Vicki Robin undertook a 30-day, 10-mile challenge in September 2010. Click here to read her “food rules” derived from the rigors and surprises of her own Local Food Challenge. Very simply, dedicating yourself “faithfully” to living a value you espouse but don’t fully embody is a powerful personal transformational journey. Like Lent or a meditation retreat. Like running a Marathon. It opens your eyes. It strengthens your commitment to be the person you want to be.
Beyond that, it gives you a high-integrity place to stand for challenging the status quo. As the story goes, a distraught mother came a long way to ask Gandhi to tell her son to not eat sugar. “Bring him back in 2 days.” It was a hardship to stay two days in a strange town, but what could she do? In two days she returned. Gandhi looked at the boy and said, “Stop eating sugar.” “Why couldn’t you have told him 2 days ago!!!” “Because two days ago I was still eating sugar.”
If we want a GMO-antibiotic-cruelty-free, non-toxic, fair to farmers and nutritious food supply, the 10-Day Local Food Challenge gives us firsthand experience of what we stand for. We know we are participating in building the world we want, bite by bite, even as we protest and boycott the food system we don’t want.
There are many amazing organizations, networks, campaigns, websites to guide you on your quest to eat and advocate for local food. There are many books to read, lectures to watch. Which ones? The 10-day Local Food Challenge participants will collectively generate lists of our favorite ones.
