I read chapters September, October and November, which led me up to page 193.
Main Topics:
*Throughout these three chapters it continues to bring up the idea that the couple could barely find anything in their neighborhood's grocery stores and relied greatly on Farmers' Markets. The story goes in depth about the foods they were able to find there and the experiences that go along with their trips to the Markets.
*Main foods that they could not eat (because they couldn't be found within the 100 mile radius) were cooking oils, rice and sugar, which they found to be very challenging, because before this lifestyle change Alisa stated that they would have rice with their meals at least three or four times a week.
*The couple also highlights that before this book the couple started writing entries about their experiences and feelings of the 100 Mile Diet on Tyee.
*The most common food Alisa and her husband bought from the Famers' Markets were root vegetables, corn, berries, chicken, seafood and chicken.
*The September harvest provided them with peppers, eggplant, grapes, melons, and tomatoes, which added more flavor to their meals. Since they knew winter was coming, they tried to save and freeze some of these items, so they could last throughout the cold months.
*In November the couple faced family problems and the husband totally stopped engaging in the 100 Mile Diet, but got back on track after a week or so.
Significant Things Learned and New Terminology:
*Within these three chapters the couple uses a new word called locavore, which is the definition of a person who eats only locally grown food that is usually grown 50, 100, or 150 miles away from their home.
*I should also mention that this couple actually started their own website called The 100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change. If you visit the website it will give the reader tips on how to eat locally, what their book is about, gives a URL to their blog, and local resources that one can become familiar with.
*During the chapter of November, I realized that even after 9 months of being successful with a goal, that one trigger or bad incident can influence failure to reach that goal. I thought the couple would have much more troubles in the beginning and that once they got in the swing of things, they would never want to leave their new lifestyle. But it just goes to show that even after maintaining a goal of 9 months, challenges may still come up in the future and will have to make modifications to get back on track.
Why Should We Care About This:
*Like I have said before in my previous posts, this book makes aware how important it is to eat locally. First of all, almost all of local foods are more nutritious and taste better. It is also critical for people to realize that by buying local food you are making a change, because locally grown food is environmentally safe. This is because most food found in grocery stores are shipped to the corporation, causing more fossil fuels to pollute the air.
*The book brings about the idea that there needs to be 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 place."
*I feel that it is important for people to understand that the population needs to start buying food from local systems so that global corporations do not keep gaining more and more power.
*It is also vital to know that there are drastic quality characteristics in comparison to local markets and big food corporations, being the product of the food and the way the food is being produced.
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