Natasha and I caught an episode of a reality show last night called “100 Mile Challenge” where volunteers in Mission, British Columbia do a cold-turkey switchover to only eating food grown locally. It’s almost cheating to base the show there – with the Okanagan valley and Vancouver Island within striking range they have some of the best food-producing regions  in Canada at their doorstep. It’s a cool show, and it’s inspired me to look a little more off the beaten path for tasty local food producers.

I’ve been observing the 100-mile and slow-food philosophies for a while, and I’ve taken some good lessons away from it. With our various food allergies it makes sense for us to do a lot of “from scratch” cooking, which in turn leads us to look around for good seasonal produce and meats, a lot of which are best from local sources. I’ve got a much broader awareness now of what’s in season, and I’ve become considerably more open-minded about trying all kinds of fantastic foods.

The 100-mile limit is somewhat arbitrary though, and the organic politics are frustrating. This is where I diverge from the typical tree-hugger foodie party line – I think the trend towards organic local farming is short-sighted and self-indulgent. Organic food grown close to home tastes great and is arguably more nutritious (or not?), but we have a responsibility to make the most efficient use of dwindling arable land to feed more than just ourselves. The green revolution was anything but “green” – massive monocropping, advances in genetics, mechanization, transportation, extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers came with an environmental cost, but helped put an end (sortof) to famines and increased world food security even though the world population is still increasing at a tremendous rate. Maybe these are necessary tradeoffs? I’m willing to eat less tasty (and less ethical) food sometimes if I know I’ll be able to eat again tomorrow.

On the show last night we watched some of the participants use what looked like half a tank of propane to boil down a bucket of ocean water for a teaspoon of “natural” salt. Food production and efficiency have a complicated relationship.