OK, the whole point to trying to go with the 100 km diet is to reduce my ecological footprint, particularly the Green House Gas production. As a result my particular concern with this challenge is the weight and volume issue ... how heavy is the food and how often do I eat it.
For example, dried spices I am not going to get in a snit over - the 100 gm of cardamon I consume every year or two is no big deal. On the other hand non-local tomatoes, oranges, bananas, juices are all definitely OUT.
As a rough guideline I have been looking at eliminating non-local wet things: fruit and veg, sauces, jams, etc. Anything that is wet is heavy, particularly in terms of the portion of the weight that is nutrition vs water. We burn huge amounts of fuel and subsequently generate billions of tonnes of Green House Gases moving water around in the form of tomatoes, juices, etc.
Not so tough: In Ottawa there is an abundance of vegetables that keep in storage like just about all roots (potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, etc) and squashes of all kinds. Additionally I have a freezer full of greens and other vegetables that were grown in my own garden, and jars of pickles (eggplant, peppers, onions, beets) that were canned using local produce. For fruits there are apples of course, and my freezer has locally grown pears as well.
For fresh greens the first lettuces are available in May, and kale will grow right into December. For living healthy greens in mid-winter I am growing sprouts on the top of my fridge. I am not sure about the source of the seeds, but even if they are not local they are relatively light compared to the volume of shipped produce that they replace.
Tough: Basically all processed and prepared foods are OUT; for the most part all of the ingredients are not locally grown. No more grabbing a sandwich or soup when I forgot to bring supper. Goodbye eating out for pizza, falafels, chinese, etc except on very special occasions (Christmas?).
Really tough: It is clear that I am going to have prioritize certain things and kiss some things goodbye. While I may find local sources for things like cooking oils and flour, there are other things that are simply not going to be found locally. For some I consume so little by weight that I will not worry too much, but there are other things that I consume enough that it has a significant environmental impact.
I am thinking of things like olive oil, dark sesame oil, tahini, shoyu, rice, raisins, etc as well as the variety of sauces, jams, curries, and various spices that make up my kitchen. Not that I consume huge amounts of any one of these, but taken together it amounts to quite a bit. For example I go through perhaps one jar each of mole, kashmiri masala, adobo, lao gama, wood apple jam, mango pickle, guilin, lime pickle etc per year. Individually they do not amount to much, but taken together it's quite a bit, never mind decent mustard. Sigh ...
Sigh because my intent is to continue after the 40 days and adopt this diet as best I can from now on ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
aw. man. rice is going to be so hard for me if I ever try this plan. even when it no longer forms the core of my meals (like at residence right now), I'm so used to it that it's what I default to.
I'm trying to think of carboyhydrate replacements I usually use instead of rice (bread, pasta) but they're also usually grown more than 100 km away. OR where is this local flour you mention?
(hi! this is Jiayi)
Yes yes, where is this local flour you mention??
They sell stone-ground flour at Watson's Mill in Manotick (http://www.watsonsmill.com/) but it's marketed more as a novelty item for tourists and you got to drive out there to get it. BUT it is less than 40kms away...
Uhh, yeah, I haven't resolved the rice question yet ... also a major hurdle for me.
One partial solution is that when prepared in the same way (boil etc) soft wheat grain works in a lot of situations where you would eat rice. No, it doesn't taste exactly the same, but surprisingly close to brown rice or wehani (compared to what you'd expect).
I know rice it is a major crop in Louisiana so I may eventually go with a combination of cutting back drastically (using wheat) and making sure what rice I do consume comes from as close as possible.
In the end it will depend on how much of the rest of my diet I can get in line.
As for flour, I have not come close to exhausting my current stocks so it has not been a priority yet, but:
"Mountain Path" is 35 miles (50 km? ) south of Ottawa and they are i) organic, and ii) use local as much as possible. http://www.mountainpath.com
You used to be able to get their flour at the Wheat Berry and other places health food stores as well I assume.
I have just requested their e-catalogue and I will report on what else they offer, like whole wheat for that rice substitution.
I meant to hold off on reporting on them until I had checked it out again, but here it is 8-)
Post a Comment