By Cheryl Wood

COULD YOU ditch the supermarket trolley and spend a whole year eating only food grown or reared in Fife?

That’s what several families across the region are intending to do as they embark on a 12-month experiment known as the Fife Diet, which is to be launched at Falkland Estate on Friday.

Already 19 people have stepped up to the challenge and it’s expected more will join them.

The Fife Diet is the brainchild of Mike Small, a writer with a keen interest in ecological issues.

With wife Karen and his two young children, Sorley (3) and four-month-old Alex, he will be endeavouring to put only Fife produce on his plate over the next year.

The experiment aims to raise awareness of the wide range of locally-sourced produce available and the environmental benefits of eating food which has not been flown halfway across the globe to your table.

It takes its lead from the 100-Mile Diet which was born in Canada two years ago when Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon decided that for a whole year they would buy or gather all their food and drink from within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver.

They were distraught by statistics telling them that, on average, each ingredient in a typical North American meal has travelled at least 1500 miles.

The 100-Mile Diet captured the imagination and has grown from being a personal crusade to an international movement.

Mike, who lives in Burnt- island, is hoping the Fife Diet will have a ripple effect here, spurring others into reducing their own food miles.

He said, “The environment is a big issue and everyone is looking for creative ways of responding to it; this is a creative response.

“It is about embracing the aim of eating local, boosting the local economy and reducing your food miles and carbon footprint.

“One of our main aims is to act collectively.

“Lots of people feel threatened and scared by the climate change issue,” Mike added.

“People might be doing this individually but our aim is to bring them together.”

Participants will meet regularly and contribute to a group blog, swapping recipes, information about suppliers and providing moral support to each other.

Although the idea of not being able to pop out to the supermarket and pick up the first thing that comes to hand for dinner might seem a terrifying prospect, Mike said it is a fear quickly overcome.

He said, “The best way to start is to think ‘Can I cook a meal with locally-sourced food?’ After that you begin to think about it and it becomes less daunting.”

He pointed out Fife is rich in locally-produced food.

He said, “The region is bountiful in seasonal fruit and vegetables, fantastic farm-reared lamb, beef, poultry and amazing seafood.”

There is also an abundance of farm shops stocking everything from potatoes to honey, and the region even has its own brewery.

While it might seem an austere way to live, Mike explained participants would be sticking to the diet as rigidly or loosely as they choose.

“It’s not meant to be puritanical, it’s more a celebration of what Fife has to offer.

“I’ll be using things like olive oil if it means I can cook a fantastic fish dish, for example.

“Most fresh herbs you can grow yourself.”

By the end of the year, he said, the Fife Diet will have generated more awareness about the region.

He said, “We will know about what is made in Fife.”

The launch of the Fife Diet takes place in the stables workshop of Falkland Estate on Friday, from 1-3pm.