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With the advent of high-end grocery stores, like Whole Foods, many of us have developed exotic tastes in the name of a healthier lifestyle. There is however a hidden cost to many of the exotic healthy products that we purchase.

Have you ever given any thought to how far the food you eat travels? Wether it is your bottled water from Fiji, your banana from Honduras, your Red Snapper from the Gulf of Mexico or your spagetti sauce from Ohio , all of them travel many hundreds or even thousands of miles to get to you.

What is healthy for your body may not always be heathly for the planet. All of the traveling your food does before it gets to you results in more and more pollution entering the atmosphere. Eating locally is not an original idea. In fact it is quite the opposite.

It was not until the last 70 years that food began traveling such great distances. If you ask a grand parent, they may be able to stories about Milk that was delivered by horse cart, or canning vegtables and fruit, or buying eggs that were never refrigerated. Obviously few people have the time to raise their own food, but what if you and your family tried eating a 100 mile diet? It is much easier than you think.

Here are some ideas from a website called the 100 Mile Diet.

1. Start small
We walked smack into a year of strict 100-Mile eating. That was a big, blind leap into the unknown. You can start with a single meal, a 100-Mile day, a one-week commitment. Most people partner up, or do the 100-Mile Diet as a family or group.

2. There are no rules
Make your 100-Mile Diet experiment a challenge. If you’re trying it for a day, consider getting tough: every ingredient in every product has to come from within 100 miles (that was our rule for a year). Over a longer period, escape clauses are nice. Maybe the occasional restaurant meal or dinner at friends’ houses? And what will you do if you travel? Ask some deeper questions, too. If you eat meat, where does the feed for the animals come from? If you’re vegetarian, would you be prepared to eat animal products if no beans or tofu are raised where you live? If you just can’t live without coffee, don’t let it stop you. Wave your magic wand and declare it ‘local.’

3. Surf the internet
There are likely resources specific to your area, from lists of nearby organic farms to community kitchens where people get together to can foods. A great resource for Americans is Local Harvest, where you can find markets, local-food-friendly restaurants, farms, and food delivery programs for every region. Folks in the UK can visit BigBarn

4. Find your farmers’ market
The easiest and most fun step toward eating locally. Make the market a weekly priority for your food shopping. To find yours, search the web, look for listings in local newspapers, or call your area’s tourism office.? Check out our 13 Lucky Farmers? Market Tips for more info.

5. Find your farmers
Most larger cities and many smaller towns have organic food delivery companies, often with direct connections to local farms. Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which you support a specific farm by paying a lump sum at the beginning of each growing season and then sharing in that farm’s food products year-round. Most delivery and CSA programs have websites, or try contacting your regional organic certifying body or farmers’ association.

6. Start a garden — even a tiny one
Self-sufficiency feels good, and greens up our cities and towns. We live in a one-bedroom urban apartment but grow vine beans, tomatoes and herbs in pots on our balcony. We also have a 3′x12′ plot in a community garden, which is run by a cooperative community group. Is there one in your neighborhood? If not, remember this: many began as ‘guerrilla gardens’ planted on longtime vacant lots.

7. Plan a winter garden
Winter is a tough time to find local produce, but you might be surprised at what still can grow. Ask your gardening friends or at garden shops, or read through regional seed catalogues. We keep garlic, kale, mustard greens, turnips and cabbage going throughout the winter. Spinach and Swiss chard are other good winter greens. Friends as far north as Whitehorse, Yukon, have extended the growing season with a backyard greenhouse.

8. Buy in bulk and preserve
Buying bulk saves money, and since it is often hard to find local preserves, you may have to do it yourself. Well, throw a party. With a few bottles of local wine and cider, even a small group can make quick work of canning jams, pickles, fruit and tomatoes. We also froze corn, spinach, carrots, basil pesto, beans, brussels sprouts and more. A cornucopia for the winter. Don’t know how to do any of this? Neither did we. Call up your elders before the knowledge is lost, try the local library, or go online with National Center for Home Food Preservation.

9. Join the movement
If you haven’t already, sign up with the 100-Mile Diet Society to receive updates, calls to action, and seasonal toolkits to help you bring your eating closer to home. In the coming months, this website will beg

For more information visit http://100milediet.org/home/