Local, they say, is the new organic. It nourishes your body, soul and community. But local sourcing is almost impossible. Few communities have enough local production to cover even 5% of eaters’ daily fare. Most of us depend almost entirely the corporate industrial food system for every bite we eat.
Local used to be the way everyone ate. Could it be again? Let’s run the 10-Day Local Food Challenge and see. How local can we go? For how long? The challenge isn’t just “can you do it?” It’’s can we do it? Can we all bring our eating closer to home? And if not, why not?
The experiment is simple: For 10 days or more eat food grown within 100 miles or less of your home. Give yourself 10 or fewer exotics, foods from afar (like coffee or oil) to make it do-able.
Why 10 days? That’s long enough to go through a life-changing experience but not so long that busy people can’t imagine doing it. Go more if you like. The longer you go, the more you see, the more you change..
Why 100 miles? One hundred miles is now almost synonymous with “local”. Also, 100 miles as the crow flies should be an abundant, varied eating region for most of us. You can cast a smaller circle if you want to, and go wider if you are sure that 100 miles still won’t work where you live. The USDA considers 400 miles “local” – a day’s drive. Some people think of their state as local. The idea is to set the bar high enough so you stretch, but low enough so you are pretty sure you can do it. The point isn’t the miles; it’s community, belonging and abundant local food systems.
Why 10 exotics or less? Some foods are so essential to our well-being that excluding them could be a deal breaker. What are your exotics? Oil? Avocados? Chocolate? Coffee? Salt?
The 10-day Local Food Challenge is open to anyone. We welcome individual eaters, groups, clubs, organizational partners and sponsors to join. October 2014 is the main month, but for this pilot challenge we welcome any starting or ending time September through November. Maybe you’re traveling. Maybe you need time to find enough variety of food. Maybe you procrastinate. All good. This is an experiment on many levels – testing ourselves, testing the sturdiness of our local food systems, discovering the barriers to “local food” being on everyone’s everyday menu.
You can join any time in the Fall of 2014. We suggest you pick 10 days sometime in October because National Food Day and World Food Day fall then – and because it’s harvest time. Join the launch tele-class on September 9 by registering here. Vicki Robin and invited local food leaders will go into depth and detail about this collaborative experiment: why it matters, why all good-faith efforts can help the local food movement chart an effective course, and some helpful information that can give your 10-Day 100-mile journey a better chance of succeeding. No worries if you can’t join the call: it will be recorded.
In October a workbook based on Vicki Robin’s book, Blessing the Hands that Feed Us, will also be available for download at http://vickirobin.com. In November she will facilitate a 4 session deep-dive into the issues we surface while doing the 10-Day Local Food Challenge.
