The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating

by Alisa Smith, J.B. MacKinnon

Ever wondered where the food on your plate came from? How far it might have traveled from its source?

When a Vancouver couple asked those questions they were stunned to find the average ingredient had traveled between 1500 and 3000 miles—leaving a carbon footprint big enough to stamp out all their personal efforts at living sustainably.

So, with no planning and very little thought of what might be involved, they made a pact to eat only foods sourced within a 100-mile radius of their home—for one year.

Sounds like a New Year's Resolution: made one day, broken the next. But they actually did it. And grew to love it.

What started out as hardship, madness and deprivation, became a delicious and enriching experience, one that they have continued well beyond the year of the pact.

Try it yourself, if you're brave. Or read James and Alisa's wonderfully written, inspiring, and amusing account of the year they reconnected with the foods, the land and the people in their corner of the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Memoir, Environment, Canada, Sustainability, Cooking

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2007

About the author

The book Plenty has different subtitles in hardcover and paperback and the Canadian edition was called The 100-Mile Diet.

Alisa Smith, a Vancouver-based freelance writer who has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, has been published in Outside, Explore, Canadian Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Utne, and many other periodicals. The books Way Out There and Liberalized feature her work.

Reviews

[OhWell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat idea, even if the writing is tedious at times. I enjoyed reading the month by month journal, sprinkled with humour, and the occasional recipes. I wouldn't go to such extremes as the authors - just thinking of separating wheat grains from mouse poop makes my stomach turn - but I'm all for eating locally grown food, especially produce, whenever possible. I hope the book convinces others it's worth a try. Best reason: the taste, way better than whatever gets flown or trucked over from thousands of miles away!

The other aspect of the book that resonated with me is the limited variety of fruits and vegetables available today. And I'm not talking about exotic imports. I never thought of investigating how many types of beans, tomatoes or apples used to be around, but I do have some personal experience of what we lost. A few years back we bought two varieties of heirloom tomato seedlings at a farmer's market. The tomatoes tasted so good that we saved the seeds and are now starting our own plants every year. At the same farmer's market we found, one fall, some extraordinary apples: Cox's Orange. There is only one elderly couple selling them, and they are available for a very short period of time. I believe the climate in our area isn't the best for the variety, and the family only has the one tree. They do have other apples and also pears, all heritage and all tasting quite different from the mainstream varieties. It's these unexpected and delicious surprises that a regular grocery store will never provide...

[Lauren Ames · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really quick and thoughtful read, not at all what I’d expected! This book manages to talk about our crazy (and depressing) food system without actually making me depressed. There were a few things that I wasn’t a fan of but overall I enjoyed it! The statistics and scientific background of local eating and global food systems were things I was familiar with, but it was interesting to read about it from a more personal perspective, with the facts being a part of a personal experience rather than an academic text.

[Patti Mcconnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about eating locally or within a 100 mile radius of where the food was grown for a period of one year. This couple does not have children and they live in Canada. So...they cannot eat salt, wheat products, etc. The book is interesting, but at times they spend so much time and energy into finding the food, that it seems like it consumes their entire lives. Weekends are spent trying to find local growers, bee keepers for honey, etc. They fixed a dinner for 4 and it cost $124.00 because not all local food is cheap! The question then came up of, "If you eat beef and the cow did not eat grain that was locally grown, it is still a local food?" I agree with trying to support your local growers and eating healthier...and trying foods that you cannot find in your local supermarkets - but this was very extreme - but a good read nonetheless!

[Delaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well written, interesting and funny book. It has a lot of really useful information about, of course, eating locally, but also about random bits of history as well as some intriguing recipes. It is very readable, as if you are having a friendly conversation with James and Alisa. It's quite personal too, delving into the minds, troubles and triumphs of the authors. It is completely inspiring and helps you realize how possible it is to understand what you're eating, how it's produced and where it's coming from, and of course how to do something about it. I totally recommend it.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading it. I thought it would be slow going like reading a textbook, but instead it was a 1-year biography snapshot into this couples life experiment. Each chapter alternates author, which keeps it interesting. I would definitely recommend it, in fact, I have.

[Denise Yuen]

Loved the story that chronicled the joys and difficulties in trying to eat and source all food within a 100 mile radius for a year. Made me really think how far my food travels and has inspired me to make a more concerted effort to eat locally!

[Megan Hex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never realized I could miss apples I will never be able to taste. This book is both a quiet journey through a year of a couple's life and an important, unmissable cry for action and change in how we live our lives.

[Alanna King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life. I literally started behaving differently after reading it and I still think about it all the time.

A must-read for all Canadians who want to understand more of the complexities of food, economics and ethical choices.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has inspired me to try to buy locally grown food to reduce my carbon footprint. It has also helped to open my eyes to how many miles my food travels just to get to my plate.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like reading books where authors go through a one-year long challenge - I find them neat, interesting, easy to follow. This one is about a couple - James and Alisa - trying to only eat food grown from a 100 mile radius around their Canadian home, with a few rules: it is fine to eat something from further away if it is for a work event or if they are invited by someone else, and fine to use what they already own.

I normally dislike reading books co-written, where one chapter is by one author and the next one by another, but in this case I found the writing overall was coherent and it read smoothly. There were some passages that I found a bit long with a lot of information about the food industry, but I enjoyed reading about the experience overall and how difficult it is to eat locally, despite the benefits for the environment - there are so many things we don't consider, like sugar or flour which can be difficult to source and which the authors replace with honey or spend weeks trying to find.

Out of curiosity, I checked what a 100-mile radius around my London flat would entail and it is considerably smaller than I would have guessed: I would be able to use anything grown on the southern coast of England - but I don't eat fish -, a tiny corner of northern France so anything from Calais - but not including Dunkirk. Anything north of Norwich and Birmingham is out, as well as Cornwall. It would be incredibly restrictive, and I am not even sure where I would be able to buy the food nor how I would find out where it is from as food items are usually labelled by a whole country. It was interesting to think about though.

[Karishma Porwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 mile diet follows James & Alisa, a couple that commits to eating only food grown within a 100 mile radius around their Vancouver apartment after becoming disillusioned and disappointed by our broken world food system.

I learned so much from this book. James is a talented chef & I learned that there are so many flavours & foods that grow right here In North America that I’ve never tried.

I learned about food histories of the Americas, how we lost our food diversity & how to bring it back.

I learned about the environmental impact of “food miles”, how freshness & nutrition varies in imported foods and how small scale farmers across Canada & the States are using ancient & cutting edge techniques to make farming more sustainable.

I also love how James & Alisa keep it real. There are certain obstacles with eating locally and they don’t sugarcoat it. It’s beautifully written with a heartfelt appreciation for all sorts of nourishment. You’ll fall back in love with eating & truly enjoying your meals. Pro tip: don’t read this book on an empty stomach

[Ryan Cope · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a supremely excellent, beautiful book. So well-written, this memoir is delicious delectable, and so vivid. My imagination was sparked by every turn of the page. The acknowledgements made me cry. If ever you feel as though you’re crazy for wanting to eat local, read this book for reassurance that in fact, it is the rest of the world that has completely lost their marbles. Eating food grown and produced near where we live is the way things ought to be and this book is a reminder of that fact. It’s not always easy but it is always interesting.

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well let me start off by saying that I really wasn't sure about this book.
I bought it at Value Village for around $3.00 and it sat on my kitchen table for a day or two while I passed by it repeatedly. Eventually I picked it up and started reading, and had the unexpected pleasure of finding it very hard to put down.

It's not my typical fiction novel that captures my interest because of far off lands and lovable characters.. And yet in some ways it was, because it encompassed a world I was unfamiliar with. The world of dirt, and gardening, and growing, and seasons and cycles.

I got an inside glimpse into John and Alisa's life, in Vancouver where I've been before, but had never "seen" in such detail. And while the topic was something I was vaguely interested in, they pulled me in right from the start. From the descriptions of the amazing flavors, foods and recipes, to their interactions with local farmers, fishmongers, homesteaders, beekeepers and more.

While others might say some of the facts could get a bit tedious (slightly true), there was still enough human interest to keep it going. By the end of the book I was looking up local farmers, and seeing how I could include local foods in my grocery shopping. I even signed up for a produce delivery from local farms that would come every two weeks.

It made me think, and it made me take action. Those are both admirable qualities for a book to possess. Even further, it made me research other books to read, and next on my list is Locavore by Sarah Elton.

Maybe this isn't a great review, because I'm not critiquing the writing, or technical aspects of the book. But it's given me a new perspective and in my opinion that's probably what the authors were trying to achieve so therefore I consider it a success.

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book that started the local eating diet craze. This is the first book that got me thinking about buying more local foods. Smith and Mackinnon give a great description of their adventure with local eating for a year in Vancouver. Also being from Vancouver I found this book doubly interesting. I don't think I would have had the same experience if they were talking about the local food culture of a different area.

The one problem I had with this book was the extreme approach the authors took. They decided that absolutely nothing they ate during the year would come from more than 100 miles away. However, prior to this book they were both supposedly vegetarian. Not being able to find a suitable source of protein in the lower mainland, they just gave it up and started eating meat. Considering the idea of a local diet is to be more environmentally aware, I thought it was pretty disturbing that they advocated eating meat. The amount of environmental damage done by raising food animals is huge. I can't imagine it would be better for the planet to eat meat, than to make an exception and fly over a few beans to chow down on.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is our "One Book, One Community" choice for 2008. I purchased this book because of that and then put off reading it because I thought it would be a boring "this is what we did to save the environment" book. I was wrong! I really enjoyed this book. It made me think and definitely made me more aware of choices that we make in our lives, which I never considered as having an impact on our environment. Could I go so far as to live this way, even for one year? NO! Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the background facts in this book. I did not know much about the western provinces of Canada (hanging my head in shame). This book has pulled a few interesting threads in my virtual sweater or readng, unravelling it enough that I will be looking into a little more thoroughly. My only complaint about this book is that it is a combination effort by the two authors, written in the first person, and until I got used to the writing style differences, I found it difficult to discern who was writing the particular chapter I was reading.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because it looked interesting, but what I wasn't expecting was the engaging, lyrical writing style, the humour or the insights into relationships as well as into the food system. One of the best non-fiction books I've read, and it's got me converted to local eating.

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting! My wife and I try to live this way, but are not quite as fanatical about it. We love local produce and will choose it if it is available. The stories and issues that come up in this book are great. A big eye opener for me in some cases.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me very, very hungry. Also made me very thankful for farmers' markets and local food.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eye-opener. Made me think about where all my food comes from and what it takes to get there.....know I could not have done what they did for 1 year!!!!

[Eden Haber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly nuanced.

[Freya Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating,” Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon tell their year-long experiment of strictly eating local food from within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver home. After making a beautiful meal off the land of their isolated cabin in Northern B.C., and then learning about the statistic that said, “the food we eat typically travels between 1,500 and 3,000 miles from farm to plate,” Smith and MacKinnon were motivated to eat more sustainably. The couple dealt with the challenges of leaving behind the ease of grocery stores, which offered little local options, relying instead on farmers' markets, local farms, and preserving their own seasonal produce. In this book Smith and MacKinnon educate readers on the environmental impacts of the global food system, the importance of supporting local farming and the connections that come with doing that, and the personal transformation that came with their journey. Through a combination of personal stories and helpful suggestions, the book challenges readers to reevaluate their own food choices and their relationship with the environment.

Two adjectives I would use to describe “The 100-Mile Diet” are enlightening and inspiring. This book is enlightening because it brings attention to the realities of where our food comes from, how far it travels, and the environmental cost of global food systems. It led me to think about the food I eat and made me realize how little attention I’ve paid to its origins. It is also inspiring for me because Smith and MacKinnon demonstrate how local eating is possible in Vancouver. As a Vancouverite myself this book felt like an instruction manual, and a how-to guide. Which made their story feel accessible and achievable for me.

One aspect of the book I enjoyed was that they included local recipes at the start of each chapter. These recipes are relevant to Vancouver readers like me, as they use ingredients grown or sourced locally. I’m especially interested in trying the recipe for braised dandelion greens with morels, which comes before the August chapter. This recipe was surprising to me because I didn’t even know dandelions were edible! This addition strengthened the feeling that the book was more than just a story; it was a guide for anyone interested in trying the 100-mile diet.

However, there was one thing I didn’t like about the book. While it is centred on Vancouver, many of the statistics and examples talked about focused on the United States, and Americans. As a Canadian reader, I would have appreciated more data from Canada to help me connect better with the issues being brought up.

The implications of this book are very important. By embracing local eating, we can reduce our environmental footprint, support local farmers, and strengthen food security. “The 100-Mile Diet” reminds us that the choices we make about food have vast effects. If more people tried even small aspects of local eating, such as visiting farmers' markets or preserving seasonal foods, we could help to create sustainable food systems and reduce the impacts of climate change.

I would recommend “The 100-Mile Diet” to anyone interested in sustainability, food, or environmental issues. It is particularly relevant for Vancouverites, as it highlights local resources and inspires action within our own community. However, Smith and MacKinnon also Include their experience eating locally in Minnesota, Malawi and Mexico. This book is an excellent choice for anyone curious about the benefits and challenges of eating locally.

A quote that stood out to me was from when Alisa Smith visited her grandmother, 10 months into the experiment, and she described eating a microwaved meal at her grandmother’s house:
"I dug into the glistening pasta and believed, briefly, that the food was good. But I felt unnourished. I craved the 100-Mile meals, no matter how many potatoes they might involve. That food made me feel alive."
This moment captured the power of eating locally. It’s not just for its sustainability but for its ability to nourish both the body and the soul. It made me reflect on how over-processed, store-bought food has become the norm and how disconnected we’ve grown from what our bodies truly need.

[Mook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a much faster read than I thought it was going to be. Alisia and James are both journalists and it shows in this book. They have wonderfully lush descriptions of plants, food, and places, as well as a crafty ability to sketch out a person's character in a few sentences.

There was a lot I liked about this book. It made me think a lot about my diet and sent me down a rabbit-hole of googling edible plants they mentioned and comparing their Vancouver fare to my own Ontario one. It reminded me of my own personal experiment last year to buy vegetables and fruit that I didn't recognize at my farmers market and make meals based on them, to expand my horizon of local foods. but of course, reading their rules for what constitutes "local" food also made me question how local my farmers market it. The idea of traceability - of being fully aware of wear the things in your life come from, how they are produced, and who produced them - is an interesting one that could apply to so many aspects in our lives.

Something that might not be everyone's cup of tea but is right up my alley is the context they gave surrounding their experiment: the abundance of food and food varieties that the indigenous people had that have since been made extinct or otherwise forgotten; the creeping industrialization of food and how it has affected us; the consumerism and capitalism that drives the system; the man-made environmental disasters that can utterly destroy an entire river or forest and be deemed not very relevant or important by governments.

Another decision I enjoyed was formatting the book so that each chapter as a month, so the reader can join them on their quest each month to find food. They could have included more about the preservation techniques they needed to learn in order to make this possible; they had to learn canning, fermenting, drying, and a number of other techniques in order to have food to eat in the leaner months without breaking their 100-miles rule.

I appreciated how they took the time to interrogate some of their own decisions. they were both mostly vegetarian at the beginning of the book, and they mentioned early on how the staples of their vegetarian diet all came from thousands of miles away - chickpeas, lentils, rice etc. they took the time to really investigate local farms, eventually being impressed enough to eat both eggs, and the occasional meat product, from small local farms that treated their animals well. It shows how much thought they put into what it really means to live off of the land.

The one thing I really could have done without was the parts about their personal drama. I didn't enjoy anything about their squabbles or rough patches in their marriage. That sort of thing isn't something I like in fiction, let alone a non-fiction. I don't know you in real life, I definitely don't need to know that you were fighting about not having enough sex.

Another petty dislike was the amercanisms - 100 miles sounds a lot better than 161 km but something about reading a Canadian book and having to deal with all distances in miles was irritating.

Still, those two issues aside, I'd still recommend this book as a realistic look at the amount of work and effort that would go into eating locally and as a way of starting to interrogate our own food habits.

[Takuya Kitazawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Vancouver resident struggling with local consumption, I should have read the book much earlier. I grew up in the middle of a tiny island country, Japan, where “local” is almost a synonym for “domestic,” but it isn’t always the case in Canada or any other continental countries; “made in Canada” can be less local than “made in Washington” in terms of distance, for example. The counterintuitive fact makes me harder to assess what’s good for human society and the natural environment.

From this perspective, I personally read the book as a guide to “how to eat well in Vancouver.” After all, their local “100-mile” eating experiment had surfaced a lot of important points. Most of them were just as expected, but some others were by accident, like the 2005 Cheakamus River derailment: the complexity of the modern food life cycle, the fluctuating definition of “local”, geolocation-dependence of how easy/hard the challenge would be (e.g., comparison between Vancouver vs. Minnesota vs. Malawi vs. Mexico), diluted cultural traditions, the physical and psychological effect of healthy eating, the fragility of an ecosystem for animals and plants, and all the uniqueness of Pacific Northwest’s environment. In short, there is no universal answer, but I believe rethinking these underlying variables is a key first step to a better future. Not to mention their vivid writing is essential for the book to become remarkable.

As the most disappointing winter season is almost over in 2023, I’m certain I will rely more on farmer’s markets in the coming spring/summer season. I’m glad I was able to find this insightful and motivating book.

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book quite intriguing and found myself actually enjoying it quite a bit. I say that because I originally picked it up simply because of the concept of the topic but I thought it may be a bit of a dry read with ‘only so much to talk about’ on the subject. While that could be true, I thoroughly appreciated the blend of humour, education and things to think about which was written in a diary/reflective format.

Having the chapters alternate between the two authors offered different perspectives on their journey. Not only did the book flow from month to month and season to season but each chapter was focused on a specific talking point of interest which I found made it easy to read and well organized.

I’m not sure I could be as dedicated as these two, but this book certainly made me question my own eating habits and look to see what was available in my own 100 mile radius! Kudos to the authors for inspiring change in a thought provoking way!

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very refreshing read! I cannot imagine doing this with 5 to 7 children home at any given time. Even as a couple it was challenging for the authors. I appreciated the down-to-earth narrative that wasn't preachy. I also enjoyed the history and even current events that related to food and its availability -- or sadly, sometimes lack of availability. If anything, I am now just a little more aware of what is landing on our dinner plates.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapters revealed how disconnected we are from our food and how far food travels before it reaches our plates. This section was shocking, interesting and inspiring. About 3/4 of the way through, there was a shift in focus to internal and interpersonal struggle. Eating, sourcing local food and challenging readers to connect with growers, small farmers and local options became a back drop for other things going on in the authors' lives.

[Céline des Ligneris (Carole) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting experiment to eat only local foods. I am not sure that I would go totally this way, as I want to remain 100 % plant-based. However this book made me more aware of my environmental foot print as far my food is concerned. I am really glad that I was able to find a CSA farmer, to supply my familly with local and organic food, at least from June to December. For the remaining months, it remained to be seen how I will be able to maintain my 50 % locally grown ratio.

[Sharolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this when newly moved to Vancouver from Brisbane so it was cool to read something local. I found the authors to be slightly annoying in some of their tone and the way they related as a couple but perhaps that's not really fair as it's not the main point of the book. I like the idea of eating locally and this made a contribution to my thinking more on the topic.

[Xerxia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I am late to the party with this book, yet in spite of having been written nearly 20 years ago it feels as fresh and relevant now as it would have then (perhaps even more so). I had been expecting a political treatise, or perhaps some proselytizing. Instead, this book is thoughtful and simple, in the best of ways. A discussion with interesting friends over wine. Time well spent.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This was an interesting experiment, and the book itself was well-written, but all I could think through most of it was how unrealistic it would be for most people to even attempt something similar.