Smith, A, MacKinnon, JB. 2007. The 100-mile diet: a year of local eating. Vintage Canada Edition, Toronto, Ontario.
After reading the first chapter of this book I was enthralled. Alisa and James immediately draw you into their journey with charming anecdotes and vivid imagery of the meal that started it all. The authors introduce the characters in a way that makes them larger than life, but at the same time very human. Their friend Ruben is one of my favourite examples of this. He is introduced on page 50 and there are two paragraphs used to describe this “study of contradictions” that is Ruben. By introducing the farmers and vendors they visit, it helps the reader to understand the difference between buying food from a faceless corporation and buying food from a farmer whose face you can see. Alisa and James do an amazing job of taking this story, which could be exceptionally mundane if told by the wrong person, and leading the reader on the journey with them.
The jump between historical stories and the story of Alisa and James can often come unexpectedly and can leave the reader a little lost. It is often hard to follow whether they are talking about the varieties of a plant that used to be grown in the area that they are currently in or if they are talking about the farm that they are currently are on. The reader really must pay attention to the timeline and the transitions between history and present in the writing.
While reading this book I began to realize how we, as a society, tend to underappreciate the resources we are given. The thought of living without wheat, sugar, coffee, and chocolate is something that would be enough for most people to give up on the diet completely. This doesn’t stop James and Alisa though. Their dedication to the diet is admirable. So much of the food we eat is foreign to the region we live and the foods that are native are ones that are hard to find in most grocery stores. The amount of variety we have gotten rid of in the attempt to diversify our diet is astounding. Alisa and James point out that “7000 species of plant have been known to have been used by different human societies throughout history.” (pg. 103). Of this vast variety available to us, we only use 20 species for 90% of our food. James and Alisa do an effective job of providing statistics like these to support their points while still keeping the book interesting to read.
Together Alisa and James tell the story of their 100 Mile Diet in a way that makes you feel like you are personally involved in it. They invite us into this little part of their lives and make you feel like you are personally chosen to be apart of their story. By doing this, they make the story much more relatable and enjoyable to read.
Plants and People 