A move back to the non-fiction world. I have been meaning to post about this for awhile and anyone who follows me on Twitter (@ToryBachmann) knows that I tweeted a 140 character review of this book a few weeks ago. I actually won a prize for it. If you follow @cbcreads* every week or so they give away free books to people who tweet a book review. So a few weeks ago I tweeted:
“100 Mile Diet: An interesting idea written by pretentious hippies Key point- when you eat ask yourself: Where did this come from?”
Obviously a few grammar issues, but hey! It is 140 characters and I had to add the hashtag for the contest- what do you expect?
So really, what can I say about The 100 Mile Diet? Well that is it- I really only need 140 characters. Very interesting idea. Asked a lot of great questions. It was just a snobby book.
The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Eating Locally came out a few years ago (I, as always, am behind on the trends) and was written by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. The couple lives in Vancouver and not to be judgmental, but you can definitely tell. If you think of your typical Vancouver hippy, then think of them writing a book this is exactly what it would be like.
The idea, being aware of what you eat and where it comes from, is so important, but I could use without the preachy moments.
Is it going to win any prizes for writing? I certainly hope not. This is definitely a case where the message is more important than the quality of writing. Is it a timeless Canadian classic? Nope. Hopefully the message is, but not this book.
I can say negative things about it, but it really did inspire me to look more carefully at what I eat and where it is grown. I mean, 100 miles is fairly unrealistic (and we live in Canada, can we please use kilometers?) but it made me think and hopefully made a lot of people think about what they eat.
So overall, yes it made me start an herb garden but no it did not make me like the authors.
And now you can look forward to a review of my prize- The Secret Life of Glen Gould
* I would have made this a link, but Twitter is experiencing technical issues and I can't access my followers list
I saw these two speak and they admitted to a big flaw in their plan - there was no wheat available commerically in B.C that were within their 100-mile radius.
ReplyDeleteThey went months without any kind of bread products. No pasta, bread, etc. In other words, although they were eating healthier foodm on the whole their diet was lacking crucial nutrients.
This diet is, really, only achievable in places like Ontario, Quebec and maybe the Praries (although I imagine getting fruits might be difficult).
It also highlights a serious flaw in the green movement, namely that it's not particularly accessible.
Tracking down the proper foods and then paying the high price of local, organic foods is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, it's the pursuit of the idle and wealthy. That's a pretty elitist group.
I agree with you that, overall, they have a good message, but it needs refinement.