Inspiration From The 100 Mile Diet
The 100 mile diet is one restaurant’s experiment with providing only foods and products sourced from within 100 miles of their restaurant.
Claudia Swan reports
The idea, in a nutshell, is to only eat food grown within 100 miles—160.93 kilometres in metric terms, which is decidedly less catchy—to decrease carbon footprint, to support the local farming community, and to increase awareness of eating seasonally.
Chef Peter Robertson says
Being 100% compliant is an admirable goal, but he says they’re not willing to sacrifice the level of cuisine they’re offering on the altar of philosophy. They’re more interested in the concept as a whole meshing with an interesting style of food, rather than offering the same meat and potatoes each night to guests.
This mirrors my thoughts on shopping locally. Mary Emma Allen asked Home Biz Notes readers the question
Where Do Items For Your Home & Home Business Come From? and challenged us to check.
I’d bet most of us have goods from all over the world. While we like to shop locally, sometimes there are practical issues of cost and availability too. Many home businesses are potentially global. Take eBay for instance.
Labelling is another issue. It can often be misleading. Mary Emma responded in the comment thread -
Also, with today’s increased prices, it’s often difficult to pay for higher priced necessities that are made in one’s country if those that fit the budget are foreign made.
Labels, too, may indicate the items are assembled in one’s country. However, the components could be made elsewhere. Also, locally made items might use materials from other countries.
There appears to be no extremely simple answer. We do appear to be “global” whether we want it or not.
A compromise may be to shop in local stores and support local businesses when you can. Support your state and national businesses when you can. But the issue of where something is made is a fine balance when you need something - especially if you need it urgently, or it’s your favorite brand. You often have to weigh up the philosophy with the practicality.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
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2 opinions for Inspiration From The 100 Mile Diet
Mary Emma Allen
May 18, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Nice follow-up post, Yvonne, and some more “food for thought!” Thanks for your information and insights.
Yvonne Russell
May 19, 2008 at 12:43 am
It’s an interesting dilemma, which is complicated by the fact that so many businesses have a web presence, making their market potentially a global one.
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