The “100 Mile Diet” is pretty much what it sounds like: you source everything you eat (or as much as possible) from within a 100 mile radius of your house, and, in many ways, it has become the poster child for eating like a TreeHugger. Because everything you eat (or, again, as much as possible) comes from your own neck of the woods, it makes some very tangible differences, like cutting way back on food miles — from an average of 1500 miles to less than 100 — and some less tangible ones, too, like forcing you (in a nice way) to really think about where everything you consume comes from, and helping you engage in mindful eating and consumption. As a follow-up to yesterday’s intro to green eating practices [www.sundancechannel.com], practicing the 100 mile diet is one way to green your food in a hurry, and TreeHugger has a slew of info on it. Here are some of the best.

1) We were first introduced to the idea [www.treehugger.com] a few years back (here’s part two [www.treehugger.com]), where we learned what some of the implications were for living on such a diet. These include both good things — fewer food miles, a palpable connection to our own food supply — and bad, like reduced selection, less variety and far less convenience.
2) Still, we liked the idea enough to hold a contest for a 100 Mile Thanksgiving [www.treehugger.com] (pictured below); after we gave them a cheat sheet, for the New York area, at least [www.treehugger.com] readers sent in their menus, and we were impressed by the winner’s [www.treehugger.com] ability to assimilate the contest with the tradition of the big meal.
3) The movement has gained enough traction among gourmets and foodies to have a name coined for those who practice it: locavores [www.treehugger.com]. Clever, don’t you think?
4) As the idea became less and less obscure, more and more people began needing more information; as such, the 100 Mile Diet website [www.treehugger.com] was born.
5) In the same vein, we found dinner party menus [www.treehugger.com] for 100-mile diets in four cities, helping to prove that it is indeed possible to follow the 100 mile rules and still have an entertaining, satisfying evening with friends.

6) Still, finding suitable food (and enough substitutions) is an ongoing challenge, but we have some ideas and resources [www.treehugger.com] to help combat this predicament.
7) TreeHugger even practiced what it was preaching, and had a little dinner gathering for some of its staff [www.treehugger.com] (pictured below) in Newport, Rhode Island; it was a perfect 100-mile meal, but it sure was fun!
If doing it yourself is still too intimidating or time-consuming, it’s good to know that at least you can still go out for a good, local meal; Harvest Restaurant [www.treehugger.com] and Konstam [www.treehugger.com] are just two of many, many examples of restaurants jumping about the 100 mile bandwagon.

Technical Difficulties

Our second GREEN meeting in Second Life with Simran Sethi was held on Tuesday Night. The topic on the table that evening – “How can we green our own homes?”. The crowd was there and ready to go with questions for Simran and it was shaping up to be another informative meeting in Second Life and then…..the audio went out. Boo! It’s kind of difficult to hold a live Q&A when you can’t hear the audio….and so it goes when you’re dealing with such new and cutting edge platforms – right?

That said – we have to commend the attendees that night. Everyone was very patient and understanding of the situation and an insightful discussion on “cradle to cradle” design broke out between the avatars in the room. After numerous attempts to fix the audio problems – we had to throw in the towel. But we’ll be back next week, rested and ready to go. We were able to save some of your questions from Tuesday night and will address those at the next GREEN meeting, as well as questions on our new topic “Cities and Waste”.

For a slew of great photos, be sure to check out our SECOND LIFE PHOTO ALBUMS. [www.sundancechannel.com] Also, in order to give you a visual of how cool video can look on our virtual screen in Second Life, check out this photo of our screening room with a Simran Sethi webisode playing in the background.

Next GREEN Meeting in Second Life:

Date: May 1st
Time: 10pm EST / 7pm SLT (Second Life Time)
Topic: CITIES – How trashy are you? How can we reduce waste in our own cities?
Where: THE GREEN meeting will take place in the Main Screening Room on Sundance Channel Island.

See you there!

Sundance Channel celebrated the launch of THE GREEN, our weekly night of programming dedicated to the environment, with a star-studded party. The evening featured performances from Macy Gray and Lifehouse, along with a slew of celebrity interviews. We put the best snapshots from the evening into the video below. We hope you enjoy.

Now that you have watched the video, we are inviting you to log into our discussion boards [www.sundancechannel.com] and let the world know your opinion about THE GREEN.