This mission, if you choose to accept it, will be eaten with great gusto!

People in developed countries have so many food options that a trip to the grocery market can be a herculean exercise in quick decision-making. A huge quantity of the options in the market come from all over the world, sometimes having thousands of food miles attached to them. A food mile is a numerical indicator of how far food had to travel before it ends up in your local supermarket. Knowing that products with high food miles cause tremendous environmental impact, some people in the world have consciously tried to create a diet regiment called the “250 mile diet.”

The main idea behind this diet is that you eat nothing unless it was harvested and manufactured within 250 miles of your present location. Granted, 250 miles is a very hardcore objective to set, and even if you just limited yourself to food produced in the country you are in, you would still be making a major contribution to the fight against climate change. Nonetheless many people have succeeded in eating foods produced within a 250 mile radius.

In some cases, if you want to eat something like crackers, and depending on where you live, you may need to learn how to make crackers yourself; you could also not eat crackers and instead slice a french baguette into thin slices and use that. Basically you will have to learn how to research local farms and other fresh food producers in your area. Here are some suggestions on how you might go about doing that:

1) A directory can go a long way to helping you find out this information. There is an online website called Local Harvest [www.localharvest.org] that is helpful in finding farms.

2) You could also visit your local grocery marts and ask the manager if they get any of their food products from local producers.

3) Another great way to get to know your local food options is to go to a farmer’s market in your area. We have compiled a list of some farmer’s markets [www.sundancechannel.com] on Eco-mmunity Map, so feel free to check that out. Also, if you end up finding more farmer’s markets that were not listed in our map, we would love it if you created a map marker for the market on our map so that the next person in your area can easily find it on Eco-mmunity.

4) Another great way to get started would be to check out the blog of Leda Meredith, a woman who has pioneered the 250 mile diet with amazing success. Check out her blog here [ledameredith.net].

Thanks for checking out THE GREEN Blog. If you do try the 250 mile diet, even if you just experiment with it, please consider coming back here and making an Eco-mmunity map marker that chronicles your experiences with the 250 mile diet. If you give your marker a title of “250 Mile Diet: (Your City Name)” we will be featuring these markers in upcoming Greenzine mailing lists. Who says you can’t garner a super hero reputation by being green?

You have found the destination for intriguing interviews and engaging questions about environmental topics. Today we will be focusing on Bryant Terry. In 2001, Bryant founded the New York City organization “B-Healthy!” [www.b-healthy.org] (Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth). The organization is really interesting, because it focuses on how the availability and knowledge of good, nutritious food can be a major contributor to the degradation of poor, low-income neighborhoods. We all agree that everyone deserves to have good food that makes their lives more active and exciting. After all, humans have to eat all the time. If every meal seems like a drab repeat of the meals before it, then it’s not hard to imagine how a person could turn to drugs, dangerous activities or other angry distractions. Couple the lack of fun and nutritious food options with a poverty-stricken neighborhood and you have a recipe for many of the inner city problems found throughout America. Bryant wants to do his part to change all this. In the following clip Bryant describes the event that triggered his epiphany and led to the creation of “B-Healthy!”

What Made Bryant Terry a Food Activist?

Now we know about Bryant’s notable organization and we can get involved with the big issues. However, it would be a disservice to you, our readers, if we did not also drive your attention towards a new and wonderful resource for enriching your own personal food experience. Bryant Terry wrote a book called “Grub” [www.eatgrub.org]. In it one can learn about where many types of foods come from, how one can pick and choose among the options to create the best “food system” for oneself and one’s family, and finally, some specific recipes that are no doubt delicious.

Bryant Terry Tells Us About His New Book: Grub

If you want to learn more about Bryant and his time in the Sundance Channel original series BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET, check out our profile section and zip over to his profile.