Some stats published in the GUARDIAN, of interest...

"I am now going to bombard you with figures. I'm sorry about that, but these numbers need to be tattooed on our minds. Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.
In the UK, the money earned by the poorest tenth fell by 12% between 1999 and 2009, while the money made by the richest 10th rose by 37%. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, climbed in this country from 26 in 1979 to 40 in 2009."

The Guardian    
18.11.11
Updated 18.21

Local Eating - The 100 Mile Diet

When the average North American sits down to dinner each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles. Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chose to confront this alarming statistic with an experiment. Could they live for one year, eating and drinking from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia.

James and Alisa in this challenge came up against issues ranging from the family-farm crisis to the environmental value of organic pears shipped across the globe. They reconsidered vegetarianism and sunk their hands into community gardening. As the world followed their adventure into local eating, the core values struck a far deeper chord than anyone could have imagined. Within weeks, reprints of their blog had appeared on sites across the internet and many media outlets, from the BBC to Utne magazine, took up their story. Dozens of individuals and grassroots groups have since launched their own 100-Mile Diet adventures. 100milediet.org