Update: Scotland’s Fife Diet, Plus Bananas in Manitoba
NOVEMBER 7, 2007 - Alisa wrote a few days ago about the Fife Diet, in which 19 brave Scots will attempt to eat foods only from within the Kingdom of Fife (read your Ian Rankin!) for a year. The challenge, which launches this Friday, has stirred “a tremendous response,” says founder Mike Small - and remember, we’re talking about the British Isles, where local eating is already a near-mainstream concern. And if you’d like to tap into the way local eating is playing out across the Atlantic, check out the BBC interview with Mike.
Meanwhile, the 100-Mile Manitoba experiment is another example of how public debate can open up when a committed group of people make the simple, commonsense choice to eat locally. Here’s an update from Will in Winnipeg, Manitoba - and I have to admit the Assiniboine Park botanical conservatory’s treats were not the kind of November eating I was expecting to hear about…
100-mile diet is going great here. A couple churches are doing 100-mile, or partial 100-mile, fall suppers. The Conservatory (indoor tropical garden place) is inviting us all for Manitoba bananas and chocolate. CBC TV wants to do a follow up with us. No one’s got scurvy yet. A Manitoba wine company invited us for a wine tasting event. The Manitoba Food & Wine show offered us a display table for free. AgriCore United (a big ag company) invited us to speak at a staff lunch event. We’ve had lots of other such invites. And lots of connections have been made with food producers. We’re also hoping to spin off a policy group that will study government policy angles and meet with the powerful . . .
Cheers, Will. Enjoy the local(!) banana fondue. Anything is possible.
-JBM
