The 100-mile Diet
Smith, A. and MacKinnon, J.B. 2007. The 100-mile diet. Vintage Canada. Toronto. p: The whole goddam book.
The fist chapter, March, successfully got me interested in this book. What I had heard of this book before I read it made me think that this was a story about two Vancouver city people trying to eat locally. I initially wasn’t very interested in reading it. But in the first chapter the authors kind of established themselves as not just regular city dwellers but rather people who knew what it was like to live without the luxuries of the city, like the “local megamart” (p. 1) or the “corner store” (p. 2), and people who knew how to “make do with what you got”. So that increased my respect for the author right at the start. A good writing strategy.
The next two chapters, April and May, were alright. It took me a little bit to realize that each author was taking turns writing each chapter. Here Alisa and J.B tell a little bit about their personal histories, and some of the events in their city lives, and how they are starting off on their year-long 100-mile diet. Like good journalists, I suppose, their wrinting style is clever and enjoyable to read. Slowly though I kind of lost interest in the content of the writing. Somewhere in the 3rd or 4th chapters, the concept of traceability of food was brought up. I had never thought of it like that before, but it is a good feeling knowing exactly where and when your food came from. I am fortunate to be able to do this.
As I am writing this, I have now read most of the book. It is a great account of a life-changing venture that these two people took. The book outlined many issues with today’s society, and described some possible solutions. This book is another great selection by my professor to increase our appreciation for the environment. But it seems like this book could be reduced to probably several pages or so of the impotant information and concepts that are in it. I felt there was a lot of “extra” in there. I mean, the purpose of this book was to tell a story, which it did very well, but I just wanted to learn about what eating locally achieved and what this can mean for the future of our communities, and the world. The book definitely opened my eyes a little more to the state of things.
I find it harder to write about a whole book than just one chapter. There’s a lot of information in the 100-mile diet book that can’t be taken in a spat out into legible text that quickly. The best I can do for now is write about my overall reaction to the book and how it promoted environmental awareness for the good of our society.
arlapierre 
I couldn’t agree more. I thought this book could have been less than a hundred pages. I found the second half of the book was too much about their emotional struggles rather than the diet itself. I’ll also admit to zoning out in a few places as they seemed to ramble, moreso in the second half.
Writing on an entire book was tough to summarize I will agree, but because there was so much other stuff in the book unrelated to the diet I didn’t find it as bad as it could have been. Overall it was a decent read with some good points to take from it. Environmental awareness is a good point to take from it as you did. It also inspired me to visit the local farmers markets more often as well. There’s some good stuff there!