Every once in a while I write a post and I mention how important local food is to me. And then I never say another word. Well, here we go, starting the conversation. This has been a tough one for me to start writing about, because for me it is so big and complex, I didn’t know where to start.
So today I’ll start with the thing that inspired me to do more and more research on the topic, the 100 Mile Diet. This diet, started by two crazy Canadians last year, is based on the following:
When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles from farm to plate. That’s a total disconnection from where our food is coming from. What would it be like to eat locally for one year? We drew a 100-mile circle around our home in Vancouver, Canada. The 100-Mile Diet was born.
These two people, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, started a blog to share their experiences, which became referenced all over the web. Still not convinced? They’ve got 13 Reasons to Eat Locally.
So, could one person, or a group of people, successfully eat on the 100 mile diet from Miami? That would get you to about Naples on the east coast, Stuart to the north, almost to Key West in the south, and touching the edge of Grand Bahama. Plus a whole lot of swamp and ocean.
I’d love to start a list soon of all of the food that you can buy or grow locally, seasons available, etc., in order to really find a way to make this feasible. Additionally, I’d like to add restaurants that utilize locally grown food in their menus. If anyone has information or resources, please let me know.
My gut tells me: Easier: local fish, fruit, veggies (depending on season), herbs. Harder: milk, chicken, eggs, meat, sugar. Much harder: flour, rice.
We live in an area without a winter, which means we should be better off…although from what I understand from reading about farming, we seem to have a short growing season, with crops from January-April. Farmers markets are many times full of products that come in from all over the country and the world, which doesn’t make any sense at all to me.
In the future I want to use this as a stepping stone to talk about Community Supported Agriculture in Miami, Florida and also Community Gardens.
Could you do the 100-mile diet for a month, a week, a day? Could I? I hope someday, but I need to figure out where to start, first.
16 Responses to “The 100-mile diet from Miami”
Sounds like a plan and a great idea…I’ll try it when I get back to Miami next week. Seems like I’ll be eating a lot of fish…
Glad you like the idea, I found it very inspiring, myself. It is something that is very tough to do, though, and will require a lot of research and effort. If you know of any local sources of food, please let me know, as I will start to compile a list.
I found a site http://www.sustainabletable.org/ with a local food loactor when trying to look up places in Broward to buy local foods.
When I put in my zip it came up with a few places I hadn’t heard of and one Whole Foods (the chain) location. I’ve never shopped at Whole Foods assuming that since it’s a widespread chain (right?) it wouldn’t have local foods (only organic foods shipped long distances, which I see as defeating the purpose, to a degree).
That was a great find, thank you! It does seem to be a search engine for organic and/or local food, so that’s probably why some stores came up that don’t sell local (just organic)…but it did point out a couple of places to me that I had previously never heard of.
Thanks for the tip!
I’ve been participating in a great local CSA run by Redland Organics, a loose group of organic farmers located in the Redland area. It provides incredibly fresh vegetables, herbs, honey and eggs, all grown within 100 miles. Grass-fed beef is also available from time to time.
The season just ended, but if you send Margie an email at office(at)pikarco.com, you can find out how to sign up for next fall. (Tell her I sent you!)
http://www.redlandorganics.com/CSA.htm
As for an “eat local” choice for the summer, check out Robert is Here, the landmark produce market on SW 344 St. in Florida City. It’s a great place to get fresh, locally grown tropical fruit during the summer!
http://www.robertishere.com/
Check out http://www.localharvest.org/ to find local CSAs, farmer’s markets and other sources of organic food in the US.
Marian, that is a great recommendation, and a farm/program I was not aware of. Thanks so much for the tip, and expect a post on CSAs soon.
Bee Heaven Farm’s Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Membership program is now accepting applications for the winter 2006-2007 season (mid=Nov thru mid-April). Go to http://www.redlandorganics.com and click on the CSA link for full information. Sign up now to ensure your spot. Our CSA offers locally-grown, certified organic vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, honey and eggs directly from our participating farms.
Wow. I just did a Earth Day’s Resolution list on my blog at http://www.momstinfoil.com that includes looking into the 100 Mile Diet. I searched 100 mile diet Miami, and it brought me here.
There is a farmer’s market on Hollywood Beach I have only been to once. It was almost all produce, and I am not sure where it is grown, but I am guessing some of it is local.
Glaser Farms (http://www.glaserorganicfarms.com/Pages/Market%20Pages/Market%20Pages.htm) has a farmers market every Saturday in Coconut Grove (I think it even runs through summer). But, not all of what they have is local. I have bought plenty of apples there, for example. Some products are even packaged in the same packaging you can get at Whole Foods, whether they are flown in from California or Washington or if they are grown and prepared at Glaser. They make raw food products, like guacamole and fruit pies.
There is a place in Broward where you can buy live turkeys for Thanksgiving. I am not sure if they have poultry all year long.
I would be excited to help research a source list. Are we really the first to look into this?
Has this gone anywhere? I’d be very interested in trying to compile a list of local sources. Apparently there’s a local cheese maker in Palm Beach County (Turtle Creek Farms?) that makes some excellent Chevres and i know there’s a grass fed meat source somewhere in Florida as well.
The authors of the 100 Mile Diet will be speaking at the Book Fair tomorrow (Sunday) at an “Eating Green” panel! I’m all for starting a list, and even more ambitiously, of what’s available by season. I’m going to start working on one for Miami Dish and will be happy to share so that the information can reach as many people as possible. The beef is from Al’s Natural Beef. I saw them on the Redland Organics website. Interestingly there are some tilapia farmers down south now too.
Does anyone know a good place to get locally grown flowers? I’m getting married soon and want to keep the cut flowers to a minimum, but I would like to have some, and want to get locally grown. Any ideas?
I am returning from a Sustainable Living internship in Oregon next week. This place (Aprovecho.net) is hosting a 100 mile diet internship in September this year (2008). I have committed to participate in the 100 mile diet from my home in Hollywood, Florida. For this reason, I have been (and will continue) researching locally grown foods to prepare for my commitment in September. I would be glad to share my information, and I would love to see some of the information you all find.
Yes, I’m still working on my list. My goal is to have it ready for the summer for all. Rachel, please share whatever you can too!
The tea salon & restaurant Theine uses as much local / organic food as they can. The owner, Kyra White works with the local CSAs and other industry providers. Theine is located at 119 Maderia in Coral Gables (5 blocks north of Alhambra 1/2 block east of Ponce de Leon). They are open 11am-6pm Wed-Sat only. Sometimes closed for events – so you may want to call first 305-774-0228. The food is GREAT!!
what a wonderful surprise to find an active 100 mile diet here in miami! wondering if there is yet a website with local restaurants and shops that support local produce/products?
and please, no whole foods… they are putting all the small healthfood businesses out of business. even have gmo foods (you can tell because the little sticker on the fruit with 4-5 numbers always starts with 3; organic starts with 9 and conventional with a 4).
i’ll visit the tea shop for lunch this week. thank you to all who posted.
alice moffat