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| Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally | 
 enlarge | Authors: Alisa Smith, J.b. Mackinnon
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $11.98
You Save: $12.02 (50%)
New (10) Used (11) from $9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 195767
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 030734732X
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.56309711
EAN: 9780307347329
ASIN: 030734732X
Publication Date: April 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover. Your order ships promptly and will include a shipping confirmation e-mail.
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Product Description
Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?
Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their “SUV diet” was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.
It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II–era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refused to play by the rules of a global economy. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them.
For Smith and MacKinnon, the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, Plenty is about eating locally and thinking globally.
The authors’ food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, Plenty offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it’s a new way of looking at the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Powerful June 5, 2007
29 out of 33 found this review helpful
With all due respect, I have to disagree with the accusation that the authors "finked out" when the winter months came. Yes, they did a lot of traveling, but when they returned home they found "an incredible surplus of good food". Why? Because they had relied on the same techniques that many of our ancestors relied on to get through the harsh winter months (before there were super Walmarts on every corner): they canned, froze/cold stored and dried when things were in season.
I hardly believe that the point of all this is to say "you must eat 100% within a 100 mile radius" or you have failed, but rather to just TRY. Search out your local producers (it takes a lot of leg work at first, but it's worth it), support your local economy. And, in doing so, you'll meet some incredible people who are not just dedicated to protecting the environment, but who are also very concerned about your health.
 Reading Plenty is like gardening plenty. June 9, 2007
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Reading Plenty begins with whimsy. I enjoyed its early, leisurely pace. A seemingly perfect read. But, here's the thing: there's a passage that describes tomato picking in a late-season field that's littered with rotting fruit. Surprisingly, though, the sweetest finds are found among pounds of odd-shaped discards. That's how I felt about this gem. And that's why I kept reading.
The day-to-day descriptions of the authors' relationship with each other, their families and their relationships with the land are what hooked me. There's great writing in sincerity. The authors are honest. Reflective. And funny. Sadly, though, the best passages are buried in a lot of context that I suspect the editors thought were important and necessary ... like a magazine feature gone wrong.
Would I read the book again? No. Did I learn something. Yeah. Does it linger and would I recommend it? Absolutely.
Informative July 5, 2007
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
This book was easy to read and pretty informative. I don't think I'll view my famrer's market the same way after reading this book about individials who eat only local foods. Funny and easy to follow, it is a light read fro the summer.
 They finked out on the project June 1, 2007
17 out of 36 found this review helpful
I liked this book a lot until I got to the final chapters. They were reaching the dead of winter in Vancouver and I was interested to see how it went. But then the two of them started traveling to different places and experiencing the local food there. Yes, we could all eat locally if we can afford to travel around when the weather gets bad.
Great page-turner! June 17, 2007
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
I just finished this book and liked it so much I had to add a review. I had already heard about their 100-mile diet and I had read their magazine articles from the web site, so I was reluctant to pay full price for the hard cover, but am so glad I did! It is not just a reprinting of the web site, in fact I recognized very little material. It is not a how-to book or strictly an investigative report. It is the perfect blend of memoir, essay, journalism, with a little how-to as seasoning. I turned the pages as fast as a good novel! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I would recommend it to most anyone, not just foodies or regional readers.
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