100-Mile Diet
Encyclopedia
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' market
s 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.
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.
in August 2004. 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. 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. Beginning in June, they wrote articles at 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.
They were overwhelmed by the response, first from other locavores and then from local and international news media. Eleven articles were published in the 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.
, 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 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 BC 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 discover a farmer on Vancouver Island who grows his own fruits, vegetables, meats, and flour. 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.
nonfiction bestseller list on May 14. It spent five weeks on the list, peaking at #4. In the Vancouver market, the book spent 20 weeks on The Vancouver Sun
s nonfiction bestseller list, peaking at #5. 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.
The book has been called engagingly written, wisely researched, and honestly told. Critics admired the wit and humour. 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. 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.
movement and farmer's markets. Media outlets in North America examined the feasibility of only eating food produced locally, local food-themed events, and locavore groups. 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. Locavore groups have held local-only dinner parties and week-long challenges. Some restaurants and caterers offered 100-mile menus. 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, or expanding the geographic area to more convenient boundaries, like the economic region, or the entire state or province. A 'made-in-Manitoba' diet challenge led to a government Manitoba Food Charter recognizing and encouraging local food markets.
J.B. MacKinnon
James Bernard MacKinnon, commonly cited as J.B. MacKinnon, is a Canadian independent 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...
. 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' market
Farmers' market
A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...
s and visits to local farms. Staples in their diet included seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
, chicken, root vegetable
Root vegetable
Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables. Here "root" means any underground part of a plant.Root vegetables are generally storage organs, enlarged to store energy in the form of carbohydrates. They differ in the concentration and the balance between sugars, starches, and other types of...
, berries, and corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
. They lacked cooking oils, rice, and sugar. They preserved foods for use in the winter but ended with extra supplies.
The couple first wrote about the experience in articles for the online magazine The Tyee
The Tyee
The Tyee is an independent Canadian online web magazine, which focuses on coverage of news and media issues in British Columbia.The Tyee was launched in November 2003 by David Beers, a journalist who had previously been associated with the Vancouver Sun...
. 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
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
nonfiction bestseller list. The book spent 20 weeks on The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
'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
Local food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
, were covered by media across North America. In 2009, Food Network Canada aired The 100 Mile Challenge
The 100 Mile Challenge
The 100 Mile Challenge is a Canadian reality television series produced by Paperny Films 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...
, 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 ColumbiaBritish Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
in August 2004. 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
Dolly Varden trout
The Dolly Varden trout, Salvelinus malma malma, is a subspecies of anadromous fish in the salmon family, and is technically a char. Although many of the fish are anadromous, the fish also exists in landlocked waters.- Range :The subspecies S. m...
, 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
Kitsilano
Kitsilano is an upmarket neighbourhood on the West Side of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Known colloquially as "Kits", this neighborhood is home to many yuppies, young families and students as well as yoga studios, organic markets, cafes and Vancouver's Greektown. The primary...
apartment in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, they pursued the idea of eating only local food. 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. Beginning in June, they wrote articles at The Tyee
The Tyee
The Tyee is an independent Canadian online web magazine, which focuses on coverage of news and media issues in British Columbia.The Tyee was launched in November 2003 by David Beers, a journalist who had previously been associated with the Vancouver Sun...
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
Charles Taylor Prize
The Charles Taylor Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles Taylor, a noted Canadian historian and writer....
historical non-fiction book Dead Man in Paradise and a past editor of Adbusters
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...
magazine.
They were overwhelmed by the response, first from other locavores and then from local and international news media. Eleven articles were published in the 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
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
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
Three Rivers Press
Three Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprints.- History :...
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 MainlandLower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
, the southern half of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
, 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 Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
.
The farmers' market
Farmers' market
A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...
opens in May and they are able to buy local honey to replace sugar. Seafood from the Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
becomes a staple in their diet. The couple spend August at their cabin in northwestern BC where they fish the Skeena River
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...
, 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
David Beers
For the financial analyst, see David Beers David Beers is a Canadian journalist. He was born in 1957 and grew up in San Jose, California, where his father worked for Lockheed as a satellite test engineer. He attended Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. He was the former editor of...
, the founder of the Tyee, hosts a 100-mile Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving (Canada)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day , occurring on the second Monday in October , is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season....
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 discover a farmer on Vancouver Island who grows his own fruits, vegetables, meats, and flour. In December, Smith travels to Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
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
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, 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
Mexican cuisine
Mexican cuisine, a style of food that originates in Mexico, is known for its varied flavors, colourful decoration and variety of spices and ingredients, most of which are native to the country. The cuisine of Mexico has evolved through thousands of years of blending indigenous cultures, with later...
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. 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." 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. 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. The general tone has been described as charming, innocent, and sometimes funny. Smith's chapters have been said to demonstrate more honesty and vulnerability, while MacKinnon's were more "show pieces, little tours de force". The final chapter was authored together by Smith and MacKinnon writing as a disembodied third-person narrator to summarize and conclude the book.Reaction to the book
In the Canadian market, The 100-Mile Diet debuted at #10 on Maclean'sMaclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
nonfiction bestseller list on May 14. It spent five weeks on the list, peaking at #4. In the Vancouver market, the book spent 20 weeks on The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
s nonfiction bestseller list, peaking at #5. 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.
The book has been called engagingly written, wisely researched, and honestly told. Critics admired the wit and humour. The book reviewer for The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
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. 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.
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 locavoreLocal food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
movement and farmer's markets. Media outlets in North America examined the feasibility of only eating food produced locally, local food-themed events, and locavore groups. During World Food Day
World Food Day
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945...
in 2006, playing off the popularity of Smith and MacKinnon's articles in The Tyee, the Vancouver City Hall
Vancouver City Hall
Vancouver City Hall is home to Vancouver City Council in Vancouver, British Columbia. Located at 453 West 12th Avenue, the building was ordered by the Vancouver Civic Building Committee, designed by architect Fred Townley and Matheson, and built by Carter, Halls, Aldinger and Company...
held a 100-mile themed breakfast. Locavore groups have held local-only dinner parties and week-long challenges. Some restaurants and caterers offered 100-mile menus. 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, or expanding the geographic area to more convenient boundaries, like the economic region, or the entire state or province. A 'made-in-Manitoba' diet challenge led to a government Manitoba Food Charter recognizing and encouraging local food markets.