Food miles have become a burning issue in the climate debate as campaigners call for people to eat more local food. What happened when a family tried to survive on food only from Fife?

Whether it's avocados from Peru, green beans from Kenya or lamb from New Zealand, people are constantly being told that their dietary choices have an impact on carbon emissions.

In the US, the term "locavore" has been applied to people that eat locally-sourced food.

And in response to this, green activists in Canada conceived the "100-mile diet", with volunteers trying only to eat food from within a hundred-mile radius of their home.

But another group of volunteers in Fife (Scotland) have adopted and adapted the idea. They've created the Fife Diet and are trying to live on a diet of food that is largely from within the area, shunning air-freight goods.

Local green beans
Green beans are one of many air-freighted vegetables

Writer Mike Small is one of the volunteers and he and his wife Karen and children Sorley and Alex have now been on the diet for two months.

"Its incredible we've come to the situation where people find it inconceivable to eat food from near where you live," Small argues.

"Our food system is failing us all and is unsustainable. In a few years local will be as mainstream as organic and it will be thought ridiculous to purchase air-freighted goods that you could get from Scotland or your own region."

Here is a week in the life of the Fife Diet, as well as the likely menu for Christmas lunch.

MONDAY

Breakfast:
Porridge

Lunch:
"Minestrone del Leven" [Leven is on the Fife coast] with curly kale, parsley, carrots, onions, and chilli

"All our vegetables come from an organic farm in north Fife," says Small.

Dinner:
Homemade rolls and bacon (from Auchtertool, west Fife)

"Our flour is from a mill in Kirkcaldy and we make our own bread.

"We probably eat less meat than before and little or no 'snacks' or processed food like biscuits, and we're definitely getting our five portions of fruit and veg."

TUESDAY

Breakfast:
Homemade bread toast with Fife butter and raspberry jam (from a firm in Newburgh)

Lunch:
Leek and potato soup

"As a family of four we'd previously have shopped at, say, Lidl and Sainsbury's. We haven't been to a supermarket in a month and have cut our costs by a few pounds per week. It's a myth that eating locally needs to be expensive."

Dinner:
Stuffed cabbage and pork chops (again from Auchtertool)

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs and toast (with eggs from Kingsbarns, St Andrews, Fife)

Potatoes
Potatoes are winter fare

Lunch:
Parsnip soup

"The most difficult thing has been preparation time when cooking from raw ingredients. The most rewarding has been meeting people, and discovering what's available from your region."

Dinner:
Omelette and chips

THURSDAY

Breakfast:
Toast and bacon

Lunch:
Carrot soup

Dinner:
Venison stew (from Auchtermuchty)

"We used to eat more of a Mediterranean diet. We ate lots of pasta and aubergine and salad. People now are used to opening up a packet of salad. We as a family have moved away from that," says Small.

"Now we often eat stews and casseroles, something that feels appropriate as its bloody freezing up here. Yesterday it was minus five. Would you want to be eating a salad?"

FRIDAY

Breakfast:
Porridge

Lunch:
Stovies (Scottish potato-based cooked-up leftovers dish) with baby swede, onions, yellow carrots and Fife butter, all from Bellfield near Newburgh

Dinner:
Colcannon - consisting of mash potato, kale, butter, and a little pepper and salt - and sausages from Auchtermuchty

Salt and pepper are examples of things that are difficult to source in Fife.

"It is not possible to entirely self-sufficient, it is not even desirable. We are not advocating complete self-sufficiency or independence, that would never be a true state of affairs. People have always traded," says Small.

SATURDAY

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs on toast

Lunch:
Shepherds Pie

Dinner:
Organic Beef Stew (from a farm in Abernethy)

Bramble Crumble

"Although fresh fruit is limited in this season, you can still get pears and apples which store well, and frozen summer fruits: raspberries, strawberries and brambles are available," says Small.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Starter:
Borscht - Beetroot soup with a circle of yoghurt, served with Aberdour oatcakes

Map of Fife
The bird:
Roast Bronze organic turkeys (from Falkland, near Cupar) with roasted seasonal vegetables - parsnip, potatoes, carrots

The pudding: White chocolate ripple ice cream with Fife raspberries (from Dairsie)

Drinks:
Bouvrage (Alloa, Clackmannanshire) raspberry drink made from Fife raspberries and Christmas ale from Fife

Of course, the range of alcoholic drinks would be limited if the Fife Diet was taken to extremes.

"As far as wine goes, we get fruit wines from Perthshire, some of them aren't that good and some of them are OK. But there is Cameron Brig single-grain whisky distilled in Fife."

It's fine to have the odd bit of chocolate or wine or spice from outside Fife. Those on the diet are not extremists but are experimenting for the future, Small says.

Taken from the BBC Website 12/20/07