May 07, 2007

You Need a Radius and a Schtick


Gary Nabhan wrote what I consider to be the book on eating locally, Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods (2001), but he didn't have a schtick.

These people have a shtick. It helps if you coin a new word: "locavore." (Think of Faith Popcorn and "cocooning," whether it was really happening or not--I am still waiting for her 2006 "aromatic deodorant".)

Then you get some adulatory news coverage: at least this writer mentions Nabhan.

Go to the hundred-mile diet website, input a US or Canadian postal code, and get a map like the one above.

Our 100-mile radius would give us wild game, beef, lamb, goat, etc., microbrews from Colorado Springs plus San Luis Valley potatoes (barely) and St. Charles Mesa vegetables. But no distilled spirits and no inexpensive wine.

Nabhan was wilier, I think: he drew his 200-mile circle to include some tequila-producing areas of Sonora and the tip of the Gulf of California for seafood.

And still he got, "the essential cultural relations to the foods that truly nourish us, affirming our bonds to family, community, landscape, and season," to quote one of the book blurbs.

One hundred miles or twice that: if it gets you thinking about the relationships between food, energy, wildlife, transportation, local economies, and all of it, then it's a good thing. And you may well eat better.

UPDATE, May 15: I was wrong about distilled spirits. Whiskey is available, of the ultra-expensive boutique variety.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very interesting post. It inspired us to do the same:

http://www.slvdweller.com/index.php?/archives/2007/05/08/The-100-Mile-Diet-The-San-Luis-Valley-Diet.xhtml

mdmnm said...

Well, you can't beat those lovely sand hills potatoes. If you could just extend the circle a bit south, you'd also get some good hot green chile from around Espanola.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Lots of chiles (I use the New Mexican spelling too) are in fact grown around Pueblo, Colorado.

Y'know, you just inspired a new post.

otowi said...

There is a vineyard in Colorado Springs - I think it is called Pikes Peak Vineyards or something like that - but I don't know their prices.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Pike's Peak Vineyard, like Mountain Spirit in Salida, actually trucks in grapes from the Western Slope, I think.

The Abby vineyard in Canon City grows at least some of their own, but their wines start at about $25 per bottle.