The 100 Mile Search

For the next three weeks, I will be attempting to do my bit to help the Earth. In order to do that, I will eat only foods that are grown locally (within 100 miles/160 kilometres) of the Ottawa area. Some might say now, ‘what kind of good will that do?’, well the true answer is that it does do a lot of good, maybe not a visible amount of good, but a theoretical amount of good. By living off of locally grown foods for several weeks, I can prove a point that humans are perfectly capable of living their lives sustainably for the greater good of the Earth, their health, and the local economy.

The reason that getting all foods locally grown is such a good benefit to the environment is as follows; the transportation of goods is one of the largest contributors to pollution and anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and every year, accounts for about 10-25% of the greenhouse gases released by the food sector. Seeing also as the food sector accounts for about 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, this means that simply transporting food to get to our table accounts for 2-5% of all greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The average food product travels 1500-2500 miles to reach a household table. When eating locally, products will travel about 10-100 times less than the distance the average food item travels. By having just one or two locally grown and produced meals each week, every family could reduce the impact they have on the environment by a few percent.

Now getting onto actually carrying out the task... Seeing as it is Ottawa, and still only springtime, I didn’t expect much to be available in terms of a variety of balanced and healthy foods. I was right on some counts, but I did manage to find a fair amount of foodstuffs. After a trip to the Ottawa Farmer’s Market, I have a healthy stock of food to last me for the first week. The items that I have include:

-apples (stored over the winter)

-cheese

-all beef hamburgers

-rolled oats

-eggs

-apple cider

-honey

-maple syrup

-cucumbers

-carrots

-smoked bacon

-potatoes

-popping corn on the cob

-salad

-asparagus

So, with all that in hand, I can officially begin the three week journey of eating everything locally. Whether I will succeed is a question left so far unanswered. I’m not worried so much about me cracking under the pressure of a different diet and straying back into non local foods, as I am worried about me forgetting that I am doing a complete 100 mile diet, and accidentally eating a snack produced outside of an 100 mile radius from Ottawa, due to a momentary lapse of concentration.

Well, all in all, I’ll hopefully be able to make it for a full three weeks without eating a single item produced non-locally. My 100 mile diet has now started, and I will leave briefly with a picture of some apples that I’m dying to eat.

Apples from the Ottawa Farmer's Market