The 100-Mile Diet

Last updated
The 100 Mile Diet:
A Year of Local Eating
The 100-Mile Diet.jpg
First edition cover of Canadian release
AuthorAlisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
CountryCanada
Subject Diet (nutrition)
GenreNon-fiction, memoir
PublishedMarch 2007 (Random House)
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages272 pp.
ISBN 0-679-31482-2
OCLC 74028846

The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating (or Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally) is a non-fiction book written by Canadian writers Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. In the book, the authors recount their experiences, including motivations and challenges, on restricting their diet, for one year, to include only foods grown within 100 miles of their residence. Beginning in March 2005, with little preparation the urban couple began only purchasing foods with ingredients they knew were all from within 100 miles. Finding little in grocery stores, they relied on farmers' markets and visits to local farms. Staples in their diet included seafood, chicken, root vegetable, berries, and corn. They lacked cooking oils, rice, and sugar. They preserved foods for use in the winter but ended with extra supplies.

Contents

The couple first wrote about the experience in articles for the online magazine The Tyee . The popularity of the articles led to a book deal. In the book, Smith and MacKinnon each write alternate chapters, 12 in total. The first chapter is written by MacKinnon and focuses on the first month of their experience. They write in the first person as a memoir that explores their own dietary experiences and personal feelings.

In the Canadian market, the book spent five weeks on Maclean's nonfiction bestseller list. The book spent 20 weeks on The Vancouver Sun's nonfiction bestseller list. The authors won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize from the British Columbia Booksellers Association for the best contribution to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia. The 100-mile diet concept, along with advocates of local food, were covered by media across North America. In 2009, Food Network Canada aired The 100 Mile Challenge , a television series co-created by MacKinnon and Smith and based on the book.

Background

Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon's idea of local eating began while visiting their cabin in northern British Columbia in August 2004. [1] Their food supplies were nearly exhausted so to feed their dinner guests they scrounged the surrounding land for food. Their dinner of Dolly Varden trout, wild mushrooms, dandelion leaves, apples, sour cherries, and rose hips, along with potatoes and garlic from the garden, so impressed the couple that once back home, in their Kitsilano apartment in Vancouver, they pursued the idea of eating only local food. [2] [3] They eventually decided to try a diet consisting of eating food, for one year, grown within 100 miles of their home. They began the diet symbolically on the first day of spring, March 21. [4] Beginning in June, they wrote articles for The Tyee about their experience. The couple, both in their 30s, each had experience in writing: Smith as a freelance journalist who had taught non-fiction writing, and MacKinnon as the author of the award-winning historical non-fiction book Dead Man in Paradise and a past editor of Adbusters magazine. [5]

They were overwhelmed by the response, first from other locavores and then from local and international news media. [6] Eleven articles were published in The Tyee series over the year, plus an additional four articles afterwards, between August 2006 and May 2007. They launched an independent website, 100milediet.org, in April 2006 and began writing the book. Random House published the hardcover version on 12 March 2007 in Canada as The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating and on 24 April in the United States as Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally. The trade paperback was released in Canada by Random House's Vintage Canada imprint on 2 October and in the United States by the Three Rivers Press imprint on 22 April 2008.

Content

The book consists of twelve chapters, plus an Epilogue and an Acknowledgements section at the end. Smith and MacKinnon individually write alternating chapters, each of which covers one month from March 2005 to February 2006. In the first chapter MacKinnon tells how his idea for the 100-mile diet began and Smith agrees to try it for one year. They begin symbolically on the first day of Spring, March 21, and define 'local' as 100 miles, a convenient radius that would include the Lower Mainland, the southern half of Vancouver Island, and Whatcom County and Skagit County in Washington state. Their exceptions to this rule include meals eaten while traveling, meals prepared by friends, and business lunches. Their initial month was expensive as they scoured grocery stores for whatever they could find. In the second chapter, Smith describes her and MacKinnon as an unwed urban couple in their early thirties with no children and living in a rented apartment. They recount how eating impacted their relationship before and after the diet, the anonymity of prepackaged foods, the traceability of their diet, and the diets of the indigenous Coast Salish.

The farmers' market opens in May and they are able to buy local honey to replace sugar. Seafood from the Strait of Georgia becomes a staple in their diet. The couple spend August at their cabin in northwestern British Columbia, where they fish the Skeena River, pick wild berries, and eat whatever grows in their garden. Back in the Lower Mainland, the September harvest provides them with melons, peppers, eggplant, grapes, and tomatoes. To prepare for winter they preserved corn and tomatoes, made jam from berries, collected herbs from their community garden, and bought many potatoes.

During the fall, each write on the troubles in their relationship. David Beers, the founder of the Tyee, hosts a 100-mile Thanksgiving dinner for Smith while MacKinnon was away. In November, during a family emergency, MacKinnon travels to Kamloops where he suspends his 100-mile diet a few days. They finally find a source of flour when they discover a farmer on Vancouver Island who grows his own fruits, vegetables, meats, and wheat. In December, Smith travels to Edmonton where her grandmother feeds her microwaved pasta which she accepts.

In January they find a restaurant that specializes in local cuisine and, previously vegetarians, they cook and eat beef for the first time in years. Working in Malawi, MacKinnon is struck by the contrast between their western diet and that of the poor country's: there is ample food supplies in Malawi but most is exported to Canada and the United States who buy the food they do not require. The couple learn about Mexican and Maya cuisine while in Merida, Mexico for a wedding. The book ends with an epilogue, written by both Smith and MacKinnon six months after their one-year diet. They make a symbolic journey to Bamfield, within their 100-mile radius, to collect sea water for its salt and prove they could obtain their own salt supply.

Style and genre

The book uses a first person memoir style with Smith and MacKinnon taking turns writing each chapter. [3] [7] The authors purposely avoided writing a self-help book in favour of the memoir style, saying, "We wanted to show readers that process, and how it affected us and let them see it through our eyes." [4] The topics sometimes go beyond the motivations and challenges of the diet into more personal relationship issues. Prior to writing the book they created a general plan on where the narrative would lead. [8] They took turns writing so they could monitor each other's progress. As the two alternate there are shifts in perspectives, though the overall theme of "traceability" persisted. [5] [7] The general tone has been described as charming, innocent, and sometimes funny. [5] Smith's chapters have been said to demonstrate more honesty and vulnerability, while MacKinnon's were more "show pieces, little tours de force". [7] The final chapter was authored together by Smith and MacKinnon writing as a disembodied third-person narrator to summarize and conclude the book. [7]

Reaction to the book

In the Canadian market, The 100-Mile Diet debuted at #10 on Maclean's nonfiction bestseller list on May 14. It spent five weeks on the list, peaking at #4. [9] In the Vancouver market, the book spent 20 weeks on The Vancouver Sun 's nonfiction bestseller list, peaking at #5. [10] At the British Columbia Booksellers Association's BC Book Prizes, in April 2008, the book was short-listed for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, while the authors won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, awarded to the authors of the book that best contributes to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia. [11]

The book has been called engagingly written, wisely researched, and honestly told. [2] [5] [12] Critics admired the wit and humour. [13] [14] The book reviewer for The Globe and Mail admitted he grew impatient with the grand and repetitive statements about the changing global food system and the authors' hyperbole regarding their modest culinary discoveries. [7] Compared to Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, The 100-Mile Diet was found to be more compelling and easier to read, with Smith and MacKinnon more relatable and sympathetic than Kingsolver. [15]

Reaction to the diet

While the concept of only eating locally grown food is not new, the book coincided with the emerging popularity of the locavore movement and farmer's markets. [16] [17] Media outlets in North America examined the feasibility of only eating food produced locally, local food-themed events, and locavore groups. [18] [19] [20] During World Food Day in 2006, playing off the popularity of Smith and MacKinnon's articles in The Tyee, the Vancouver City Hall held a 100-mile themed breakfast. [21] Locavore groups have held local-only dinner parties and week-long challenges. [22] [23] Some restaurants and caterers offered 100-mile menus, one being The Herbfarm Restaurant in Woodinville, Washington. Some farmers, gardeners, or regional food producers began offering subscription services to deliver produce or urban farming or gardening services. The 100-mile diet spawned many variations to allow for various circumstances and motivations. Examples include the allowance of a few non-local items, like Barbara Kingsolver chose to include spices into her local diet, [22] or expanding the geographic area to more convenient boundaries, like the economic region, or the entire state or province. [17] A 'made-in-Manitoba' diet challenge led to a government Manitoba Food Charter recognizing and encouraging local food markets. [24]

In 2014, the American writer Vicki Robin published Blessing the Hands That Feed Us which described her experiment to eat food sourced within a ten-mile radius of her home in Washington State.

Related Research Articles

John Robbins is an American author, who popularized the links among nutrition, environmentalism, and animal rights. He is the author of the 1987 Diet for a New America, an exposé on connections between diet, physical health, animal cruelty, and environmentalism.

Local food

Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

Kraft Dinner Boxed macaroni and cheese product

The product known as Kraft Dinner (KD) in Canada, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the United States and Australia, and Cheesey Pasta in the United Kingdom is a nonperishable, packaged dry macaroni product by Kraft Foods Group, traditionally cardboard-boxed with dried macaroni pasta and a packet of processed cheese powder. It was first introduced under the Kraft Dinner name simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. in 1937. The brand is popular with Canadians, who consume 55% more boxes per capita than Americans.

Barbara Kingsolver American author, poet and essayist

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally.

Michael Pollan American author and journalist

Michael Kevin Pollan is an American author and journalist, who is currently the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Media in Vancouver

This is an overview of media in Vancouver, British Columbia.

<i>The Tyee</i> Canadian news, opinion, and analysis website

The Tyee is an independent online Canadian news magazine that primarily covers British Columbia. It was founded in November 2003 by its editor-in-chief, David Beers, an award-winning writer and former features editor at The Vancouver Sun. Since its launch it has recruited a number of other writers, including Andrew Nikiforuk, Andrew MacLeod, Katie Hyslop, Crawford Kilian, Michael Harris, Colleen Kimmett, Geoff Dembicki, Charles Campbell, Christopher Cheung, Tom Barrett, Sarah Berman, Chris Wood, Ian Gill, Chris Pollon, Steve Burgess, Murray Dobbin, Michael Geist, Terry Glavin, Mark Leiren-Young, Rafe Mair, Will McMartin, Shannon Rupp, Vanessa Richmond and Dorothy Woodend.

Norene Lynn Gilletz was a Canadian Jewish cookbook writer, food consultant, and food writer.

<i>Animal, Vegetable, Miracle</i>

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007) is a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver detailing her family's attempt to eat only locally grown food for an entire year.

Jessica Prentice is a chef, author, and founding member of Three Stone Hearth, a community-supported kitchen in Berkeley, California. She is known for coining the word locavore, which is a movement in which people seek to eat locally grown foods, often defined as those available within a 100-mile radius.

A low-carbon diet refers to making lifestyle choices related to food consumption to reduce resulting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe). Choosing a low carbon diet is one facet of developing sustainable diets which increase the long-term sustainability of humanity.

Sociology of food is the study of food as it relates to the history, progression, and future development of society. This includes production, distribution, conflict, medical application, ritual, spiritual, and cultural applications, environmental and labor issues.

James Bernard MacKinnon, commonly cited as J.B. MacKinnon, is a Canadian journalist, contributing editor and book author. MacKinnon is best known for co-authoring with Alisa Smith the bestselling book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, encouraging readers to focus on local eating as a way to address current environmental and economic issues. MacKinnon and Smith also collaborated in the creation of the Food Network Canada television series The 100 Mile Challenge, based on the book. He has won six National Magazine Awards, and the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for best work of Literary Non-Fiction.

James E. McWilliams is Professor of history at Texas State University. He specializes in American history, of the colonial and early national period, and in the environmental history of the United States. He also writes for The Texas Observer and the History News Service, and has published a number of op-eds on food in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. Some of his most popular articles advocate veganism.

<i>The 100 Mile Challenge</i>

The 100 Mile Challenge is a Canadian reality television series produced by Paperny Entertainment and aired on Food Network Canada. The series follows the lives and eating habits of six families living in Mission, British Columbia, who, for a period of 100 days, agreed to only consume food and drink that has been grown, raised and produced within a 100-mile radius from Mission. The series is based on the concept of local food consumption as described in the book The 100-Mile Diet authored by J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith where the two authors describe their experience of eating locally for one full year. To coincide with the premiere of the series, FoodTV.ca launched a companion website that Canwest described as "the largest, most innovative and interactive companion website to a series to date".

Michael Greger American physician, author, and vegan health activist

Michael Herschel Greger is an American physician, author, and professional speaker on public health issues, best known for his advocacy of a whole-food, plant-based diet, and his opposition to animal-derived food products.

Meeru Dhalwala

Meeru Dhalwala is an author, chef and co-owner, with her ex-husband Vikram Vij, of the Indian restaurants Vij's and Rangoli in Vancouver, British Columbia.

<i>Ten Talents</i> (cookbook) Vegan cookbook, first published 1968

Ten Talents is a vegetarian and vegan cookbook originally published in 1968 by Rosalie Hurd and Frank J. Hurd. At the time, it was one of the few resources for vegetarian and vegan cooks. The cookbook promotes Christian vegetarianism and a Bible-based diet, in keeping with teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. By 1991, the 750-recipe cookbook was entering its 44th printing and had sold more than 250,000 copies. An expanded edition with more than 1,000 recipes was issued in 2012.

Richard Mackarness British physician

Guy Richard Godfrey Mackarness was a British psychiatrist and low-carbohydrate diet writer. He is best known for his book Eat Fat and Grow Slim, published in 1958. Mackarness was an early advocate of the Paleolithic diet and authored books on food allergies.

References

  1. ↑ Irving, Pamela (10 October 2007). "Worldwide phenomenon began with one simple meal". Edmonton Journal . p. E10.
  2. 1 2 Murrills, Angela (19 April 2007). "Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon". The Georgia Straight . Vancouver Free Press. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  3. 1 2 Coppard, Patricia (6 May 2007). "Green grow the markets; Kitsilano couple determined to eat only locally produced food find they cannot live by kale alone, and they longed for a bit of bread". Times-Colonist . Victoria, B.C. p. D10.
  4. 1 2 Giese, Rachel (11 April 2007). "Home cooking: Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon talk about The 100-Mile Diet". cbc.ca . Archived from the original on 2008-07-02. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Simonds, Merilyn (5 May 2007). "Food for thought about what we eat". The Gazette . Montreal. p. J6.
  6. ↑ Loew, Tracy (6 September 2006). "Couple think globally by eating locally". USA Today . p. D5. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Wilkins, Charles (21 April 2007). "Think globally, shop locally, eat really well". The Globe and Mail . Toronto. p. D1.
  8. ↑ Conner, Shawn (13 April 2007). "Year of eating locally". Vancouver Courier . p. 41.
  9. ↑ Bethune, Brian (14 May 2007). "Best Sellers". Maclean's .
    Note: The book was listed at #7 on May 21, #6 on May 28, #4 on June 4, and #6 on June 11.
  10. ↑ "Best on the shelf". The Vancouver Sun . 21 April 2007. p. C10.
    Note: The book peaked #5 for two weeks (May 12 & 19) and was last listed on 1 September 2007.
  11. ↑ Wigod, Rebecca (28 April 2008). "Authors of The 100-Mile Diet win B.C. book award". The Vancouver Sun . p. C5.
  12. ↑ Conlogue, Ray (May–June 2007). "The 100-mile marathon". Canadian Geographic . Vol. 127 no. 3. Royal Canadian Geographical Society. p. 91. ISSN   0706-2168.
  13. ↑ Bethune, Brian (30 April 2007). "Food for Thought". Maclean's . Vol. 120 no. 16. p. 69.
  14. ↑ Roulston, Nancy; Larraine Roulston (Nov–Dec 2007). "Learning to Eat Locally" . In Business. Vol. 29 no. 6. pp. 10–11. ISSN   0190-2458.
  15. ↑ "What's for dinner? Anything the neighbours produce for local-eating advocates". Winnipeg Free Press . 6 May 2007. p. D1.
  16. ↑ Cooper, Carolyn (April 2007). "100 miles and counting". Food in Canada . Vol. 67 no. 3. p. 7.
  17. 1 2 Roosevelt, Margot (12 June 2006). "The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet". Time . Vol. 167 no. 24. p. 78. Archived from the original on June 12, 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  18. ↑ Moore, Jacquie (27 July 2007). "Living La Feeda Local: Can Calgarians eat a 100-mile diet?". Calgary Herald . p. SW24.
  19. ↑ Irving, Pamela (10 October 2007). "Local couple takes the 100-mile challenge; Discover buying, preparing only locally produced food results in healthier eating". Edmonton Journal . p. E10.
  20. ↑ Cosier, Susan (September–October 2007). "The 100-Mile Diet: The Struggles and Successes of Eating Local Foods". E - The Environmental Magazine . Vol. 18 no. 5.
  21. ↑ "Councillors will breakfast close to home in celebration of World Food Day". The Vancouver Sun . 13 October 2005. p. B2.
  22. 1 2 Burros, Martin (25 April 2007). "Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  23. ↑ Dumke, Jennifer (May–June 2007). "Eating In the Neighborhood: My 100 Mile Diet". South Dakota Magazine. Vol. 24 no. 1. pp. 26–30. ISSN   0886-2680.
  24. ↑ Rance, Laura (15 September 2007). "The 100-mile diet could be worth every step". Winnipeg Free Press . p. B9.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.