On March 21, 2005, Vancouver writers Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon began a year-long experiment. They would buy food and drink for home consumption only if it had been produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. Grist reported that they completed the trial on March 20, 2006. The experiment drew heavy media attention. Grist reported that the couple's column about the 100-Mile Diet, first published on TheTyee.ca, attracted about 40,000 readers and was linked, reprinted and blogged about across the internet. "This is what it's like to witness the birth of a movement," MacKinnon said, and the couple soon launched the website 100MileDiet.org. Salt was the one known exception to their rule, and their book ends with a trip to Bamfield, where they boiled down seawater to make their own salt.
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