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Do children need to eat natural foods? Absolutely! Don't all of us? And will there be enough good food produced to provide our local populations with foods grown close to home. This is the concern of our time.

The 100 Mile Diet - fact or fantasy. Reading the title, I wondered what it meant - the person had to do a 100 miles during the diet - you know, exercise with eating is supposed to be the best? Or, was it everyone from a 100 mile radius, doing a diet? Hmmmm, time to take a break and read this much talked about book.

Guess what? Neither proved to be right.

Vancouver, Canada, site of the 2010 Olympics was the testing grounds for a young couple who wondered if they could survive on foods produced within 100 miles of their city. Their search for naturally produced local foods and meats was news - most of us don't think about where everything is coming from, and how far it traveled to get to the market.

Those over a certain age will remember the excitement of Japanese Mandarin oranges, and Delicious apples at Christmas time. Other times of the year, you didn't get choices of foods, you ate canned peaches, plums, pears, and applesauce. A can of fruit salad was a big deal, with everyone fighting for the canned maraschino cherries.

Now our supermarkets bulge with exotic fruits, every type, long an and star fruits, pineapple, cantaloupe and watermelon all year round. I can't honestly say that I ever as a child had an apple in the winter except for Christmas, and watermelon was unheard of after August.

Even 30 years ago, we didn't have the fresh vegetables and exotic fruit choices we have now. And our planet is vulnerable because each of the items has to be transported such a long way.

Al Gore, in his recent movie, An Inconvenient Truth, made a telling point . All of us own the results of what the planet contends with in global warming. Each of us has something we can do to help. What can a single person do to make a difference?

The two young authors of the 100 Mile Diet, worried by the carbon footprint of imported fruits and vegetables, made a point of only eating foods produced within 100 miles of where they lived. The 100 Mile Diet is a diary of their food search experiences, and what they discovered. I think it makes for an excellent read, and provokes real thought on the issue.

Thousands are buying this book now, to replicate the authors' search for locally produced foods, towards supporting local farmers and producers in our own community. It is frightening to think

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