false 421393 4 Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives? Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their "SUV diet" was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home. It wouldn't be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II-era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refused to play by the rules of a global economy. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them. For Smith and MacKinnon, the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, <i>Plenty</i> is about eating locally and thinking globally. The authors' food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, <i>Plenty</i> offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it's a new way of looking at the world. 410521 book 24 4 2007 Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally total:991|5:190|4:432|3:294|2:65|1:10| 991 3700 2018 324 3 5 false false Sat Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 21:49:28 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 22:24:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 2 false false Wed Jul 25 10:20:02 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 10:26:28 -0700 2007
Review
Sometimes couples do strange things — start dressing alike, say, or take up bowling. Alisa Smith and her partner James MacKinnon, both professional writers, decided to mi...more...]]> 2 3 false false Fri Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 10:21:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 16:25:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 05 11:04:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 08:16:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 13:09:30 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 13:09:30 -0800 2008
A study in the UK showed that the amount of time people now spend driving to the supermarket, looking for parking, and wandering the lengthy aisles in search of...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 12:44:29 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 12:49:17 -0700 2007
Similar in themes to Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, this book is neither ...more...]]> 3 1 true false Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 19:26:10 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 19:37:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jun 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 16:09:33 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 13:05:51 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 11 08:16:34 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:17:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 09:05:19 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 09:20:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 09:32:18 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 09:57:33 -0700 2009 Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life, which unfortunately for Smith I had read first.

The book fails due to a compromise of two opposing styles; the epistolary style of the blog that precedes the book, and the cohesive...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 19:59:41 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 13:19:20 -0700 2009
Both authours write in a light, humorous style that makes the book digest quite pleasantly. The parts I found most fascinating had to do with the hist...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 17:08:38 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 09:21:01 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 11:07:51 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 11:56:59 -0700 2008 4 1 false false Sun Jun 29 10:26:46 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 10:28:17 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Sun Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 14:35:51 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 18:43:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 13:20:57 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 14:24:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Nov 21 08:14:09 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 08:19:59 -0800 2008 Coming Home to Eat with his hardcore foraging and tracing of native foods, but still enjoyable.

It was fun to relate to events in the book, like the first inaugural local dinner w...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 15:54:38 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 15:57:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 29 17:24:12 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 17:24:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=421393