According to the 100-Mile Diet website, when the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient on their plate has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles. Surprisingly long journeys can rob produce of some nutrients and contribute to pollution through transportation. This well-traveled food consumption has been aptly termed “the SUV diet.”

To tackle this long-distance problem, a duo from Vancouver decided to take control of their eating habits. In 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon decided to follow a year-long diet allowing them to only eat foods grown or produced within 100 miles of their apartment. This not-so-simple experiment introduced them to issues like the family-farm crisis, the challenges of the Canadian growing season and the risks importing foods poses for our health and the environment. Their efforts were chronicled in The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating.

Grow your own For green thumbs (or those who aspire to be), growing your own produce is one way to cut grocery costs. The Assiniboine Park Conservatory offers many workshops on kitchen gardening, including a popular hands-on workshop—Veggie Container Gardening 101. Here, experts offer useful advice on how to properly grow vegetables, which perform best with others and digs even deeper —informing gardeners about the different types of soil. To register, visit www.winnipeg.ca/leisureonline or call 986-5663.

The successful, yet challenging, experiment had a trickle-down effect—making its way around the globe—and has been embraced with open arms in Manitoba. Regional cuisine restaurants have long been touting the benefits of locally-grown ingredients. But it’s the ever-growing number of other restaurants, caterers and grocers that have warmed-up to the concept of Manitoban-grown foods that makes the diet easier to embrace.

Melanie Rushton, owner of Food For Thought, a catering company in the North Main area, is beginning to incorporate more local ingredients into the meals she sells. “Whenever we have the choice between purchasing local or not, we always go for the local ingredients,” Rushton says. “We obviously want to support our local economy and the farmers. It’s just a better product. It’s not traveling as long and it retains more of its nutrients.”

As part of this local motion, Rushton created a 100-mile beet borscht and a 100-mile carrot dill soup for locals following the strict diet. “They were very well received. We sold out. We had no idea what to anticipate but there was quite a buzz about it—quite a demand.”

But is it possible to adhere to a strict, local diet with Manitoba’s climate?

Rushton says it is possible, but that it’s not always easy finding local product, a sentiment shared by Sabrina and Franca Longobardi.

The sisters are the founders of Eatit.ca, an online organic grocery store that touts the benefits of eating locally-sourced food. Their storefront at 603 Wall Street now labels all of the food they sell so consumers know exactly where it comes from.

“Fresh food is always the best. Knowing you aren’t making produce travel from hundreds of miles away should make you feel better in itself,” Sabrina says. “There are benefits of doing it in the summertime right off the farm. The mineral and vitamin content diminishes after periods of time—locally, you’re getting everything you want in it.”

The organic market sources its food and ingredients from four or five farmers from different corners of the province, including Portage la Prairie, Swan River and the Interlake. Some farms are as close as the outskirts of Winnipeg.

And while Sabrina says locally-grown food is the way to go, she also warns it’s tough, especially for those who struggle with sensitivities or allergies.

“You’re limiting yourself to what you can eat. If you can’t eat wheat or eggs, you’re kind of out of luck,” she says. “For someone with no real ailments, it’s not too hard to eat local organic, though in the winter it can be tough.”

She acknowledges that organic, locally-grown food can be more expensive, but stresses that if more people start paying attention to what they eat and buy local, it could help Manitoban farmers to lower their prices.

“People expect a lower price because it’s local and they’re confused,” Sabrina says. “They buy it anyway and understand the benefits of buying local. Once we get to the point that enough farmers are growing and selling local produce, they’ll reduce their prices and people will be a little bit happier.”

For more information on tackling the 100-mile diet and retailers and restaurants in our area, visit www.100milemanitoba.org.

Get the local goods
Here are some of our favourite shops that offer locally-grown food on their shelves:

Aviva, 52 Adelaide or 166 Meadowood Drive
California Fruit Market, 879 Main Street
De Luca’s Specialty Foods, 956 Portage Avenue
Eat It, 603 Wall Street
Fresh Option Organic Delivery, www.freshoption.ca
Gimli Fish Market, 596 Dufferin Avenue and 625 Pembina Highway
Harry’s Foods, 905 Portage Avenue
Humboldt’s Legacy, 887 Westminster Avenue
Neechi Foods, 325 Dufferin Avenue
Organic Planet, 877 Westminster Avenue
Organza Natural and Organic Market, 230 Osborne Street
Scoop N’Weigh, 1770 Taylor Avenue
Tall Grass Prairie Bakery, The Forks Market and 859 Westminster Avenue
Vic’s Fruit Market, 1038 Pembina Highway
Vita Health, 102 Osborne Street South
Wenkai Garden Fresh, 2247 Pembina Highway

Some of the restaurants that participated in a 100-Mile Manitoba Culinary Challenge this past winter:

Beaujena’s, 302 Hamel Avenue
Common Ground Café, 79 Sherbrook Street
Dandelion Eatery, 230 Osborne Street
Ellice Café and Theatre, 587 Ellice Avenue
Food for Thought Café, 1236 Main Street
Fusion Grill, 550 Academy Road
Mondragon, 91 Albert Street
Nicolino’s, 2077 Pembina Highway