My 10-Mile Diet ... in a Global Food System

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



by Vicki Robin
posted Sep 10, 2010


Vicki Robin here, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life. For 30+ years I’ve been running experiments in conscious, frugal, creative, sustainable, self-sufficient living, so when Tricia Beckner asked me to eat only what she can produce on her CSA farm-ette for a month, just to see what happens, I was game. As you’ll see, we’ve widened the circle a little to include food produced 10 miles from my home on Whidbey Island, with exceptions made for 4 essentials: oil, salt (+5 other spices), caffeine, and lemons (until I can find local apple cider vinegar).


This morning, while making my now habitual (how quickly habits can change) breakfast of eggs from my neighbor Tricia, onions, tomatoes, and zukes from my backyard garden, I heard a story on Democracy Now about the food riots in Mozambique. Wheat prices soared due to crashing supplies, and people could no longer cope. Thirteen people died when police apparently ran out of rubber bullets and started using real ones.

I listen to Democracy Now most days. I like knowing the back stories to the NPR news, the political and social injustices that lead to world events. But I don’t take it personally except to the extent I try to live a moral life and do work to make the world a tad better.

Today, though, I heard this story through the lens of the 10-mile diet. It’s about the vulnerability of the global food system in an era of shrinking resources, economic downturn, and climate “events." Aware of the effect that weaning myself from dependency on that system has on my own food security, I dug in to the story of the riots. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/vicki-robin-my-10-mile-diet/my-10-mile-diet-...-in-a-global-food-system

[mzteris]

1. read the rest of her blogs about this -

so cool!