What, Me? Opinionated?

It’s been pointed out by a few members of the studio audience that I came on a little strong in reference to the 100-mile diet in yesterday’s Breakfast with a Calculator post. In fact it wasn’t my intention to dismiss the diet as totally silly. I confess to being rather intrigued with it, if only as a teaching tool, a way for people to get educated about the foods that come from the regions where they live. Fascinated as I am with the subject of food production in general, I’d be curious to know about any food that’s made within 100 miles of me, be it farmed or processed, since it’s my opinion that to know our modern food system is to appreciate it, however flawed it may be. That’s not the point of the 100-mile diet, I understand. But neither, I have to believe, is subsisting for months on radishes in a $2500-a-month apartment in lower Manhattan, as a pair of 100-mile diet fanatics famously did last winter. But far be it from me to pass judgement on how these ascetic foodies choose to pass their free time. My hope is that once their food adventure was over they not only had a greater appreciation for how those who came before us lived, but for the many blessings of the modern age.