Sustainable Journey Includes Local Food
JULY 30, 2007 - "We've noticed than when outdoorsy people go on the road, they leave their sustainable values behind them," says JJ Yoshihara, leader of the four-person North American Sustainable Journey.
In their loop through the western half of the continent from San Francisco to Inuvik, the outdoor adventurers are making local food a major part of their quest. Diners? Freeze-dried camping meals with thousands of food miles attached? Forget about it. Instead, they mapped out farmers markets and organic farms (one of their rules is to eat 95 percent organic) and made these a central part of their route. "Though it's turning out to be harder than we thought," JJ says. "Everywhere we go we have to orient ourselves to the resources a new place has to offer."
The local-food portion of their journey was inspired, JJ says, by the 100-Mile Diet, and they've met adherents in many locations. They were amused to find a 100-Mile Challenge going strong in the tiny town of 100-Mile House, BC. (Later, James told me he had received an email from someone there, joking of the connection, and he urged them to do the 100-Mile Diet. Looks like they took him up!)
"It's big in Boulder," says Camilo Lopez, the group's cameraman and a mountaineer who lives in that Colorado city. "It's changed the way my wife eats."
The gang, which includes Melanie Hibbert of North Carolina and Jenny Weisenborn of California (the group met online), had just been climbing in Squamish before their Vancouver stopover. Their trip is about more than food - they seek out sustainably produced gear as much as they can. For instance, JJ wears flip-flops made of recycled tire rubber, and Melanie's backpack is made of recycled plastic bottles.
With the camera rolling as we stroll through the UBC Farm, JJ asks what my definition of sustainability is. What, a question no one has asked me before?! I blather on a while, but then as I'm biking home, I realize what I should have said (isn't that always the way): Sustainability is buying small and living large. -ADS
