Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 8); A Star-Crossed Conclusion

For what it’s worth, we’re going to drive a conclusion to this series today…at least for now.

It’s taken me 8 days to figure out what’s been bothering me about a fundamental assumption of the circle that comes with our 100-mile circle.  It hit me like a shovel today.

The difficulty I have with the circle is that you are rewarded with more options the further you get away from where you started.  50% of the area is covered in the final 25% of the distance.  I agree the distance is an arbitrary symbol – but the shape remains difficult for me to accept.

This is going to take a few maps before I draw a conclusion – but I’m pretty excited to share my thought process from this afternoon.

I started by changing the circle to a star.  I liked the star because as you get further away, the less options you have.  I started with the assumption that we would keep the same geographic area as a starting point (31,416 square miles).  I broke it into 12 equalateral triangles – each one has 3 sides of 78 miles per side (this creates a height of 68.5 miles).  We lose some of the pieces of the circle and the longest point from home (there are 6) is 137 miles from the core:

Some of the distance is much further than the original 100 miles but I’m willing to bet that once we cross a certain distance, longer becomes our friend; it makes the densest population of food closest to us and allows us to be very select on things we decide are worth the distance.  For me, that would include hunting in the North.

But this is just the start…

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 7) – All about limits, City Limits

I wanted to take another look at a map as we draw close to the end of this series.

I have heard people say that they measure local food as a distance from the border of their city – rather than just a circle from where they live.  I was more curious than anything as to the effect of this on our theoretical circle and what a difference this could make.

Toronto’s city core is 243 square miles (630 square kilometers).  The Greater metropolitan Area is approximately 2,751 square miles (7,125 square kilometers).  All numbers thanks to Wikipedia.

I know that neither area isn’t a perfect circle – to simplify my life I have created drawings that treat those two areas as perfect circles and then create new outer limits to our circle that is 100 miles from there.  Let’s start with a look before we break down the math:

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 6) – Wholesale Rule Changes

Since we`ve been playing with maps and math all week, perhaps it`s time to consider a few fundamental rule changes when attempting to define what is local to us.  It`s been fascinating to read and share ideas through the comments on how different our own interpretation of local can be.  Since we`ve been examining different versions of the map, perhaps we should challenge a few assumptions:

• Knowing that much of our food comes from transport trucks; should we give bonus miles to food which travels on highways, especially on non-peak hours?  The fuel efficiency would be better than on back roads which are hard on fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance.  As Toronto is at the intersection of two major highways (one going East-West and the Other North), perhaps our shape should be closer to an inverted `T` to compensate for this distance.
• While many of us adore Farmer`s markets, many of the markets have a rule that mandates no reselling.  This means that two neighboring farms would have to drive their own goods to market and not split the work (this does actively happen in Toronto).  Should their be penalties for these markets (of course there are advantages to no-reselling as well)
• Should the area that is considered local change seasonally – especially for those in Winter Climes?  This would seem against the initial spirit of the idea but focussing a direction to harvest from could maintain less total distance of travel through the year (even when compared to a static 100-mile circle year-round).
• Should larger batches of food be given greater leeway?  Mass consensus in the comments appears to say yes – that we are willing to go th distance to get food that we are more philosophically aligned with.
• Should the storage requirements change the boundaries of local?  Items requiring he fridge certainly leave a bigger footprint than those that can be cellared.  Should we compensate by buying perishables from a closer distance?
• Can we use one food to offset the distance of another – similar to carbon offsets?

Of course there are no real answers to the above – nor need to answer.  It is, however, interesting to consider the ramifications of some of this.  What have we missed?  What is ridiculous to consider?

To see all of the posts in this series, click here.  Be sure to check the comments out as well since many of them are blog posts in their own right – complete with maps, tools, resources and eloquent food for thought.

This is part 6 of a series of re-imagining the 100-mile diet – both by combining philosophical approaches and good old math and geography.  We’re taking the measurement very literally and reapplying it in several different ways – not because we think the measurement should be so literal, but to provide food for thought.  We really hope you’ll join the discussion that’s going on in the comments or on our facebook page.  Every comment between in either place between now and January 13th (5PM EST) will be considered a ballot to win a copy of Keeping Chicken’s with Ashley English.

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 5) – The Squared Circle

Let’s start today’s post with a retraction of a statement from yesterday:

What I like about these shapes – considerably more than the circle is that we’re cutting out a lot of driving from opposite directions.  For example, the half-circle has a maximum driving distance between two farms as 141-miles.  The 100-mile circle has a 200-mile distance between the two furthest farms.

I sat up in bed at just after midnight last night.  I had confused radius and diameter.  The truth is that the furthest distance between two farms in the 141-mile half-moon is 242 miles.  This isn’t all bad news though – there are only 2 farms this far away from each other (the bottom of the half-moons) while every other farm on the perimeter is closer than that distance )while the entire perimeter of the 100-mile circle has all farms at maximum distance).  The further you go in one direction, the least likely you are to need to go in an other (in theory) so there is further positive impact by choosing a shape like a half-circle over the full.

Today’s exploration is to examine the impact of changing our 100-mile circle into a square.  I found it wildly surprising to realize that a 100-mile circle covered 31,416 square miles.  It made not eating locally sound illogical (geographically speaking only).

The difficulty with a circle is that there is so much food at the extremity of its area (50% of the food comes from the 25% of the area that is furthest from us) that a circle could actually encourage us to buy from further away.  By forcing ourselves to a square that would fit inside that circle we could still benefit from food from that distance – selectively.

Let’s take a look at the visual before examining the math:

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 4) – Easy as Pie…

This is part 4 of a series of re-imagining the 100-mile diet – both by combining philosophical approaches and good old math and geography.  We’re taking the measurement very literally and reapplying it in several different ways – not because we think the measurement should be so literal, but to provide food for thought.  We really hope you’ll join the discussion that’s going on in the comments or on our facebook page.  Every comment between in either place between now and January 13th (5PM EST) will be considered a ballot to win a copy of Keeping Chicken’s with Ashley English.

Time for a quick recap:

• We’re exploring imaging different takes on what “100 miles” would mean as a way of exploring local.  We don’t intend to live this literally – and we don’t.
• We’re hoping by exploring the literal geography as a means to promote conversation, thought and discussion around defining the version of local – that works for our house.
• We’ve tackled different diameters, fighting with the border and the lake.
• A 100-mile diameter circle is 200 miles across; something that is likely obvious but an important piece of this discussion.
• We’re taking a look at reapplying the math.  A 100-mile circle has an area of 31,415.93 square miles.
• The outside of a circle carries far more area than the inside.  The outer 25% covers 50% of its area.

For today, we’ll start modifying the shape – namely carving pieces of the pie out.  We’re going to look at 3 different cuts of the pie.

If we decided to use a “half-moon” – and keep the area consistent, we could increase the diameter of the circle.  A 141-mile diameter half-circle has the same area as a 100-mile full circle.

This now includes Lake Huron, Picton and much more hunt-able land if one is so inclined.

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 3) – The Problem with Water…

This is part 3 of a series of re-imagining the 100-mile diet – both by combining philosophical approaches and good old math and geography.  We’re taking the measurement very literally and reapplying it in several different ways – not because we think the measurement should be so literal, but to provide food for thought.  We really hope you’ll join the discussion that’s going on in the comments or on our facebook page.  Every comment between in either place between now and January 13th (5PM EST) will be considered a ballot to win a copy of Keeping Chicken’s with Ashley English.

We identified that the border is problematic for some eating locally in yesterday’s post.  Erin made a great comment in the original article that she lives in Niagara (very close to the border) and that local easily included the other side of the border.  I imagine that the closer one  lives to the border, the less relevant it is in terms of “local.”  I wish that the produce we bought was more specific in where it was grown in the US; but it doesn’t and there aren’t any American farmers that I know of who are offering their goods for sale in Toronto as local so it’s a non-issue for us.

Our second problem becomes the Lake.  We’re going to offer a few ways of accommodating for this large body of water which is, by most determination, non-edible.  I remember eating some of the fish from the Lake as a child but as I grew older this became less advisable.  I am sure people eat from it now but it’s not a significant contributor to our food patterns.

The first thought is just to consider it a penalty.  This, in theory, would provide motivation to try to fix the problem and make the lake a sustainable source of food for future generations.

The next option is to take a similar approach to yesterday (apologies that my circle is a little skewed here – it’s fairly close but not bang-on today):

It’s pretty stunning to me to look at the circle drawn like this and realize just how much of our food is lost.

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet (Part 2) – That Pesky Border

This is part 2 of a series of re-imagining the 100-mile diet – both by combining philosophical approaches and good old math and geography.  We really hope you’ll join the discussion that’s going on in the comments or on our facebook page.  Every comment between in either place between now and January 13th (5PM EST) will be considered a ballot to win a copy of Keeping Chicken’s with Ashley English.

We explored the difference between measuring 100 miles as circumference and then as radius yesterday.  General consensus seems to be that 100 miles is as much an idea and a guideline and we’ll take that as an assumption even though we’re going to dissect the 100 miles several different ways over the coming days.  These posts will use the 100 miles diameter (Option 1, 200 miles across) as a measure for these posts.  As review, a 100-mile diameter produces a geographic area of 31,415.93 square miles.

The geography of Toronto is a fascinating study for this discussion.  There are 2 countries and 3 bodies of water in our immediate vicinity.

A lot of comments identified local as being provincial or national.  It is fascinating to me that local is country specific.  If we lived right on the border of the two countries, our 100 mile options would be cut in half.  If Canada ever bought the United States – or vice versa – our local eating options would dramatically increase.  I’m not casting judgement, just making observation.

Nationalism or not, the food from the US that would be local to us is very difficult for most of us to access.  “Made in the USA” is generally the extent of a label in the grocery store and I don’t know of a single farmer driving CSA shares from South of the border to Toronto (I do however know of people who live in Cornwall and buy “local” produce from small farmers on the other side of the border).  So, for the purpose of discussion, let’s assume the food in the US is off-limits:

10-20% of our circle is in the USA.  It’s a tough percentage to lose as there’s a lot of fertile farm land in that area.

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Re-Imagining the 100-Mile Diet

In today’s post we launch a new series of posts, relaunch our Facebook Page and announce a contest for an autographed copy of Keeping Chicken’s with Ashley English.  We’ll start with the post and the new series as I believe that’s what most of you are here for.  🙂

To see all of the posts in this series, click here.  Be sure to check the comments out as well since many of them are blog posts in their own right – complete with maps, tools, resources and eloquent food for thought.

Re-Imagining 100-Miles
Dana and I went to High School together.  We never dated – we were simply friends through those years, college and as we both started our careers.    There’s not much from those times that relates to this post except for the fact that we’d both gleefully share that we were computer lab partners and Dana teased me (as a friend, not a bully) for being clever with computers.

She would call me Einstein.

I’m rather proud of being a geek and, despite struggling with school, I really am a geek.  And the next series of posts are going to reflect that.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the 100-Mile diet lately.  We aren’t nearly entirely local although we love many of the ideals of being so.  I also know that the idea is not necessarily to be taken literally (it always did make me chuckle in a good way that a couple of Canadians Championed an Imperial measurement for local).  But I do like to think about these things and how they could be useful in our house.  I also like to create maps, formulas and spreadsheets to represent a lot of the ideas that are locked in my head.

Over the next few days I want to share posts that are not meant to attack the 100-Mile Ideal.  I would love to start some conversations and let each draw their own conclusions.  I also have some ideas on how we might imagine – and re-imagine the 100-mile measurement that seems very straightforward.  I’ll worry about the math but I’ll share the calculations for those who are interested.  For those scared of math, we’ll use a lot of visuals.

For today’s post, let’s examine the basics of how to measure the 100 mile diet from the spot you are sitting.

Option 1 – 100 Mile Radius
Find yourself on a map, draw a dot 100 miles from your current position.  This represents a 100-mile radius (the distance from you to the outside of the circle).  Draw a circle that uses your position as the center and the outside are 100 miles from the center.  This is the way the most of the websites and articles I’ve read does so.

The irony of this option is that your circle is actually 200 miles across.  Most food does not come from a single source so if you are getting veggies from a farm that’s 100 miles north and fruit from one that’s 100 miles south, your dinner has travelled 100 miles twice.  This may sound like silly symantecs, but the impact is profound as will be explained later.

Option 2 – 50 Mile Radius
Draw a circle that’s 50 miles from where you sit.  This one is 100 miles across (with you in the middle point).  If you live in a large city, with a large geographic center, this can be very restrictive.

Comparing Areas
Ultimately, food is not grown in a line – it takes space to grow (regardless of how far it travels).  Of course a larger area provides more food options – it also creates options for your food to take longer and drive further to get to you.

It’s important to note that in the options above the radius doubled – but the area and potential transport swelled by far more than 2.  I had to use Google to remember that the area of a circle = Pi (3.14) * Radius * Radius (Pie-R-Squared).  A circle with a 1-inch diameter has an area of 3.14 square inches while a 2 inch diameter creates a diameter of over 12.5 inches.

A circle with a diameter of 100 miles (option 1) has an area of 31,415.93 square miles.  Option 2 has an area of 7,853.98 – half the diameter equals 4 times less area.

The image below is to scale and shows that despite having half the diameter, on circle is far larger than the other:

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The Meatrix…then and now

Sustainable Table produced the following video in 2003:

There are two more videos available on The Meatrix – Canada is mentioned in the second video (I mention this as Well Preserved is Canadian based though we are fortunate to have many loyal followers in the US and UK).  I am a junkie for all things involving The Matrix, food or Keanu Reeves.

The comments on YouTube are eye opening and remind me of how divisive and emotional the subject of food, eating animals, politics and sustainability are.  Some find it funny, others find it offensive that some find it funny, some sing it’s praises and others criticize it for making light of eating meat.  I encourage everyone to challenge everything you watch, do your research and then make the best decision possible.  Communicating with each other will tend to open eyes rather than hitting people over the head and wondering why they aren’t being persuaded.

I lived more than 5 years without eating pork or red meat, raised on and continue to hunt wild meat (both were covered more fully in the article that was my introduction to hunting as a one-time “vegetarian”), supported, withdrew and re-supported our organic system, participated in food debates and briefly helped on farms.  My views change with the more I know and the more I learn.

I worked on a pork farm for about week in the late 1980’s.  There were almost 700 pigs in residence – I was visiting a childhood friend who grew up on the farm and was excited for a vacation and time to help out.  It was a fascinating time.

The family farm had raised pigs for 30 years.  They were second-generation farmers who also raised crops and a small collection of cows.  Their cows grazed openly in fields while the pigs stayed inside for most of their lives.  There were about 30 to a pen (less as they grew).  The pigs had room to run around the pens and keeping the stalls clean was an absolute priority.  The barn was well ventilated and pigs were rotated between pens and fed sour milk (and I believe grain though memory fades).

I learned that if you took pigs in one pen and put them in another pen with more pigs that a fight would ensue as they are very territorial.  If you took both pens of pigs and put them in a previously empty pen, everyone would get along.  I saw the sadness when a trusted sow passed and learned the commitment to cleanliness when my friend had to wade into the septic system (up to his chest) to unplug it so that the pens would not get clogged with manure.  It was clear that this was a priority and could not wait until after breakfast.

I was also there when the pigs were loaded into a truck and off to the abattoir.  It was a bittersweet moment of the completion of a cycle with the reality of what was ahead.

I’ve recently thought that it would be neat to go back and visit and examine with my new eyes just how good or how poor the pigs had it here.  They certainly didn’t have the run of the yard that is offered by family organic farms but they weren’t locked down under Marshall law and have visited other farms which have been much worse.

My theory these days?  Cooking food that was made (or raised) by people you know, including yourself, tastes better.  Get to know a farmer and their farms – a remarkably easy thing to do, especially in cities these days.

If you have a twitter account, you can follow Sustainable Table here.  If not, would love to hear everyones thoughts on the Meatrix – as long as we don’t beat each other up 🙂

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Visiting the local Farmer’s Market in Markham

Dana and I both spent formative years in Markham (we were friends in high school though we became a couple almost 15 years after meeting).  Her family has moved to Lindsay, mine has stayed in the place of my youth.

We were visiting suburbia this weekend as a launching point to go to (and return from) Kingston for a wedding in the family.  We had enough time Saturday morning for a quick trip to the local market.  I am enjoying Ontario blueberries and raspberries as I type this.

I havent been to the Markham Market in years.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The weekly carts were much more focussed than in years past – Markham had become a bloated market with more crafts than food and many more resellers than actual farms.  The market has been trimmed and focused and there was a nice balance of local farm fresh food and other finds.  It’s a relatively small market but well thought out – it would be possible to complete your weekly grocery list here (minus a few things, such as milk, cheese or fish).

There appears to be a balanced approach to reselling – items availably locally were not being resold while items which would not appear otherwise were presented by resellers.  The standout farm (to us) was Clement Farms from Newcastle, Ontario (no website found).  They were friendly, happy and their booth was filled with the results of their hard work.

Here’s some of the pics from Saturdays adventure:

 

 

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