Here are some Local Food Challenges going on around the world. I was thinking that people with allotments/community garden plots or a home kitchen garden would have a great advantage in this sort of the challenge. Is anyone's allotment group, community garden plot, or council thinking of doing this type challenge in 2007? I am thinking that it might be an opportunity to increase the skills of diverse plantings and also timing crops to produce more steady yields than all at once yields. And likely there could be a great deal of sharing of seasonal recipes. Most of these are 100 mile/160 kilometre challenges. However I have read that a local food challenger in the UK figured out that from a sustainability standpoint it would be best if food came from within 12 miles/19 kilometres.
For this year there is the opportunity to try a local Fall Harvest meal as noted in the http://100milediet.org/thanksgiving/ below. In October 2006 a number of people in Mendocino Co, CA, USA are challenging themselves to eat as much of their food locally as possible. Here's a blog for people in the Willits area http://www.relocalize.net/blog/42 and people can sign up with Jason Bradford to participate: jason at redinet.org Willits also has a number of other ongoing local food projects. www.willitseconomiclocalization.org/ Anderson Valley is keeping up with events, restuarants serving local foods, and stores with local food. http://www.coastlocalize.org People are celebrating with local food potlucks, harvest festivals, and workshops. They also have a list of challenge ideas for the month http://www.coastlocalize.org/html_pages/October_Challenge.html San Franciso did theirs earlier in the year during May. http://www.locavores.com/ http://www.wisefoodways.com/ One of their members created a local food cookbook called Full Moon Feast http://www.wisefoodways.com/moons/ Here's a radio interview with the author http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/745 The group also developed a local food wheel http://www.localfoodswheel.com/ If your group decides to a food wheel I'd recommend a few differences: 1) Make it larger. (Also plan to redo your wheel in a year or two to incorporate the improved access to local food that usually results from localization efforts.) This group did incorporate a rotating ring to provide info and reduce the size of the wheel. 2) Make rings on the wheel for the various categories of food such as dairy, fish/aquatic, fungi, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds, meat, vegetables 3) Consider if it would help to divide each month in half to more clearly show what is available at any given time. In Canada Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon did a 100 mile diet from Spring 2005 to Spring 2006. They had a real struggle at the start, and a much better time when the farmer's markets were in abundance. http://100milediet.org/home/ They are encouraging people to try a 100 mile Thanksgiving or Fall harvest feast. http://100milediet.org/thanksgiving/ A group in Vancouver has a blogspot to organize theirs. http://100milethanksgiving.blogspot.com and workshops this week 100milethanksgiving at gmail.com For Local Food Challenges in other locations see http://100milediet.org/home/ http://www.relocalize.net If you know of other Local Food Challenges or help start one yourself, please add to this thread. Anyone participating in your local challenge or the international Thanksgiving/Fall Harvest one at http://100milediet.org/home/ ? Sharon gordonse at one.net
