The Boomerang

Darn, once more I let 2 weeks slip by without posting, what happened? I have to echo Denise's most recent blog post that not only has it been quite busy, but somewhere along there trying to do the 100 km diet just became more or less normal

OK, I have encountered another obstacle to the local eating which I think of as the boomerang. My reference earlier to gourmet mustards is a classic example. In that case the mustard seeds are Canadian, probably prairie grown. These are shipped to Europe, processed into mustard, and then shipped back. As a result the total distance is huge relative to even prairie produced mustard.

There are other traps. Assume that you love soba noodles as I do. Looking around you discover Sobaya brand soba noodles are made in Cowansville PQ (near Sherbrooke). Assuming they use local grain, which I still have to check, that is about 250 km. Not exactly 100 Km, but a huge difference from some of the other producers in Vancouver, California and Japan.

So far so good, except .... while some distributers of Sobaya ship through Montreal, others go through Toronto. If you are buying noodles that have gone through Toronto the total travel is more like 1200 km, not 250; ouch. The good news for soba lovers is that the Bank St Herb and Spice orders through Montreal, so you can feel relatively vistuous eating those.

Which is why it is not enough to know where something is processed or grown, you have to figure out both of those AND how it is distributed. Which is enough to make you throw up your hands and give up. Wait, there is hope.

First, I and others are slowly researching this. If enough of us collaborate on figuring out the food system and where you can get the best alternative we will soon have a wikipedia or local food sources. This will mean you can identify your best choices, and like any brand preferences, once you know what you want it is easy to remember.

Second, as more people try to eat locally we create a market for services like Small Potatos Urban Delivery (SPUD) . They are a service where you order on-line and it is delivered to your door. In the radio clip I heard the founder noted that every truckful that goes out for delivery replaces an entire supper market's parking lot full of cars. That's a lot of carbon saved right there, but there's more.

SPUD is organic (yeah), they pay producers fair price, and they source as much of their food as possible locally. They do the work od identifying the sources, you just order what you want.

So far SPUD is only to be found in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and I understand there is a new satore in Seattle, so no Ottawa deliveries yet. However, if there are enough of us committed to low carbon, earth friendly diets it will not be long before SPUD or something like it sets up shop in Ottawa.

Don't wait though, start trying a no Carb(on) Diet now,at least as far as is reasonable for you. Let's let them know that there is a market here and the sooner they set up shop here the better.

Am I going to continue my 100 km conversion? Of course, it is normal now. It will be a while before I have used up all my old rice and flour etc, but I am well on my way to scoring 90/100 for the carbon impact of my diet.