Health
May 19, 2008 12:52 PM
beingwell magazine Spring 2008
By: Kristen Brownell
Marsha Cox and Wanda Stride took on the 100-Mile-Diet and along the way, challenged their fellow parishioners to join in the journey.
It may be called the 100-Mile Diet, but according to many of its followers, it’s considered more of a global movement. “It struck a deeper cord than anyone could have predicted,” says Marsha Cox, the brain child of the movement locally.
The 100-Mile Diet refers to the buying and eating of food that has been grown, manufactured or produced entirely within a 100-mile radius of the home of the person consuming the food. It has become a movement of sorts after an experiment in 2005 by Vancouver couple James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, to describe their one-year local eating experiment. Now, it is being replicated in communities all over the world.
While the average distance food travels from farm to plate is approximately 1,500 miles, the 100-Mile Diet is just one way people can reduce their carbon footprint, while supporting local food systems.
Ms Cox, along with friend and student church pastor Wanda Stride, began their environmental crusade in their hometown of Lemonville (near Stouffville) last summer. After watching the film An Inconvenient Truth, by former United States presidential candidate Al Gore, both women “knew there was something they could do to make a difference.
“We were very taken by his suggestion that each person can make a difference,” says Ms Cox. “(The movie) really solidified it for me, that there was something I could do.”
The women started out with the premise that buying everything locally would have a positive effect on the environment by lessening pollution incurred during transportation and storage of foods from far away. They not only participated in the diet themselves, but also challenged others in the community to try it as well.
“It was amazing,” Ms Cox says of the eating experiment. “Everyone helped educate one another on local farms and supplies that we knew of and soon enough, we were able to meet our needs. We loved it and felt it was a win-win situation.
“We’re so used to getting what we want, when we want it,” Ms Cox adds.
“This year, we waited for local strawberries and asparagus and it just tasted better, partly due to the anticipation and also because they weren’t harmed during transport. It really made us appreciate and savour our food.”
The community challenge lasted throughout the summer, ending in September.
While feedback from participants was mostly positive, they discovered the issue of fair trade to be equally important and began to question whether local purchases would actually be enough to ensure a viable income for farmers, as many export their products around the world. In Canada, the Fair Trade Certified label means farmers and workers in developing countries have been paid a fair price for their products.
“It was a real eye opener,” Ms Cox says. “If our exports help people in other countries expand their diet, why should they be cut off just to keep things local?”
Eventually, diet participants came to the conclusion that it is important to follow the concept of the 100-Mile Diet, “in season, when you can.”
While Ms Cox and Ms Stride say they will continue to practise the diet again this summer, they will also turn their attention to two other important issues that came out of their research on the 100-Mile Diet — the availability of clean water.
“We are part of a global eco system and even though we have good and plentiful water, it may not always be so,” Ms Cox says, noting “we need to be prepared to figure out what we can do as a country. Changing small things, such as not using bottled water, which results in mountains of plastic bottles, is something everyone can do. It’s an ethical question each Canadian needs to ask themselves. Is water a right or a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder?”
Ms Cox and Ms Stride hope to create further awareness about air quality. Something they will challenge themselves and others to do is not to use their cars as much and when they do, not to drive over the speed limit. “It’s become pretty clear to a lot of people that we have a huge impact on the environment around us and that we have a responsibility to take care of it,” says a passionate Ms Stride. “We don’t own the land; we’re here to take care of it.”
For ideas on how you can help make a difference, start by researching the 100-Mile Diet. To get started, buy a few locally grown products where you would normally buy non-local. Try to eat one meal a day for a week made up of completely or mostly of local foods. Buy local free-range eggs and poultry and if the products are not grown in Canada, try to buy from local producers.
“It’s a living experiment that will reconnect you with your food and your local farmers,” Ms Cox says.
For more information, visit:www.100milediet.org or www.100miledietnanaimo.org.