got farmers markets coming out of our ears, because luckily, I'm not the only one who feels outraged at the food situation in the world these days.
So this is day one of the adventure; today I went to the store and bought a dozen eggs that cost $4.35 rather then the eighteen eggs that cost $3.00, because the eighteen pack I usually buy was from California, not inside the 100-mile radius I want to keep within. The California eggs where free-range, organic, grain fed eggs..but still, not local enough.
I've decided not to be too strict with the rules so that I can actually do this; for example, if I get food from a dumpster, it doesn't matter where it came from as I am not actually supporting the company with my dollars that brought the food to Portland. Roadkill counts as local as well (one assumes that the animal lived somewhere within 100-miles of where I pick it up.) Also, at potlucks I am not going to ask if the ingredients in every dish are local, I'll just be proud that whatever I brought will be. This only applies to food I buy myself; if I'm voting with my dollars, I'm gonna be sure those dollar count!
Love ya,
Carrot
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How long do you think you Will sustain this?
I never really thought of how my food got to me. I always figured that the far away farmers would grow, eat and sell what is left. To ship all the goods as money makers to pay of 'tarded debts and continue starving is ridiculous and what your doing is amazing.
Given my desert location with only desert for about a hundred mile radius, I can not go with you on this journey. I do like your statements and point. I do hope to go on a similar jurney and keep my food purchases as local as possible. I hope to keep within my region but if there are still no products then I will have to widen my wings to american made.
Good luck and I look forward to your road kill adventures.
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
As I said, I'm lucky to live in Portland because of those very things...this type of lifestyle would not be available in the desert...which is part of the reason I chose not to live in the desert..I was looking at a midwifery school in New Mexico (a state I love, by the way,) but it seemed weird to me to live someplace where food can't really be grown, the water table is low as it is, and life on the human city-scale just doesn't seem sustainable...but at the same time, I'm glad folks do live in the desert, or it would be harder for me to visit the places I love.
Anyway, I could do this indefinately, if I continue to live in Portland...I really wouldn't be going without, except perhaps feeling a little bummed about exotic stuff like avocadoes from time to time...lots of people in Portland already eat this way, and they don't really feel deprived because nearly every type of food you might want is grown and produced here. Some of my housemates already eat this way, so this isn't a really big leap for me, it just takes a little more research then just going to the store and buying whatever. Luckily, some co-ops in town only buy things grown within that 100 mile radius, so if I shop at a co-op, I wouldn't even have to research! One such co-op is twenty-five blocks from my house...(I love you Alberta Co-Op!) Also, if you shop at farmer's markets, you can almost guarantee that everything there is local as well, which is awesome!
Love ya,
Carrot