Ever since James Mackinnon and Alisa Smith spent a year eating only local foods and published their book The 100-Mile Diet, the whole concept has taken off. The notion of eating only locally produced fresh foods and calculating food miles has captured families throughout North America.

           The hundred-mile diet has now come to Mission. Starting June 1, Paperny Films of Vancouver will be filming a dozen Mission families, including mine, who have committed to a total hundred-mile diet for 100 days. They’ll follow these families as they struggle to find sources of local foods to meet the challenge.

           Just think — a hundred days with no coffee, no tea, no caffeine products, no sugar, no beer or distilled products, no soda pop, no chocolate, no fruits unless grown within a hundred miles, no prepared foods with additives manufactured outside of the hundred-mile limit and no McDonald’s, Burger King or A&W — just fresh locally produced and locally grown produce, dairy, meats and fish.

           Already the Mission community is scouring the valley seeking farm-gate sources. Restaurants and food stores are getting ready to offer hundred-mile products and meals. James Mackinnon and Alisa Smith will be on hand through much of the hundred days to provide guidance, support and commentary. Mentoring committees are being formed and recipes exchanged.

           A hundred more families are committing to 50 percent of the hundred-mile diet. This is an exciting project that’s uniting the community and making everyone more aware of the environmental and health consequences of food choices. The production will be aired on the Food Network in February and March of next year.

Provided we in Mission can all avoid caffeine rage and sugar withdrawal, I think we’re up to the challenge. We are all learning the wisdom of the often-spoken words of the member for Delta South, who frequently says: “We all have to eat to live.”

-Randy speaking of the 100 Mile Diet in the Legislative Assembly. 

Watch this clip at Hansard!