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TODAY, MAY 5 San Francisco, CA 2 - 3 pm @ The Ferry Building, Market at Embarcadero 1 Ferry Building #42 hosted by Book Passage with CUESA SATURDAY, MAY 6 SEBASTAPOL, CA 11 am - 1 pm Copperfield's Books Downtown Plaza @ McKinley St. For the full West Coast book tour schedule, see the May 1 blog entry. MAY 5, 2007--The good news is that local eating is taking off and we're hearing from a lot of people. The bad news is, we can no longer get back to everyone (sorry!). We do read every message and get back to as many as we can. Over the next few days, we'll share some readers' comments and questions. From Carolyn in Iowa:

I noticed that you were discussing the relevance of food miles and the need for proper labeling of local foods. Doesn't labeling become a moot point if you meet the people who grow your food? As a society we have lost connection with where our food comes from. A label is at best a passive approach to regaining this connection. Maybe we should measure the number of "human miles" a food travels? Let's see - those green beans coming from Mexico (1) get picked, (2) get boxed at a plant, (3) get loaded on a truck by another worker, (4) get driven to a distributor, (5) get unloaded, (6) get moved to the storage at the distributor, etc… By the way: the last number I heard - 80% of the food Iowans eat comes from outside the state. Crazy - have you seen our soil? We could plant rocks and get carrots in this stuff!!

From Shahar in Israel,

Is local eating going to come to Israel? That's not certain. Maybe after we stop using one plastic bag for every two cucumbers we buy from the green grocer. Consuming local food will make Israelis face some interesting dilemmas, such as buying local milk (with antibiotics and hormones on-the-house) that was taken from the cow while causing so much suffering, or preferring soy milk from the Amazon? Quitting chocolate, tea, and vanilla? Clearing the menu of cashew nuts and spices from India? The farmers there are so poor already.

Thanks, Shahar. Does anyone have a story of eating local food in Israel or the Middle East? One thing we know: every time someone tells us local eating is impossible where they live, someone else proves that it is not only possible - but delicious. From C. in 100 Mile House, BC:

I live in the town of 100 Mile House, which we all refer to as 100 Mile. When I first heard of your project I thought it was a product of our hometown (we have a wonderful farmers' market here). Did you realize 100 Mile was an actual town in B.C.? It would be fun to do a story on the 100-mile diet in 100 Mile.

We know 100-Mile House well, since we travel to northern B.C. every year. But we'll pitch the challenge back to C. and her friends - we're waiting to hear about a 100-mile 100 Mile meal . . . Finally, congrats to Sophie in London, ON, for all her success on the competitive speechmaking circuit, where she's spreading the word about local eating and the 100-mile diet! -Alisa and James

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