Joanne Young carries a basket around her yard, filling it with beans, apricots and plums. The Eat Local One Year project is about saving energy and raising awareness.

Kris Young samples a sunflower in his backyard. The Youngs started their project after reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

Ojai 06/27/08 Joanne and Kristofer Young have converted their land to planting fruit trees and vegetables. Leeks are a part of the long list of vegetables they have on their land. The Young's have launched a new project called Eat Local One Year. Starting in 2009, the group will eat, with some exceptions, only food grown locally. Dana Rene Bowler / Star staff

Eating fresh, locally grown produce such as carrots, celery, sweet strawberries and plums every day for an entire year may not seem like such a challenging concept. It's when you have to give up foods like chocolate, coffee and rice produced outside a 100-mile radius from where you live that it becomes difficult.

This is the commitment Jo and Kristofer (Kris) Young are making starting in January when they will become "locavores" for one year.

The Ojai couple, both 56, got the idea from Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." The book is about Kingsolver and her family's decision to eat only foods produced within their own county for a year.

The Youngs are looking for 100 people in Ventura County to join them in the project.

Jo Young said they have three main reasons for starting this project they call Eat Local One Year: global warming, national security and supporting the local economy.

"Everyone knows that something needs to be done about global warming, but no one wants to go first. So we're saying, we'll go first,' " she said.

She learned from the essays "The Oil We Eat," by Richard Manning in Harper's magazine, and "Energy Use in Agriculture," by David Pimentel, that if every person ate one local meal a week, 1.1 million barrels of oil would be saved.

Kris Young said he is concerned about relying on foods grown through industrial farms after the recent salmonella outbreak and the E. coli threat from spinach a couple years ago. Tainted tomatoes were originally suspected to be the source causing the salmonella scare, but other produce might have been the cause.

"Food is critical. It's obvious that we've been taught that we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket, but that's what industrialized farming does," he said. Jo Young added, "If something happens to our food supply, we're in real trouble."

She said participation in the project is redefining what it means to help the local economy.

The Youngs are not alone in their beliefs. There is a nationwide trend of people giving up food that's shipped from out of their areas. With this trend are television specials, Web sites, and a number of books like "Food Not Lawns" by H.C. Flores and "Wake Up and Smell the Planet" edited by Brangien Davis, about the social and environmental benefits of adopting a locavore lifestyle.

Rachel Morris of Ventura has heard about eating local from a number of different sources. She said she has "thrown her fork into the ring" and will be taking the locavore challenge with the Youngs in 2009.

Morris, who used to be an organic farmer, said one challenge will be talking to farmers and making sure their food is actually local.

"Just because it comes from the farmers market doesn't mean it's going to fit in with the locavore project. Some (farmers) travel more than 250 miles into the farmers market," she said.

Kris Young agrees there will be challenges.

"There are certain things you can't get, like grains and rice," he said. "You're not going to have prepared foods. Health-wise it's better, but harder with time."

Local farmer Phil McGrath, of McGrath Family Farms, said there will be foods that may be a little harder to get in the area, such as dairy products. But there are plenty of vegetables grown year-round in Ventura County and fruits within a 100-mile radius.

"I don't think there will be any restraints nutritionally, being in Ventura County," McGrath said.

Evan Rilling, a 24-year-old Ojai resident, said taking on the challenge won't be much different than the way he already lives his life. He grows a variety of fruits and vegetables in his garden.

"I think it's a good idea because it's going to make people aware of where their food comes from," Rilling said.

Although not everyone may be able to commit to the project because of economic disadvantages, no home garden or lack of easy access to locally grown foods, Kris Young thinks anyone can contribute in some way. He hopes to have an additional 10,000 people in Ventura County lend their support. Among things he suggested are growing a single plant or eating one completely local meal during the year.

The Youngs are holding meetings, including canning, jarring and vinegar-making workshops, and local food potlucks for anyone interested in the project.

"It's a good place to start for those of us who have greater means to help everyone else," Kris Young said.

For more information on the Eat Local One Year project, visit http://www.eatlocaloneyear.com.