Interview: The 100-Mile Diet

CL: How realistic is local eating for the majority of people, especially for the budget-conscious?

AS: It can be very realistic, as long as you're buying the fruits and vegetables in their season, and at the peak of the season -- not when the very first tomatoes appear, but when everybody's got more tomatoes than they know what to do with. The prices will be a bit lower. Buying in bulk will always save you money, and doing your preserving yourself. This takes time, but you can do it on the weekend with friends. We canned 80 pounds of tomatoes and saved money from what you would spend on canned tomatoes in the store.

Sometimes when you go to the farms you're shocked at how cheap they're selling the stuff for, or they'll throw in stuff for free. But then other times you just have to make a choice, because yes, sometimes if you live in a big city and you go to a farmer's market, local cheese might be something like $15. But you need to think that you're paying for the quality of the product, that it tastes so much better, and also about the values that the farmer has put into that product. Probably they're doing it organically, and they're treating their animals well.

Our culture has gotten to the point where we assume that food has to be cheap. You're satisfied if you see, "Hey, that's the cheapest tomato I've ever seen!" But then you get it home and you eat it and it doesn't taste very good. We have to decide what our values are, and say, I'll buy this as a special treat because it's worth it.

JBM: If it's cheap, it's because someone else is paying. That's really what it comes down to. If you're buying inexpensive lettuce from California, it's because someone's being paid a buck a pound to pick it. We've seen, for example, incredible increases in the cost of real estate. We're going to have to accept that if we want our food to carry the values that we want, if we want to be environmentally sustainable and socially just and fair and equitable in the global sense, it's going to have to start carrying some of that cost.

There are savings that come from local eating, things like because the local foods tend to be much more flavourful, you don't have to use as many ingredients. I think also as the demand for it grows, governments are going to have to react and build some infrastructure so that local eating is actually supported and efficient and doesn't have to become yet another premium product.

CL: And it's also about farmers -- too many farmers are in debt and unable to make ends meet.

AS: It seems to be important to people culturally to still have these family farms existing. We need these options open to people.

CL: How important is growing your own food?

AS: Oh, it's hugely valuable. We just lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the core of Vancouver. We had a balcony and we had some big pots and we did tomatoes and beans and herbs on our balcony, and we had a community garden plot. So even if you live in an extremely urban area, you can still do it. But I would love to have a much bigger garden, because that's the most self-sufficiency that you can have. There's no fossil fuels, or at least you can control that. And that's another good way to save money as well, if you have any space you can find to garden in. A whole pack of lettuce seeds is $2, and you can grow it organically. One head of organic lettuce is $2.

CL: What are some tips for people trying to increase the amount of local foods in their diet?

JBM: A good starting place for people is farmer's markets, obviously. Farmer's markets are often the gathering point for all kinds of information on local food. The farmers there frequently not only sell at the markets but also from their farmgates or can tell you where you can buy farmgate produce. Some of those farmers may be offering box programs, or community-supported agriculture programs where you can get linked to a farm or a set of farms and get that food.

Often we find that a really pleasant way for people to start to explore the idea is to have a potluck or take a meal like Easter or Thanksgiving -- the harvest feast -- and just try eating a 100 per cent local meal there. Anything, really, that can start that process of reconnecting to the place you live in and the people who produce your food. It can be as simple as saying, this year, I'm going to pick these three or these five products and I'm going to make sure that all of those come from a local place. Even better, I'm going to see what farm they come from. Most people, once they start dabbling in it, just keep going deeper and deeper because it's a better way to eat.

AS: Another simple thing would be to go out to a farm and pick berries with family or friends, and then the next day make jam. Jam is the simplest preserve of all and while there's no local sugarbeets, but there is local honey, which is fine for jam as well.

CL: It's a great thing to do with your family and friends.

JBM: We get friends involved -- and sometimes they get us involved -- in making things like cheese. Next time I make pasta from scratch I think I'll invite friends over and we'll make a bunch of it and we'll all walk away with a bunch of homemade pasta that we can freeze and use. If you're doing that kind of work with a group of friends, or as a family, and some wine is flowing, and that kind of thing, it doesn't feel like work. It's not a chore, it's a pleasure.

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