Think eating lo-cal is hard? Try eating local in February

 

A few years ago I wrote a story (see below) for the Montreal Gazette about a British Columbia couple who were following what they called a 100-Mile Diet. For a year, they would only eat food that came from a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver home. Their project later became this book.

Writing that story really put the idea of trying to eat local in my head. Ever since, whenever I’ve had the choice, I try to buy locally grown food on my weekly (okay, sometimes daily) shopping trips. It’s not a hard job in the summer, when Quebec produce is everywhere, and we get a weekly box of organic vegetables from farmers  Jamie & Nora Quinn’s farm in Elgin, Qc.

But in the dead of February, with 20 cm of fresh snow on the ground, and last summer’s harvest just a dim memory, it’s another question altogether. You can usually find some root vegetables, maybe some hydroponically-grown lettuce and tomatoes, and apples from storage. Still, I thought I did a good job on a locally-grown dinner for the fam tonight:

• Mashed Quebec potatoes and one of the last heads of celeriac from last summer’s vegetable deliveries
• Quebec-grown turnips
• Quebec-raised turkey meatloaf with Quebec carrots and onions
• And for dessert, stewed Quebec apples.

Not bad for a snowy February day, I’d say.

Here’s that story I wrote:

How what we eat helps climate: What’s good for the environment is great for the economy
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
By Monique Beaudin, The Gazette

Eight months ago, Vancouver writers and J.B. MacKinnon undertook what many thought would be an impossible task – for a year, to eat only food produced within a 100-mile (160-kilometre) radius of their home.

They were concerned about the environmental impact of the global food-distribution system: trucks carrying summer fruit and vegetables to snowbound Canadians, burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“Our food is travelling even more than we do, and that seems ridiculous when a lot of things like salads, carrots and potatoes can grow locally, but you don’t necessarily see them in your local grocery store,” Smith said.

They never expected their “100-mile diet,” which they chronicle in an online magazine, to draw international attention and generate buzz all over the Internet.

The couple had tapped into a growing movement that takes the idea of “Think globally, act locally” to a new level – eating local food supports local farmers and improves the local economy. It reduces transportation, which means less fossil fuels burned, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing local and organic products also reduces the amount of chemical fertilizers used, which cuts nitrous oxide emissions, another ozone-depleting substance.

According to the U.S. environmental research group World Watch Institute, food travels between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres from farm to plate. A diet of meat, grain, fruit and vegetables from imported sources uses four times the energy and generates four times the greenhouse gas emissions of the same diet with locally grown ingredients, according to Swedish research.

Walk through your local supermarket – you’ll see grapes from Chile, oranges from South Africa, and lamb from New Zealand. Even in November, when Quebec farmers’ markets still carry local produce like onions and apples, many supermarkets offer the same products – but grown in the U.S.

That’s a lot of trucking and transportation. British researchers estimate about eight tonnes of CO2 emissions are created each year in the production, processing, packaging and distribution of food for a family of four. If that figure was applied to Canadian families, it would amount to more than 69 megatonnes of CO2 emissions a year. That’s a big chunk of the 270 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that Canada is supposed to reduce by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol.

Across the United States, and increasingly, in Canada, environmentalists and food producers are encouraging people to make a conscious choice to eat locally.

Several U.S. states have a Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign. In Quebec, the agency Aliments Quebec promotes local food.

One of the most successful projects to promote local eating is Community Supported Agriculture. Ten years ago, the Montreal environmental group Equiterre launched a CSA project, hooking up a farmer in Mont St. Gregoire south of Montreal with a few dozen Montrealers who wanted locally grown food. There are now more than 70 organic farms across Quebec supported by people who buy “shares” in a local farm’s output and then receive fresh produce during the summer and fall.

Equiterre’s Isabelle Joncas estimates about 20,000 Quebecers eat food from CSA farms.

Agriculture experts say buying locally grown food has other benefits. It provides a reliable source of financing to farmers, many of whom are struggling. That’s what happened with Jean Roussel, whose vegetable farm in Mont St. Gregoire, 50 km south of Montreal, was the first to join Equiterre. His farm has expanded since it joined the CSA program.

“Before, our income was not regular,” said Roussel, who delivers everything from beans to melons in the 300 weekly baskets of vegetables his farm produces. “This has helped us a lot.”

Still, it will take a major change of values to get Quebecers to buy locally, said Paul Caccia, president of the Quebec chapter of Slow Food, the international group that rejects fast food and promotes cooking with local or heritage ingredients. People look for what’s cheapest in grocery store fliers, and don’t think about supporting local farmers, Caccia said. “We pay more for premium gasoline, but then put the cheapest kind of fuel into our bodies,” he said.

It’s a conundrum that has long occupied farmers like Laurent Pellerin, the pork and beef producer who heads the Union des producteurs agricoles. The UPA, which represents Quebec farmers, has had its hand in all kinds of campaigns aimed at getting us to choose locally grown food.

Despite their work, he estimates only 10 per cent of Quebecers actually choose to eat Quebec-produced food.

“It’s the job of a missionary,” Pellerin said. “It’s not easy. For two-thirds of people, price is the most important thing.”

But, he said, perhaps the growing desire to deal with climate change may push more Quebecers to choose local over cheap.

In theory, one could eat relatively well on a 100-mile diet in the Montreal area, people interviewed for this article said.

Farmers grow everything from cranberries to carrots to oats and buckwheat in the fields around Montreal. In a 100-mile radius of the city, there are watermelons, fall strawberries and, in greenhouses, tomatoes and Boston lettuce.

Even in late November at the Jean Talon market, a few hardy farmers were still selling Quebec-grown basil, green beans, squash and more.

But back in Victoria, Alisa Smith is a little worried about what to eat between now and the spring. Unable to find any locally grown wheat, she and and J.B. MacKinnon together lost 15 pounds in the first six weeks on the 100-mile diet, living on things like sandwiches made with turnip slices to replace bread.

To prepare for the winter, they looked to our grandparents’ generation, and froze and canned vegetables during the fall. Still they don’t regret what they’ve done. In fact, Smith said, they’ll likely incorporate some of their new habits into their regular diet when their year-long experiment ends.

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Where to shop for food that’s locally grown

Farmer’s markets: There are several on the island, including the Jean Talon, Atwater and Maisonneuve markets, as well as smaller ones in Lachine and Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

Specialty shops: Marche des Saveurs at the Jean Talon market carries everything from local meat to grains to condiments, 280 Place du Marche du Nord, Montreal. There is a second shop, called Marche de chez nous at the Maison UPA, 555 Roland-Therrien Blvd., Longueuil

Equiterre co-ordinates a province-wide network of organic farms that deliver food. Go to www.equiterre.qc.ca

At grocery stores, read labels or ask employees where the food comes from. More chains are making an effort to sell local produce in season, said Laurent Pellerin of the Union des producteurs agricoles. Also, look for the Aliments Quebec label, which identifies Quebec-grown or produced food.

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Montreal’s Foodshed: From Arugula to Zucchini

Here are some of the foods grown and produced in our “foodshed,” a 160-km radius of Montreal.

Arugula, asparagus, basil, beans, beets, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, corn, cucumbers, dill, eggplant, fennel, garlic, kale, leeks, ltuce – field and greenhouse, onions, peas, parsnips, peppers, potatoes, radicchio, peppers, potatoes, radicchio, rutabagas, tomatoes – field and greenhouse, and zucchini. Beef, chicken, duck, pork, turkey, butter, cheese, eggs, milk, soy milk, and tofu. Barley, buckwheat, oats, rye, soybeans, wheat. Apples, blueberries, canteloupe, cranberries, pumpkins, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries – summer and fall crops.