T.S. Giilck
A Meaford man has recently finished a cross-country cycle tour to highlight the importance of Canadian agriculture and eating local.
Evan Gilroy, who grew up in the area on an orchard, flew to Vancouver on June 7, purchased a bicycle, and spent the next 30 days pedalling his gastronomic gospel back to Meaford. Along the way, he took time to blog about his odyssey.
“The distances that a huge percentage of our food has to travel to get to our dinner plates is mind-numbing,” Gilroy stated. “According to the Region of Waterloo in Ontario 58 commonly consumed foods travel on average 4,497 km to the table. So, I’ve decided to see just what it takes to travel these distances, the energy that it consumes, and the impact that it’s having. I won’t be burning thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels; I’ll be fuelled by Canadian food.”
He made the decision to eat only foods produced within 50 kilometres of his location every day, much like the concept behind the 100-Mile Diet that became popular locally a few years ago.
That meant for some tough slogging and hard choices along the way, and reinforced the idea of how difficult it’s become to try to eat locally-produced foods over the last few decades.
“There isn’t always lots to choose from,” Gilroy stated in a blog post along the way. “This same grocery store I found a brick of cheese and some smoked sausage that were both from within 50 km of where I bought them. Sometimes you have to adapt to what is available.”
In other spots, Gilroy did well from roadside food stands, including fresh cherries in British Columbia. “Was I lucky. Delicious fresh fruit as a snack when you’re cycling is to die for. There were stands on the sides of the road where anyone could stop and grab a basket.”
Along the way, Gilroy met up with the obligatory cast of characters who showed incredible generosity to him and welcomed him with more than open arms.
He’s still mulling over what he learned on the trip, and what might come of it.
It was a low-key journey, mostly for his own satisfaction, but Gilroy also wanted to draw attention to our current food system and its deficiencies.
