Smith, A. D. and MacKinnon, J. B. 2007. The 100-mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. Toronto: Random House Canada. Print.
After reading the reading the first chapter of the 100-mile diet, I found myself beginning to wonder about the practicality of this experiment. Is this something I could potentially accomplish or is it one those scenarios where the author, narrator or human guinea pig says, "don't try this at home folks". However, as I continued to read further into the book; I began to think about the different recipes and stories the authors have mentioned, and the theme of the book started to became more clear to me. I think the purpose of the novel was not so much a challenge for the reader to try complete the 100-mile diet after they read the book, but was in fact trying to give the reader a better understanding/appreciation for the food that they eat and how it came to be.
"When eating fruit, remember who planted the tree;
when drinking clear water, remember who dug the well."
- Vietnamese Proverb
This was a quote I found in the book and I think it sums up the authors' message very nicely. Speaking from my own experience, I know it can become easy for a person to become completely self absorbed in the routines of every day life, and I find in these moments that I can easily become disengaged from the relationships I have with my food. Which makes it easy to forget that bacon comes from a pig, or bananas come from the tropics. However, I think the best way to solve any of the social justice issues related to agriculture or any other kind of food production, is to get the consumers to care about and to truly understand what it is that they are eating.
Thomas, I completely agree that people (as well as myself) are really disengaged from where their food actually comes from. I like how you put it, "its easy to forget that bacon comes from a pig and bananas come from the tropics" because that's true, and especially for younger children growing up in big cities.
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