AERO KUFM Commentary

August 26, 2007

“The 150 Mile Diet”

by Bruce Smith

On average, 72% of what you spend on food goes to the middleman. That means that most of your food dollar leaves your community, never to return. If we can grow onions, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and many more of the other things we eat right here in Montana, why are we paying people in California, Arizona, Mexico, and China to grow them for us? Wouldn’t we be a lot better off if we bought them from our neighbors and started building relationships locally while building our communities at the same time?

After reading and researching the whole “eat local” movement, I am convinced that by eating a locally produced, locally processed, seasonal diet, we can create local food systems that are self-sustaining and that will help us build our communities into the livable, vital, and viable places we would hope them to be.

One way we can help create sustainable, local food systems is by adopting the 150 mile diet. You can go online and find lots of information about the “100 mile diet”, which is fine if you live on one of the coasts, but for those of us in the interior, 150 miles may be more reasonable.

So what is a 150 mile diet? The 150 mile diet is a commitment to only eat foods that have been produced within 150 miles of where you live. Currently most of the food we see on the store shelves travels at least 1,400 miles or more before we see it. That means fruits and vegetables picked before the peak of their nutrition and flavor so that they can survive the journey. (And if you have ever noticed, there’s plenty of food that doesn’t make the trip in the dumpsters behind the stores.) But guess what, you get to pay for those too because the stores have to mark up their prices to make allowances for what they have to throw away. So currently we are paying for the privilege of buying underdeveloped fruits and vegetables that don’t taste very good while subsidizing the transportation and food brokerage industries. Both of whom provide a valuable service, but they may not be the best places for us to invest our money.

These aren’t the only costs you pay. The further away you are from where the food is actually produced the more hands it has to pass through. Every time it passes from one link to another in the food chain, the more likely it is that something detrimental could happen to it. And every time your food passes from one link to the other, someone gets their cut of the food dollar. The more links, the more your food costs and the more likely it is that something that takes away from the quality of the product is going to happen.

In addition, every time the cost of living goes up, each link in the chain wants its piece. When you start multiplying it all together, the only sensible thing to do is to cut as many links from the chain as you can, preferably going right to the source to get your food. Building a relationship with the people who provide you with your food can be a rewarding experience in many ways. There is something satisfying and therapeutic about knowing who and what you are supporting.

While the 150 mile diet may be something noble, it is important to maintain a healthy diet, which means that it may sometimes be difficult to find the locally produced foodstuffs necessary. All things in moderation. While you can become a fanatic, it may make sense to start slowly and build up to the 150 mile lifestyle. A slow transition would also allow time to develop the relationships necessary to create the local food systems we want and need. It would allow producers the time to plan what to plant to satisfy the growing demands of the local community without either the producer or the consumer becoming frustrated and scrapping the system before it gets a chance to mature.

“Buy locally, think globally” has probably never been more relevant at any point in time in our history than it is now. When our honey could come from China, our grapes from Chile, and our snow peas from Guatemala, we are in danger of allowing local sources of food to disappear from the food system. Programs like “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” and organizations like Grow Montana and Slow Foods understand the connection between buying locally and the sustainability of our food systems.

Eating is a conscious decision. What you buy and where you buy it are choices you can make about your health, your future, and your community’s future. But don’t stop at just buying food locally; start thinking about all your purchases and where they come from. You can make a difference by purchasing locally produced goods and by supporting the values you want to uphold.

This is Bruce Smith, board member with the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. AERO would appreciate your comments and perspectives. AERO is a grassroots membership organization working to help create sustainable farm, food, and energy solutions for communities throughout Montana. For more information about our programs call us in Helena at 406-443-7272.