Slow Food

Wouldn't it be nice to belong to a charitable organization which helps save the world and gives you access to tasty treats at the same time? Slow Food, a worldwide organization started in Italy in defiance of a McDonalds being built in Rome, is a group which does that and more. It is a largely volunteer group which raises consciousness about food issues, both local and international. The group operates through local chapters or “convivia” which sponsor food-related events. Our local convivium, for example, sponsors tastings and dinners of local foods, canning and preserving workshops and is working to keep the Gravenstein apple and Heritage turkeys in commercial production.

So why care about what is happening with our food production? Well, with the rise of the industrial farm, we have seen an increase in the variety of processed foods in our stores and a decrease in the variety of foods that are actually being grown. We are tending toward single species monocultures which are easily destroyed by disease. This happened a few years back to the US garlic crop in the area around Gilroy, California. The whole crop failed and now the majority of the white garlic you see in stores comes from, yep, you guessed it, China.

Slow Food is a way to stop that trend. Every year, Slow Food sponsors an international meeting bringing together small farmers and food producers from all over the world to discuss the art, business and science of food, and to work on collaborative problem-solving. This is truly an organization which embraces the idea of “think globally, act locally.” I encourage you to check out the Slow Food International site at www.slowfood.com as well as that of your local convivium and get the satisfaction that you can help determine what will appear on your plates over the next 50 years.

Thank you!