Plenty

In Plenty, husband & wife, Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinson and co-authors of the book, set out to eat locally on a 100 mile diet for 1 year. They will eat only food that they can get within a 100 miles from their home. They will grow their own food and preserve it. They thought about their ecological foot print and how far their food has to travel to get to them, how much energy is used, the pollution that is caused and what affect that has on our environment & climate. When food has to travel 3000 miles to get to you, how fresh is it? They thought about the farmer, the field workers and what they might be using on their crops to produce so much and get it to you.


When living within these guidelines, you work with what you have or can get. They ended up discovering different ways of doing things, using food they never thought of using, like dandelion greens or squash flowers, and food they’d never heard of. They also used other foods in ways they never thought of , using local berries to make sangria instead of tropical fruits. They formed a relationship with the food they were growing and using to prepare a meal. They also formed relationships with local growers. They were eating healthier & felt better. And at the end of the year, they brought back some of their old favorites but for the most part continued to eat locally.