A Beef About The 100 Mile Diet
Have you heard of the 100 Mile diet? The idea is to eat only locally grown foods, putting an end to the North American practice of shipping foods an average of 1,500 miles (and twice that if you’re a fan of pineapple). Locavores, as they call themselves, point to all of the pollution and global warming caused by such shipping practices.
I do my best to patronize local stores — instead of chain retailers — whenever possible. But when it comes to buying food? I’m not so sure.
See, I live in a rather small town. Our Farmer’s Market runs from June to October, and due to the climate precious little grows around here the rest of the year. Sure, Kansas City’s within the 100-mile radius and there’s a Farmer’s Market going on there year-round. But just how much good am I really doing the environment if I — someone who drives less than 20 miles in any given week — fire up the mini-van to make a weekly produce run?
Then there’s that whole coffee issue. We don’t grow coffee in Kansas, which means I’d have to give up my one daily, mostly guilt-free indulgence. That’s so wrong in so many ways, not the least of which can be attributed to the violence I’d most likely inflict on my fellow humans were I deprived of my morning java. And what about salt? I can’t think of a single place in Kansas to which that stuff is local. Same goes for pepper.
So what would I get?
Beef. We’ve got plenty of cows around here. Why, there’s a herd of them not a quarter-mile from my home, a fact of which I’m poignantly aware whenever the wind blows in a certain direction. Milk, cheese, burgers, steaks, prime rib… I’d never have a problem finding those. Eggs, either. There’s a woman about two miles away who’s known as the “Egg Lady” because she provides them to many of our local stores. Sooner or later, I’m pretty certain I could score a chicken (dead and plucked, please) off of her, too. And of course, we’ve got plenty of pigs in these parts, too. Mmmm… bacon.
In other words, from November to May I’d be essentially following an Atkins diet, gorging on all sorts of high-fat, cardio-clogging goodness through the colder months, with nary a fresh green or fruit gracing my plate until sometime mid-Spring. My husband would love it. I know: that’s almost identical to how we ate when we first got married, and I’ve got the extra tonnage to show for it, too.
So to the Locovores I say, How about this for an environmentally-friendly diet: take all that time you spend hunting and gathering locally-grown food, along with the extra expenses involved, and channel them into writing your Congressman, showing up at election time, volunteering in public schools to talk about global warming and lobbying the Grocer’s Association to use ethanol in its shipping vehicles instead of burning fossil fuels.
Then have a macadamia nut cookie and pat yourself on the back for keeping some poor Hawaiian employed.
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Right on, Kate. We may have a longer growing season here in Austin, but we still don’t have that elixir of life, Coffee. Locavores sound more like Loco-vores. They simply miss the point: technology has made it possible for us to obtain foods from faraway places. How is that not a great thing?
Hey, there’s a big salt mine in northwest Kansas! I don’t remember the town, but I remember learning about it when we lived there.
But yeah, I totally agree with you. Part of the fun of eating is trying new things, that gee, don’t come from where you are!
And what about people who live in heavily polluted areas. Do they really want to eat locally grown stuff? I wouldn’t. Ship it in all you want.
I wonder if it counts that I occasionally do drink a ? (But only under protest. The stuff tastes like rocket fuel.)
It’s so convenient to forget that back in the “old days” malnourishment was a huge problem.
Like every other faddish belief about the “old days” - those who tout it know nothing of history. But boy it can sure sound good when they describe the life through rose colored glasses.
I’ll stick with my regular diet - which includes much (when in season) of locally grown produce.
You’re being a little unfair. As someone who tries to eat as much locally grown food as possible, the idea of ‘food miles’ is the smallest part of why I do so. The biggest reasons: I get to support local farmers and pay them a fair price for the food they grow; considering all the recalls over e.coli tainted foods out of corporately farmed [organic and not organic] foods, it makes perfect sense to me to know exactly where my food is coming from and how it’s grown; the food is fresher - this is related to food miles without being an environmental issue. Most of what I buy is 24 hours from the field and not treated with anything to keep it fresh; and finally, my real environmental issue: most of the farmers I buy from practice sustainable farming methods.
Most of us who try to eat as much locally grown food as possible aren’t extremists about it. I have coffee nearly every day [free trade, of course]. I can have blueberries or corn in the middle of Winter [although, I admit, I have blueberries and corn from this past Summer frozen in my chest freezer - I do a lot of canning and freezing and drying of things from my garden and farmer's markets and my CSA share].
It doesn’t take a zealot to be a locavore or a slow fooder or a 100 mile diet adherent. It just takes someone with a desire to stick to their principles. Voting with your food dollars makes an impact in the same way that writing to your congresscritter does, etc. And most of us do that kind of thing, too.
Plus, I don’t see a big contingent of locavores out there insisting that we all eat according to their worldview [extremist or not]. I couldn’t care less if you want a pineapple. Eat up.
“You’re being a little unfair.”
It wouldn’t be the first time, Mac.
We have been eating organic at the Venomous Household due to the pesticide and E. coli issues you mentioned. We’ve long been fans of artisan bread and cheese, too, although lately I’ve been making my own. (Cheese-making, as it turns out, is a great homeschool science experiment.)
And I do share your belief that grocery dollars can be used to vote, but let’s face it: given the choice between running down to the grocery store to buy a cheap loaf of bread and a bag of red apples, or spending an additional 30 minutes visiting an artisan bakery and a Farmer’s Market, most busy families opt for the former EVEN IF they agree with the concept of buying organic, local and fair food.
For that reason, I still maintain that the best approach is to pester grocery store managers, the Grocer’s Association and government representatives until they recognize there’s actually a profit to be made by catering to this interest.
Interestingly [to me, anyway], some grocery store chains are starting to get the message. I may be an issue of where I live, but a lot of stores around here are highlighting fruits and vegetables they buy from local growers. I really dig that.
I should admit here that I rarely set food into a grocery store, though. I’m really lucky - most of our local farmer’s markets sell produce, bread, artisan cheese, and nearly anything else you could ever want in one place. I think I’ve been in a grocery store twice since this past June.
How is your cheese making coming? I think I’ve perfected the easier stuff - you know, fromage blanc, ricotta, curds, etc., but I have yet to produce the perfect mozzarella or cheddar. Do you have tips for the city slicker?
I’ve had good luck with TechnoGypsy’s recipe for mozzarella. There’s also a pretty good video here about making it.
I haven’t tried cheddar yet, but Gourmet Sleuth has a recipe that looks rather easy.