Read 'n' Seed 6: Final Review of "Eating Locally: 100 Mile Diet"

Since the next couple days are going to be very busy for me, I thought it would be best to write the final review of the "100 Mile Diet" today, instead of waiting until Friday.

OVERVIEW OF ENTIRE BOOK:

The "100 Mile Diet" is about a couple that decides to only eat food produced 100 miles of their Vancouver home for one year.  This book includes their detailed story as the authors connect with the people and places that produce what they can eat.  The narrators highlight the challenges the couple faced, the benefits they attained while engaging in this diet change, information about local food that they weren't aware of before, how large food corporations are steadily taking over, and goes in depth about stories and emotions they encountered throughout the year.


3 MOST SIGNIFICANT THINGS LEARNED:

1.)  Why is it important to eat locally?
     * Help flourish local economy
     * Locally grown foods are almost always better for you and also tastes better (no pesticides and chemicals!)
     * You help reduce global warming by eating locally (don't eat food that has to be shipped thousands of miles, just to reach your plate).
     * Local produce is much fresher
     * Better for air quality and pollution
     * More variety when eating local food
     *Local fruits and veggies have longer to ripen

2.)  People who buy from large food corporations do not have as much variety, in comparision with people who buy from local farmers markets.  I never recognized this issue until I read this book, but it seems so obvious to me now.  This is because large food industries want to make large quantities of food at a time (to make large profits), so they do not have the resources, money, or time to give their consumers the different options and varieties of the products.

3.)  By eating locally we avoid consuming processed foods, which in reality we are watching out for out health and reducing our chance of obesity and preventable health related diseases, such as heart disease and hypertension.  This foods produced by large companies do not have the same nutrious value as those products that come from a local market. 

*New terminology:  Locavore: a person who eats only locally grown food that is usually grown 50, 100, or 150 miles away from their home.



WHAT DOES THIS BOOK MEAN TO MYSELF AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT:

This book is so important for everyone to read, because it brings about the idea that there needs to be a collaborative effort to build more locally based and self-reliant food economies.  This needs to be done so we can flip the trend of large food corporations taking over and steadily gaining more power, every time a consumer purchases one of their items.  The people who manage the distribution of food should take into the considerations of air polluntion, water pollution, fossil fuels, global warming, and green house gases being released into our environment, while shipping food many, many miles.  Buying groceries from big corporations aren't only damaging our planet, but people should also be understand that there are drastic quaility characteristics in comparision to local markets.  This comes about because of the way the food is produced, leading to lesser quality of food coming from the large corporations.



DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS BOOK? WHY OR WHY NOT:

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to become more informed on the idea of eating locally.  I had no idea about organic food, local food, and large food industries until I got ahold of this book.  I now feel very informed on the choices of food I have, and realize that what I select that I am going to eat effects much more than myself.

Pictures of Farmer's Markets in Duluth MN!