Crazy Idea: a month as a lookavore

A locavore is someone who eats foods produced "locally" (e.g., within 200 miles). But what would you call someone who obtains their calories only from operations they have seen and inspected with their own eyes?

• Lookavore
• Inspectavore
• Connectavore

It would take a little thought to put together the "rules of the game".

What constitutes having seen and inspected a place?

How much of the process must be witnessed?

What exceptions can be made? (Maybe flavorings, spices, herbs, salt, ...)

As a stunt, it should only count if you have done the inspection since the beginning of the ordeal, which would make the beginning quite an adventure.

For practical purposes, it might be kinder and gentler to allow a degree or two of separation:

buying food directly from someone who has seen the operation and represents it as something you can support (and is presumably willing in principle to allow you to inspect it for yourself if you wish). Or trading with a neighbor who went through the process themselves.

Ultimately the goal could be to have a robust web of trust where everything desired could be had from some source that someone known to you could personally vouch for.

Bits and pieces

Bits and pieces:

• Maybe my dream of a hybrid RV isn't so crazy after all:

"they have announced a partnership with coach makers Jones and Sons Chassis. Their plan is to make a hybrid motorhome with a 150 mile all-electric range and a total hybrid range of 500 miles. Cross the country in just six stops? Sounds good to me."

• Also, new of electric trucks

Company officials at the UK-based Smith Electric Vehicles announced on Friday that they will begin manufacturing “The world’s largest battery-electric-powered truck” at a new plant in Kansas City, Missouri.

The battery-powered Newton will be the first vehicle to be produced at the new plant, but starting next year, the plant will manufacture an electric version of the new Transit Connect light-duty vehicle in collaboration with made by Ford Motor Co. ... The company hopes to begin rolling Newtowns out of the new Kansas City plant by the third quarter of 2009.

• I thought this was a neat piece on vertical gardens.

"A vertical garden is essentially a framework of plants placed onto the side of a building or a wall. They can be placed indoors or outdoors, in full sun or shade, depending on what types of plants you want. You can plant all types of flowers and plants on them, including epiphytes, tropical plants, succulents, ferns and even herbs. Check out ELT Living Wall Systems for a great list of plants to try if you want to do it yourself."

• And a nice write up of dealing with a share of a split hog.

"Ms. Tamar Adler, our fearless leader here has requested I post some photos of my recent Porcine Project, which I've done, along with a bit of the back story." It comes complete with lots of pictures.