The Double Disappearance

I heard James Mackinnon, co-author of "The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating" (or, alternately, "Plenty: One Man, One, Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally") tell a sad story about the Great Lakes. During the book tour for “Plenty,” a Chicago reporter groused to James that because of it’s proximity to seafood, the author’s home of British Columbia must be an easier and more enjoyable place to eat food produced only within a 100-mile radius of one’s home. James conceded the point, not knowing how to respond positively to his Midwestern interviewer, and leaving them both unsatisfied.

James then went back to his hotel room, opened the drapes, and looked out upon the Great Lakes. A bit of quick internet research revealed that the Great Lakes once had 32 different species commercially fished from its waters. The reporter's inability to remember or acknowledge the Lakes as a food resource is typical of his contemporaries not just in Chicago, but everywhere. Double Disappearance is when you not only loose the source of something great, but when you also loose the collective cultural knowledge that the great thing ever existed in the first place.

This blog is about finding who and what is preventing the double disappearance of our traditional means of food production, as well as valued cultural and community traditions here in the Midwest. It’s also about finding new and creative methods to sustain local food systems – and create greater food access in a city with unique challenges.