My 100 Mile Food Challenge

For the next month (August 2 - September 1) I will only be eating food that originates from within one hundred miles of where I live, ingredients and all! I live in Mohawk, NY which is in an area referred to as Central New York, unless you are from New York City and think the entire rest of the state is called "Upstate."


Everyone I have told about my plan has asked the same question: Why?

I am not completely sure.

The catalyst for this project was one specific quote from the documentary Food, Inc. Gary Hirshberg, the CEO of Stonyfield Farm (known for their yogurt), was discussing the organic food movement:

"We're not gonna get rid of capitalism; certainly we're not gonna get rid of it in the time that we need to arrest global warming and reverse the toxification of our air, our food, and our water. And if we attempt to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and attempt to say we're only gonna buy food from the most perfect system within a hundred miles of us, we're never gonna get there."

This is how my crazy head interpreted Mr. Hirshberg's words: "It's not possible to eat food that only comes from within one hundred miles of where you live." In hindsight, that was not exactly his point, but the seed was planted and over four months it grew into a big crazy tree in my brain.

I am not here to write a synopsis of Food, Inc. because that would be boring and I wouldn't do it justice. If you're interested in why eating local is better for the environment as well as your own health, watch the film, or check out The Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Basically, the idea is to stay away from processed food and eat more whole foods, that means less chemicals, more nutrients, and less fossil fuels for powering factories and transportation. Or at least that's my interpretation, but I'm the same person who thought Gary Hirshberg threw a gauntlet at my face.


Here are my guidelines:

• All foods and all ingredients of those foods must originate from within one hundred miles of Mohawk, NY. I have to be honest, Cayuga Pure Organics, growers of beans and wheat, is 113 miles from me, and I'm okay with that.
  
• Spices do not count. Our entire country was established because Christopher Columbus was sailing around looking for spices. It would be unpatriotic and un-American for me to eschew spices. Besides, because they are used in such small quantities their carbon footprint is minuscule, and I will not use them if they are processed beyond being dried, ground, or otherwise physically altered.
• I will monitor my weight. I am not doing this to try to lose weight, but I think it is important to see if there is a change. It should be noted that this is not a controlled experiment. I will be running more in the next month and training for a triathlon. Also, I've spent that past couple weeks indulging in all the foods I knew would be forbidden in August.
• I will monitor my general health. A few months ago I had a blood test to check my overall health, at the end of August I will get another blood test to see if anything changed drastically.
• I will monitor my spending and compare it to a typical month to see if eating local saves money.

Here is a what I normally eat on a typical day:

(I'm not truly a vegetarian, I just avoid meat except eggs and fish. If someone makes me potato soup made with chicken broth, I'm not going to turn it down.)

Breakfast: 1 hard-boiled egg, 1 slice of toast with peanut butter, 1 glass of orange juice, coffee
Lunch: A salad with an oil and vinegar based dressing or a veggie sandwich with mayo.
Snack: A pepper with vegetable dip, or mixed nuts and cranberry juice.
Dinner: A homemade veggie burger or fish.
1-2 beers.

This is what I cannot eat from the list above:
peanut butter
orange juice
bread, unless I make my own
coffee
salad dressing made with oil and vinegar
mayo
vegetable dip
nuts
cranberry juice
veggie burgers - but I can probably redesign my recipe
fish, unless I catch my own
beer - we have a wonderful local brewery (shout-out, Saranac!) and many more within 100 miles, but the barley they use is not local, nor are the hops, although I would group them in with spices.

Every day I will post what foods I ate, what foods I craved and could not have, and how this whole crazy scheme affects me and the people around me (I cannot go out to eat, nor can I eat birthday cake, and five of my family members have birthdays in the first two weeks of August).

Please check back, for me this is an adventure, and I'm not blogging about it to be persuasive, but I hope that anyone who reads this is entertained by my trials and inevitable mishaps!