Elizabeth Payne, a member of the Ottawa Citizen‘s editorial board, writes that the 100 Mile Diet looks great in the fall, but not so great during a long Ottawa winter.

A spate of recent scares about food — from tainted spinach and cantaloupe to sprouts and carrot juice — has made many consumers hyper-aware of the potential dangers of what they consume. For many, buying local seemed to offer protection against the evils of the food world.

A particularly harsh winter has put that myth to rest for many. Sooner or later, the grocery store and its shiny produce aisles full of strawberries, peppers, lettuce, oranges and kiwi beckon. Local, in this climate, has its limits.

Dr. Douglas Powell (right, not exactly as shown) says buying local is no guarantee against eating food that can make us sick.

"You have good producers and bad producers everywhere whether they are large or small, size doesn’t matter."

Powell said he feels safe buying produce from large grocery stores that are big enough to demand high standards throughout their supply chains. Even then, problems can happen. When it comes to buying local, he asks questions, such as what kind of water is used for irrigation, how often it is tested and where the produce is grown.

The story says that Powell (left, not exactly as shown) is a Canadian who teaches at the University of Kansas and heads the Guelph-based Food Safety Network.

I professorize at Kansas State University.

The International Food Safety Network is worldwide, headquartered on my couch in Manhattan (Kansas). If I’m heading some Guelph knock-off you’d think they could at least give me an e-mail address and not expropriate donations to cover shortfalls in their paper clip fund.