Plenty follows Alisa & James as they try to eat within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver, Canada. "One man, one woman and a raucous year of eating locally" is the tagline; I'm not sure if I'd describe it as raucous... tumultuous maybe, but raucous, no. Their endeavour sees them eat wheat complete with mouse droppings, stink their house out in an effort to make sauerkraut and nearly come to blows over canning of tomatoes.
I enjoyed the book a lot and thought it gave a very realistic interpretation of life trying to eat sustainability; a picnic it is not. We have an emotional connection to our food and often this is reflected back into our daily lives. When we eat healthily and well, we are happy and content. When our food is unhealthy, untasty or (in the case of James & Alisa) unaccessible, we are grumpy and hostile. Despite the trials and tribulations of their adventure I think this is far more healthy than the emotional free existence we seem to strive for in modern society. The loss of the local source of salmon (there was a chemical spill in the year of their study) may have been particularly heartbreaking but the joy felt (even by me) when they finally managed to source local wheat was suprisingly overwhelming. Its hard to get upset, angry or passionate about a happy meal or frozen pizza.
On the otherhand, whilst I applaud the point the book was trying to make I am becoming more and more dubious about these "boundary setting" regimes. It all seems so ridiculously contrived; at one point in the book a fellow "local" eater tells Alisa that they've set their limit to 250 miles to allow them to access certain favourite foods. Not to mention that local/seasonal food rarely takes into account fair miles and emissions from locally grown food (although the book does touch on this briefly, citing a study which found that if the UK was to produce all its own food locally, the carbon emissions would be far greater than the same food being grown and shipped from New Zealand).
The book is one of a number of adventures I've read about this year in which people document a year of "alternative lifestyles" As a wannabe "sustainability scientist" I am failing to grasp the true purpose of these books; are the writers activitists who are trying to change the world for the better, or are the books money-making exploit by journalists eager to tap i
nto our inner concerns and exploit our hope for utopia by living out our dreams. Mostly they turn out to be unrealistic, unachievable and just a exercise in navel gazing. At one point James spends hours at the kitchen table seperating wheat from mouse poo. I mean seriously, who does that?
I think I will give the authors of Plenty, the benefit of the doubt, and believe that their intentions are honorable. Their blog and book started a movement in which the "100 mile diet" has become a buzz phrase for local/sustainable eating. The website is interesting and informative, however, I'm not sure many will access it who won't have read the book or already be eating seasonally (something we Seasonal Beets also have to contend with). I'm therefore not sure whether it constitutes a movement or self-congratulatory celebration of how wonderfully sustainable we all are.
Nevertheless when they were talking about the food they were passionate and it invoked some, recently more familiar, emotions of my own in relation to seasonal food. The book also contained some crazy recipes (which was a nice touch) and a few interesting facts and insights. For example seasonal eating allows us to vary our diets without really trying; we've all heard the stastic that we just rotate 10 meals which means we dont get the diversity and depth of nutrition our bodies require (at one point we learn that the average north american gets 50% of their vegetable intake from iceberg lettuce, canned tomatoes and potatoes... nutritious).
Plenty is certainly a good read which really documents the emotional journey that occurs when we don't take food for granted. I think this is a really important realisation; I'm just not sure these stringent diets are the best way to share this experience. Personally whilst I enjoyed the book, I'm not sure it encouraged me to eat more seasonally!
If you would like to read more about James & Alisa's adventures, more info can be found on their website.
I enjoyed the book a lot and thought it gave a very realistic interpretation of life trying to eat sustainability; a picnic it is not. We have an emotional connection to our food and often this is reflected back into our daily lives. When we eat healthily and well, we are happy and content. When our food is unhealthy, untasty or (in the case of James & Alisa) unaccessible, we are grumpy and hostile. Despite the trials and tribulations of their adventure I think this is far more healthy than the emotional free existence we seem to strive for in modern society. The loss of the local source of salmon (there was a chemical spill in the year of their study) may have been particularly heartbreaking but the joy felt (even by me) when they finally managed to source local wheat was suprisingly overwhelming. Its hard to get upset, angry or passionate about a happy meal or frozen pizza.
On the otherhand, whilst I applaud the point the book was trying to make I am becoming more and more dubious about these "boundary setting" regimes. It all seems so ridiculously contrived; at one point in the book a fellow "local" eater tells Alisa that they've set their limit to 250 miles to allow them to access certain favourite foods. Not to mention that local/seasonal food rarely takes into account fair miles and emissions from locally grown food (although the book does touch on this briefly, citing a study which found that if the UK was to produce all its own food locally, the carbon emissions would be far greater than the same food being grown and shipped from New Zealand).
The book is one of a number of adventures I've read about this year in which people document a year of "alternative lifestyles" As a wannabe "sustainability scientist" I am failing to grasp the true purpose of these books; are the writers activitists who are trying to change the world for the better, or are the books money-making exploit by journalists eager to tap i
nto our inner concerns and exploit our hope for utopia by living out our dreams. Mostly they turn out to be unrealistic, unachievable and just a exercise in navel gazing. At one point James spends hours at the kitchen table seperating wheat from mouse poo. I mean seriously, who does that?I think I will give the authors of Plenty, the benefit of the doubt, and believe that their intentions are honorable. Their blog and book started a movement in which the "100 mile diet" has become a buzz phrase for local/sustainable eating. The website is interesting and informative, however, I'm not sure many will access it who won't have read the book or already be eating seasonally (something we Seasonal Beets also have to contend with). I'm therefore not sure whether it constitutes a movement or self-congratulatory celebration of how wonderfully sustainable we all are.
Nevertheless when they were talking about the food they were passionate and it invoked some, recently more familiar, emotions of my own in relation to seasonal food. The book also contained some crazy recipes (which was a nice touch) and a few interesting facts and insights. For example seasonal eating allows us to vary our diets without really trying; we've all heard the stastic that we just rotate 10 meals which means we dont get the diversity and depth of nutrition our bodies require (at one point we learn that the average north american gets 50% of their vegetable intake from iceberg lettuce, canned tomatoes and potatoes... nutritious).
Plenty is certainly a good read which really documents the emotional journey that occurs when we don't take food for granted. I think this is a really important realisation; I'm just not sure these stringent diets are the best way to share this experience. Personally whilst I enjoyed the book, I'm not sure it encouraged me to eat more seasonally!
If you would like to read more about James & Alisa's adventures, more info can be found on their website.
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