The Latest

Restaurant Fee Supports Local in Quebec

MAY 2, 2008 - I run a small restaurant in Wakefield, Quebec, called Soupçon. I started something called a green fee, where everyone pays $1 extra to help me support local food as much as possible. The idea was not to just raise my prices but to make people aware that it costs just a bit more, and that I don’t have fish or seafood on the menu because I haven’t found any that are local or, at the very least, eco-friendly farmed.

It’s amazing the response people have - loads of support and they learn that I don’t have steak on the menu all the time because each cow has only about eight rib steaks, and if I’m only buying local, my beef guy doesn’t kill a bunch of cows just for one cut. As far as the veggies and such, I’m getting organized to store and freeze veggies for next winter. Maybe not for the restaurant yet, but at least for my personal consumption.

The way I see it, we spend a lot of time planning to go out with friends to parties or restaurants . . . why not just plan a harvest party with your friends? So, on the days the restaurant kitchen is closed and it’s time for, let’s say, strawberries, I have about five friends get together and prep and freeze or make jam together. The same with all the veggies, we all make tomato sauce and apple sauce together, as a communtiy. We’ll split the cost of the veggies and jars and such.

Hopefully it will be easier to do it together instead of trying to take on everything alone. Those who have a garden, we can buy veggies off them. I’m hoping it will work. I just think if we got back to the basics of spending time as a community it will make life all that much more fun and rewarding. You’ve really inspired me and changed a lot of how I do business and want to live . . . thanks!

-Tanya

Money Where His Mouth is in New York

APRIL 23, 2008 - Here’s a story about local food making inroads into politics…

I panicked when flood damage prevented nearly half the local farmers from planting in 2007. Sure, I didn’t consider myself a big proponent of local foods; I just like putting the best, freshest meals on the table for my wife and son. Still, I freaked, and scoured the web for lists of farmers’ markets, direct retailers and other places where I could get local food.

I made the mistake of doing this at work. My boss was, shall we say, very interested in how I spent my day. I showed him a host of places to get food that I never knew was available locally: meats, cheeses, butter—a lot more than corn on the cob and salad greens. Then I bet him I could do an entire meal using nothing but local foods. He took me up on it, and challenged me to do it for a year.

My boss is a politician: New York State Senator Tom Libous.

Food crops and meats are a $50-million industry in his district around Binghamton, NY. Our math showed that if we could get each of the 110,000 households he represents to have just one $15 all-local meal each week, we could add $86 million a year to the local economy.

Libous knows a good policy program when it’s fed to him and his 15 guests: steak and chicken, potato salad, cheese-stuffed tomatoes and a variety of desserts. The larger challenge was to keep it up for a year. And in some ways, it’s a bigger challenge than the 100-mile diet. Libous’ district is, maybe, 1,800 square miles. The 100-mile diet draws from an area more than 17 times larger – 31,400 square miles.

But I tried.

Immediately, I found I had to cheat. The floods of 2006 had closed down the only flour mill in our district, but there was one just a few miles outside the district. However, nobody nearby presses vegetable oil for human consumption. Try making a good stir-fry or salad dressing without it.

Those exceptions aside, I did pretty well. I joined a community-supported agriculture service for most of my produce, and supplemented it with beef, chicken, pork, eggs and dairy from other local providers. I stocked up on frozen tomatoes and pumpkins as well as good recipes for greens.

But I faced some big challenges:

- There’s no single place to buy local foods once the farmers’ markets close for the season. There’s no year-round farmers’ market in our district, and the closest one is 80 miles away, near Syracuse.

- There was no complete list of local food providers, and I spent weeks going through web sites, agricultural extension lists, phone books and weekly newspapers to compile one.

- There was no USDA-certified slaughter facility nearby. Few farmers were willing to ship meat 80 or 90 miles to have it cut for retail sale.

I persevered. For nine months, I averaged two all-local meals a week and typically spent $35 or $45 on local foods. My all-local Thanksgiving was the best turkey I ever had. The prime rib for Christmas and the ribs and cole slaw for Superbowl Sunday were great. But by the end of January, I ran out of vegetables, except frozen tomatoes.

I still spend $25 or $30 a week on meats, egg, cheese, honey and maple syrup, but one just can’t get fresh local produce in February in the northeast United States—except for some hydroponic lettuce greens I found nearby.

But the experiment, so far, was enough to convince Libous he could help. He secured a $100,000 grant to help local farmers advertise their products. We plan a mass-media campaign, with a number of promotional events; and he’s trying to persuade a local meat-cutter to pursue USDA certification. Every few weeks, he asks me to post an update on my progress on his website, www.tomlibous.com. We call it “Buy from the Backyard.” People can find out what’s available, what the challenges are and even my favorite recipes.

I’m not sure I’ll ever entirely adopt the 100-mile diet: I like my cinnamon and pepper and my three-year-old is fond of bananas. but the experiment has introduced me to a whole new world of food to have fun with. Next up: I’m going to try mutton.

—By Todd McAdam

Heart of Green Award

APRIL 22, 2008 - With the advent of another Earth Day, more and more media are featuring things Green. Even Vanity Fair, the New York Times Magazine—times have definitely changed! It wasn’t too long ago that environmental issues were neither sexy nor newsworthy. We were pleased that the Daily Green included us in their brand-new “Heart of Green” awards, recognizing people who have brought responsible-living messages to the public. What with fellow nominees including Brad Pitt and Leonardo diCaprio, we would be even more pleased if they had an Academy Awards style party . . . (Can you guess that it’s the female half of our duo writing this post?)

Our pal No Impact Man of New York has been annointed into their “Heartburn of Green” category, acknowledging those who have important messages, but one that not everybody is ready to embrace. No Impact Man recently completed a year of gradually eliminating all environmental harms from his family’s life—no plastic, no garbage, no electricity use, and most famously, no toilet paper. We look forward to the day when his anti-consumerist message is more broadly accepted. It could be sooner than we think—we thought we were oddballs when we started our local eating experiment in 2005. Though I have to admit, I haven’t quite convincd myself to do without toilet paper! -ADS

How To Change the Food System

APRIL 15, 2008 - We just received a great how-to program to promote local eating at every level, from individual to government. Here’s the collected wisdom of Guy Dauncey and Carolyn Herriot of Earth Future in Victoria, BC:

40 Ways to Encourage More Local Food Production

For Local Food Growing Champions

1. Form a non-profit society or alliance to champion local food growing, and spearhead a “Grow Closer to Home” food movement for growers and farmers.
2. Work with your municipality to establish Community Allotment Gardens.
3. Hold regular Sustainable Food Forums for networking, education and planning.
4. Organize organic year-round food growing courses and workshops, including for youth, people on low incomes, and ethnic minorities.
5. Encourage micro-market gardening in the city, and Spin Farming.
6. Establish community canning workshops where people can work together to can food.
7. Establish a Farmers Cooperative to share skills, materials, and marketing.
8. Establish a Young Farmers Institute for the next generation of farmers.
9. Encourage more Brown Box and Community Supported Agriculture programs.
10. Celebrate local food through festivals, community events, and by showcasing public food-growing gardens.
11. Encourage more seed saving by organizing an annual Seedy Saturday community show.
12. Encourage Community Fruit Tree Projects to harvest unwanted fruit, and have it juiced for sale and for fundraisers.
13. Create a “Buy Local” label for use in retail food stores.
14. Work with food distributors (e.g. Sysco, Neptune) to get locally produced food into the food distribution system.

For Municipal Councils

15. Make an inventory of all available land, both city-owned and otherwise.
16. Pass a resolution stating the importance of local food cultivation, listing the many benefits of greater food self-sufficiency, and including a goal that most food consumed locally should be grown within a few hundred miles. (e.g. Berkeley Climate Action Plan). Integrate food cultivation into all municipal planning documents. The American Planning Association’s Policy Guide on Regional and Community Food Planning (May 2007) contains 26 recommendations.
17. Support the development of Farmers’ Markets and neighbourhood food stands.
18. Prioritize the use of local organic food at all city-owned events and facilities.
19. Set a goal to develop new Community Allotment Gardens every year, supported by municipal staff. (Seattle has 5.5 municipal staff who support 65 gardens). Create a Matching Grant Fund to support the development of new Gardens, and offer small grants to help with soil-building, water systems, tool sheds, deer-fencing, and improvements.
20. Form a public Community Allotment Gardening Advisory Committee.
21. Pass a bylaw facilitating the development of temporary Community Allotment Gardens on vacant land, and encourage the leasing of vacant land to the municipality or to a Community Gardens Society for the price of the taxes.
22. Issue permits to encourage the development of commercial urban food growing operations.
23. Require the provision of food gardening space in all larger development proposals. In smaller developments, require a development cost charge payment to a Community Gardens Fund.
24. Permit the long-term use of temporary dwellings on farmland for agricultural workers.
25. Integrate ornamentals with edibles, bio-remediation, fiber and medicinal plants in city landscape planning.
26. Establish a community-wide composting program (as in Ladysmith, BC; Halifax, NS; San Francisco, CA).
27. Allowing easier permitting for composting toilets and grey-water irrigation systems.

For the Provincial Government

28. Support “Buy Local” campaigns with grants and other means.
29. Provide financial support for apprenticeship and internship programs created by organic growers.
30. Provide grants and low interest loans to help new farmers buy land, including for the cooperative purchase of land by groups and Land Trusts.
31. Prohibit the removal of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve without replacement with equivalent quality farmland.
32. Revoke the legislation that caused many local livestock slaughtering operations to close down.
33. Remove regulatory barriers that prevent local stores from selling locally grown dairy and meat products, and other barriers to producers processing and distributing their products locally.
34. Create legislation requiring municipal councils to provide at least 15 allotments for every 1,000 households and no more than six people waiting for a plot at any one time (as in Britain).

For Others

35. Garden Centres – support the “Grow Closer to Home” food movement by making feature displays of food bedding plants and sponsoring Community Gardens,
36. Supermarkets – increase the availability of local organic produce, and allow local farmers to deliver their produce directly to the store.
37. Regional Health Organizations and other Agencies - prioritize the use of local organic food in all hospitals, care institutions, prisons, etc. (as in Amsterdam).
38. School Boards – require all schools to develop working food gardens, include kitchens, replace junk food with healthy food, and reincorporate agriculture into the curriculum, including food prep, composting, preserving, animal husbandry, and ethnic cooking. (e.g. Agriculture in the Classroom).
39. Restaurants – cooperate to increase the use of local organic food. (e.g. Islands Chefs’ Collaborative).
40. Colleges – offer “How to Grow Food” and Organic Market Gardening entrepreneurship courses.

* These ideas have been drawn from a variety of sources, including Seattle’s P-Patch Community Gardens (60 gardens, 2000 lots); Amsterdam’s City Food Strategy; and local experience (including the BC Sustainable Energy Association members).

Your Response to BC Local Foods Campaign

MARCH 27 - Recently, the government of British Columbia asked us to prepare a report suggesting how they could promote local foods. But we knew we couldn’t do it without your help — so we sent out an email asking what you thought was needed, and what works already. Five hundred of you sent us your ideas, and it was no mere form letter. You all spent a lot of thought on your responses, and many expressed gratitude to finally be asked an opinion! Let’s hope this becomes an open-door process for governments across North America. Already, we’ve heard that Washington State is making big strides, requiring local-foods be purchased by schools. We look forward to seeing more solid policies being enacted.

We learned that you all love farmers markets, so support is needed in that quarter. We also heard a lot of you talk about the 24/7 convenience of the supermarket system, and the hope that you’d find a local-food section there. And so many of you said you wanted to know just where your food came from - better labelling, in other words. There were many more ideas, and inspiring stories too. We’ll start by sharing the reply from Vonnie in New Hampshire.

First, let’s give a big HURRAY to BC for looking into this! I truly wish the American government wasn’t so owned by huge conglomerates (ie. Monsanto, Mobil, Pfiser, the list goes on…) and that locally owned agriculture could be easier to get (as well as alternative energy sources, but that’s a whole other topic, isn’t it?). The thing that would make it so much easier to find local food sources is if there is a central place that’s widely known about where farmers could list (perhaps free or for a small fee) what they sell, where they are and when they are open or attending a farmer’s market. I am lucky to live within 10 miles of 5 wonderful farm stands, but not ONE of them has any organic produce. That’s a bummer. But, it would be nice to be able to have the info of whether a farm IS organic, do they sell free range meats, things like this all in one resource. Perhaps even printed for the masses, like an addition to the newspapers or something like that.

Of course, there’s the mythical wish that perhaps organic local producers could get tax-cut incentives to actually farm organic, and in turn make the state we live in healthier, and in turn the country, and in turn the planet, but until the big conglomerates can make a buck off it, it “ain’t gonna happen”. We’re two months into being a 100-miler family and I’ve had to do a lot of research online to find some of the stuff we needed locally, it’s been quite time consuming.

The things that do work for me…I have the wonderful farm stands locally, like I said. I also have been emailing some local producers to see where their product comes from (I emailed King Arthur flour, which is located 92 miles from my home to see where the wheat is grown…still waiting on an answer, but just got that one in under the wire!). I have had a hard time finding free range meats here, but did locate this good website, Eat Wild, to help me out…

Also found this wonderful place, Yankee Farmers Market, which has an organic produce farm next to it, once that’s in season. These are located about 45 miles from my home.

Here in NH, we’ve not had any real cohesive attempt to make the local eating, governmentally anyway, a viable reality. Right now, you have to really want to make this a priority for your family, it’s not something most people care about or talk about here. I would love to have that change, but am not seeing any kind of push for that. Right now, with our economy, people seem to be more caring about keeping their houses and jobs then worrying about what they can do to eat more sustainably. Sad, but quite true.

I applaud all that you do. Your book “Plenty” jumpstarted this for me (sorry, I got to read it free from our local library, which is AWESOME), and that lead to Barbara Kingsolver’s book and then to Michael Pollan’s book, and it’s all inspirational. You’re making a real difference one family at a time. So, thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work!

Find Your 100-Mile Circle Anywhere on Earth; and Scottish Folk Who Will Pay More

FEBRUARY 27 - We’ve heard from many of you outside Canada and the US that you, too, wished to find your 100-mile circle. Now you can! And to make it even easier, you don’t even need the postal or zip code. Just type in the place name, whether it be Hove, England, or Taipei, Taiwan. We’ll be updating the design soon, but try it out now in the Canada box.

To get you thinking internationally, here’s a story from Rhiannon in Scotland (a place where some have scoffed at local eating, but we know better):

Based in a strong agricultural area of Scotland, we manage to eat a lot of local food by default. Plus we grow our own vegetables. This first arose as a reaction to living more than half an hour’s walk from the nearest supermarket and not having a car, but we’ve continued it since moving house and acquiring a vehicle because we’ve found that there are very few vegetables that taste anything like as good from the supermarket as from the garden.

We’ve been surprised by the number of things that we didn’t think we’d be able to grow that have nevertheless done very well: aubergines and chillies (in a greenhouse), and butternut squash. Next year we plan to try sweetcorn, and maybe plant an apple tree.

For those things that genuinely don’t grow round here (bananas, tea, citrus fruit, rice, sugar, chocolate), we try to buy fair trade products where possible. This means that the Third-World workers who grow the crops are paid a fair wage, i.e. enough to live on, unlike those who harvest the crops that go to make most supermarket products.

Wine Under Sail for First Time in 150 Years

FEBRUARY 21 - The Languedoc region of France has became a testing ground for a new idea that’s, well, very old too. The Compagnie de Transport Maritime a la Voile (CTMV) sent a sailing ship loaded with fine wines to Ireland last summer, re-launching a practice that ended 150 years ago. What a great green idea - no one is in a hurry to receive wine, as the older it is the finer it gets.

Samantha Brodeur of CTMV said: ‘‘We are beginning with wine, first to Ireland because there is a long tradition of such trade. The fleet will consist of five or six vessels, with England, Belgium, Canada and Sweden as the next countries.” They plan to transport a wider array of bulky goods by clipper as a replacement for gas-guzzling supertankers; CMTV describes itself as Europe’s new merchant navy under sail.

The best thing about shipping wines by sea? The winemakers (admittedly a mystical bunch) believed that after one week at sea, the wines had noticably improved from the constant motion.

Fifty-five wineries participated and every bottle will carry a Sail Wine logo and an ECOCERT certificate. The wines will be more widely available in stores in the United Kingdom in September 2008. We’re glad Canada is on the list for the next batches! -ADS

Colorado Creates Local Chefs; Ontario and Chicago Open Shops

FEBRUARY 6, 2008 - The Culinary School of the Rockies is starting a farm-to-table externship to teach up-and-coming chefs about using local food and sustainable agriculture. The students will spend a week in the North Fork Valley of Colorado with local farmers and wine makers to learn about the soil, the land and the animals. After this, they will spend two weeks in restaurants with chefs who use these local, seasonal and organic ingredients.

- Derek in Colorado

Greetings from the 100-Mile Market in Meaford, Ontario. Inspired by your experience and the success of our farmers market this summer we opened a year-round store as an outlet for primary producers to sell their products. We take a 10-percent commission and charge $4 per day to participate and we man the store three days a week (because the rest of the time we are farming - elk). We have been receiving an amazing amount of support from our community both local and further afield.

- Barbara Kay and David Harper in Ontario

Cassie and Gary of Chicago also let us know about their Green Grocer Chicago. The young couple, engaged to be married, kicked aside corporate jobs to create a store that focuses on organic foods from the Midwest. Read more about it here.

Relearning Swedish Seasonal Ways

JANUARY 31 - I grew up in a seasonal family. When we moved to Canada, my dad was in love with British Columbia and his ability to feed his family. We had five kids and a 12-foot freezer and a canning room, wine room, root cellar, fruit trees and always a garden. I took this all for granted and did not learn the skills of my mother and my Swedish grandmother - you have to be creative to live there! I am now 51 myself, in the process of reading the book and realize I am many steps ahead - I buy honey in Ladner, love to eat seasonally and now have just moved to Vancouver Island. I am going to give this a shot. I am passionate about the seasons and our connections to the environment - and lack of them, in every way, and I think food is the one area we can all relate to . . . this is lifestyle, not a fad. It just takes a little effort and a lot of caring.

-Terry, Vancouver Island, Canada

College and High-School Take on Local Eating

JANUARY 25 - I am a culinary arts student at the Marconi Campus at Nova Scotia Community College. Our class put on a buffet in the country part of our island up in Baddeck and the whole buffet was based on the 100-mile diet, and the buffet was a huge success. It just goes to show that even our local culture can be delicious.

By Reanna, Cape Breton Island, Canada

I’m a grade 12 student and put my entire family on the 100-mile diet for 30 days for a school project. I then proceeded to film the progress, and make a documentary.

By Brittany Joy

Alisa’s note: We’d love to hear about more high-school students leading the charge on local eating like Brittany Joy. And we hope she’ll send us her film, too!