Plenty: The Grace of Owning Up to Enough
Admittedly, I read this book several months ago, yet it’s had such an impact on me I wanted to turn back time and review it here.
Plenty is the story of James and Alisa Smith, a Toronto couple who spend a year eating nothing but local foods. Their joint decision is set off by an impromptu gathered feast they share with friends while temporarily stuck in their summer retreat in the mountains. When they return back to their normal workaday life in the city, James, who’s documented some less than appealing facts about the sugar trade and other aspects of the global food supply for his day job, talks his girlfriend into attempting this experiment with him: to only eat foods that have traveled 100 miles or less from source to dinner plate.
And though James and Alisa do no planning whasoever — they discover that no one in their region grows wheat so they go without flour for nine months until stumbling over some rougue farmer in the area who not only grows wheat but mills it, too — the sincerity and tenacity of this couple makes for an absorbing story.
The two are talented writers who take turns narrating chapter by chapter. They talk about the changes that have occurred in their region from the early 1900’s to the present, they talk about the challenges they faced with this diet, living in an apartment in a big city, trying to work with local foods while honoring their previous commitment to a strict vegetarianism in which they eat no meat, dairy or eggs (but do eat fish — to my mind, their definition of vegetarian is a little loose to begin with and becomes progressively less strict through the book) yet the whole of the book culminates in an invitation to join them in their adventure.
Local eating has an immediate impact on the environment through reducing carbon emissions from lengthy transportation (most foods travel a minimum of 3,000 miles from field to plate). It also helps to keep communities interconnected — just consider that your average customer has 10 times as many conversations at the local Farmer’s Market as at the local big box supermarket. Farmer’s Markets help ensure that farmers and their help receive a living wage and relatedly this helps to reduce our need for cheap and frequently illegal labor — which means local foods may help us with the security of our borders.
I can’t resist pointing out, however, the difference between the two versions of this book that were released in Canada and in the US. The Canadian version is a straightforward description of what this book is about. The US version, on the other hand, is almost a plea before the reader can look any further — "Bear in mind that we have plenty right now — this book is not about depriviation! Here, look at this big juicy tomato!" And it really isn’t about deprivation. It’s about an awareness that will hopefully lead to revitilization.
At least it certainly has been for me. A few things I’ve discovered along the way: our two local Farmer’s Markets, the Old Guilford Mill which was originally built in 1767 and not only currently makes local flours, grits, dried fruits, and baking mixes but also supplies it’s own power, as well as Local Harvest which connects individuals to local farmers and CSA programs and Slow Foods the organization which will supply any interested visitor with information about their own regional resources.
