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The Power of One Book

In the Waterloo Region of Canada, the recent One Book program is having lasting effects. As the local newspaper, The Record puts it,

The One Book, One Community selection this year, The 100-Mile Diet, is sparking debate around local dinner tables. The book describes the challenges and benefits of eating food from within a hundred miles of the home. Salmonella in tomatoes, E. coli in spinach and mad cow disease have people thinking about the origin of their food.

The program also sparked another program — a bus tour to showcase produce from local farms. In addition, a local politician has introduced a “resolution in the legislature that will promote local food in schools.”

The Waterloo Region’s One Book program began five years ago and community participation has exceeded expectations. This is the first year they have selected a nonfiction title.

In the US, the he 100-Mile Diet was published as Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (Harmony, 2007). It’s no longer available, but a title with a similar theme, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver has been selected by some communities. It is now available in trade paperback.

  • Paperback: $14.95
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 29, 2008)
  • ISBN-10: 0060852569
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060852566
  • Audio CD: Unabridged, $39.95
  • Publisher: HarperAudio; (May 1, 2007)
  • ISBN-10: 0060853573
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060853570

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 5:00 pm and is filed under One Book Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “The Power of One Book”

  1. Brock Martin Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    A quick FYI: ‘Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally’ by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (Harmony, 2007) was released in April by Three Rivers Press under the title ‘Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet’ [ISBN: 9780307347336]