SIX CANADIAN FAMILIES EAT LOCALLY FOR 100 DAYS WITH ASTONISHING RESULTS IN NEW FOOD NETWORK CANADA SERIES "THE 100-MILE CHALLENGE"

"The 100-Mile Challenge" premieres Sun., April 5 on Food Network Canada

Toronto. March 4, 2009 - Can you imagine no coffee, tea, chocolate, olive oil, and even sugar in your diet for 100 days? Did you know that many of these items travel over 1,500 carbon-producing miles to get to Canadian consumers? Based on James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith’s best-selling book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, the new Food Network series “The 100-Mile Challenge” documents the fast-growing trend of local eating - which is healthier and better for the environment - for the first time on television. The series follows the ups and downs of six Mission, BC families who make the difficult, but rewarding, commitment to consume only food and drink produced within a 100-mile radius for 100-days. James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith act as guides in the series. A Paperny Films production, “The 100-Mile Challenge” (6 x 60’) airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT beginning April 5 on Food Network Canada.

The interactive companion website to the series www.100milefoodtv.ca - where Canadians across the country can log in to see where to buy food local to their area, find recipes and use the site to take the challenge themselves - launches April 1.

“We were amazed by the changes ‘The 100-Mile Challenge’ families went through in such a short time, from their health to their sense of community,” say James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, authors of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating and the series’ guides. “It exceeded our expectations in every way-and our expectations were high.”

“Today more than ever local eating is important for our health and our environment,” says David Paperny, executive producer, Paperny Films. “Paperny Films is happy to bring this growing, and very important, food movement to Canadians across the country.”

Each one-hour episode of “The 100-Mile Challenge” details the progress of the six families chronologically, revealing the struggles, triumphs and downright creativity of these residents as they try to cook full meals from local ingredients. From foraging for food in their own backyards to turning a family lamb into sausages, each participant’s eating habits are tested in the extreme - with often astonishing results. Authors James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith bring “The 100-Mile Challenge” to Mission and act as series’ guides, periodically checking on the families'' progress, laying down the rules, and pushing the families to get the most out of the challenge.

- EPISODE 1: The Purge
Sun. Apr. 5 at 8 p.m.ET/5 p.m. PT
James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, the authors of the best-selling book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, rally the residents of Mission, BC to consume only food and drink produced within a 100-mile radius for 100 days. Several families sign-up, but when the first breakfast comes, reality sets-in.

- EPISODE 2: Back to Basics
Sun. Apr. 12 at 8 p.m.ET/5 p.m. PT
With the challenge underway, sourcing salt, honey, wine, and wheat becomes the top priority of the families. When local grocer Steve Peters finds his wheat supply is well short of the amount ordered, panic ensues.