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Josh Viertel Named to World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders 2010
March 3, 2010
Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel was today named to the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL), which is a unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary young leaders who dedicate a part of their time to jointly address global challenges. This honor, bestowed each year by the World Economic Forum, recognizes and acknowledges up to 200 outstanding young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.
This year, the Forum selected 197 people from 72 countries across all stakeholders of society (business, civil society, social entrepreneurs, politics and government, arts and culture, and opinion and media). Josh was among 38 leaders selected in North America. As Josh stated in the news release that the World Economic Forum distributed today, “Changing the way our global food system works, so that everyone can have access to good, clean and fair food, is entirely within our reach. It will take dedication, citizen engagement and collaboration between our world’s top innovators, activists and leaders. The Forum of Young Global Leaders brings together minds that can make this change possible. I am honored to be included among them and look forward to the good work we will do together.”
Click here for more information on the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader 2010.
Help Bring Food and Medical Care to the People of Haiti
January 16, 2010
By now you have undoubtedly seen television coverage or YouTube videos documenting the extraordinary devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12. Reports estimate that more than 100,000 people have died and the figure continues to escalate. What the people of Haiti need is reliable, focused humanitarian relief in the form of food and medical support. If you are able to help, Slow Food USA recommends donating to those organizations that have existing programs on the ground in Haiti. Food First (Institute for Food & Development Policy) has done a great job identifying several reliable organizations that have the infrastructure and experience to provide this support. We urge you to support them in their efforts. You can find more information at the Food First web site (CLICK HERE).
Slow Food USA is Hiring
January 6, 2010
We’re currently on the hunt for some amazing talent to add to our great team. Click here to access the jobs section of our web site. We currently have two critical needs, including a program director and an associate director of development. If you’re interested, send a cover letter and your resume to .
Plan an Event for Terra Madre Day
November 6, 2009
Preparations are underway for the worldwide celebration of Slow Food’s 20th Anniversary and ‘Eating Locally’ on Terra Madre Day on December 10. There are already 150 events registered around the world: a wide range of actions as diverse and unique as the communities holding them, from a shared dinner under an elephant at the Toulouse Natural History Museum in France, to a community folk festival in Bangladesh, an event linking chefs with artisan farmers in Kenya, and a fish canning party in the USA. The goal is to reach 1,000 Terra Madre Day events around the world. Events can be held any time on or around December 10.
To join this celebration and raise the profile of the work you are doing to protect and improve your local food system, register your event on the Terra Madre Day web site. Once registered, your event will be listed by region on the Terra Madre Day map, with a link to a description of what you are planning and contact details.
All organizers who register in time (by mid November), will be sent a copy of the 16-minute Terra Madre People film, to screen on this or other occasions, as well as a Terra Madre Day flag and postcards.
No matter how small or large, your Terra Madre Day celebration will be an important symbolic moment, encouraging the work being done at the local level to build a sustainable, local food system and boosting pride in what we are doing as a global network.
Visit the web site for further information.
Help Georgia Farmers Rebuild
October 14, 2009
You probably saw the news coverage of the devastating floods in Georgia in September. Homes and businesses were half under water, motorists had to be rescued from their cars and people were helicoptered off their rooftops. However, there was one tragic story from the flooding that still goes untold. That’s the major losses suffered by farmers in Georgia where many have lost all of their crops and livestock. Many farmers watched hopelessly as all of their precious topsoil—and this year’s revenue—just washed away. Unfortunately, FEMA does not provide relief funds to farmers affected by the floods; they will only offer loans.
Slow Food Atlanta has rallied together to create the Georgia Flooded Farms Relief Fund. We hope members and supporters of Slow Food USA will give generously to the fund to help get the sustainable farming community back on its feet. Up until the floods, this was a growing, rapidly expanding community of dedicated farmers, growers and breeders dedicated to the Slow Food movement. Through your generosity, we hope to make it that way again very soon.
Matching Gift Offer Extends Membership Drive to Oct. 15
October 2, 2009
Due to the overwhelming response to our September membership drive—and the generosity of one of supporters, Mr. Donald Sussman—Slow Food USA is extending its membership drive through Oct. 15. Mr. Sussman has offered to match all donations, dollar for dollar, as part of this extended membership drive period. Every new gift will now have double the impact. Join Slow Food USA and help us turn the momentum from our national day of action into legislation that protects our children’s health.
As a member, you will:
Get connected to your local chapter, made up of people who care about food, agriculture, health and the environment.
Get invited to local, regional, national and international events that celebrate good, clean, fair food.
Receive member-only discounts on select events and publications.
Become part of a growing movement that is changing the way America eats!
Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste Boards Twelve Endangered Food Products
September 29, 2009
Slow Food USA’s biodiversity committee met over the weekend in Portsmouth, N.H. to evaluate, taste and vote on food product nominations to Ark of Taste. Nominations must: (1) be at risk biologically or as a cultural tradition, (2) be linked culturally or historically to a specific region, ethnicity or traditional production practice, (3) have outstanding taste, defined in the context of local traditions and uses, and (4) have sustainable market potential. According to Sow Food USA’s biodiversity committee chairman Ben Watson, “We don’t want to preserve foods as museum pieces or only conserve the genetic diversity of our food supply. We want to get these foods back onto farms, back into the marketplace and back onto people’s tables.” Twelve products were boarded to the Ark of Taste, including ‘Turkey’ Hard Red Winter Wheat (Kansas), Lake Michigan Whitefish (Wisconsin), Hauer Pippin Apple (California), Canada Crookneck Squash (New England), Burford Pear (Virginia), Granite Beauty Apple (New Hampshire), Newtown Pippin Apple (New York), Harrison Cider Apple (New Jersey), Sierra Beauty Apple (California), White Sonora Wheat (California and Arizona), Pantin Mamey Sapote (Florida) and St. Croix Sheep (U.S. Virgin Islands). For more information, go to the Ark of Taste page.
Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch Campaign Launches National Day of Action
September 7, 2009
It’s the Time for Lunch campaign’s National Day of Action as tens of thousands of people come together on Labor Day as part of more than 300 Eat-Ins (part potluck, part Sit-In) to tell Congress that it’s time to get real food into schools. Preliminary results from the field show that turnout was greater than everyone had planned, which just demonstrates that people are concerned about our children’s health. We’re sending a clear message to Congress that it’s time to update the Child Nutrition Act and invest in our children’s health, protect them from food that puts them at risk and teach healthy habits that will last through life. It’s still early in the mountain states and west coast, so head out and participate in an Eat-In near you, sign our petition to get real food into schools and show our legislators we want them to take action.
Josh Viertel and Ruth Riechl discuss food justice on the Leonard Lopate Show
June 16, 2009
Today Josh Viertel and Ruth Riechl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine, were interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC. The discussion hit several topics—from farm workers’ rights, to access to healthy and delicious foods in our nations schools. When asked why focus on food as a justice issue, Josh pointed out that every societal ill today—climate change, food borne illnesses, obesity, green house gases, health care costs—can all be linked back to our relationship with food and the food industry in America.
The issue of junk food and how to teach healthy eating habits to kids was discussed—pitting children’s health against corporate sponsorship of junk food in our schools. Josh quoted President Obama who said “It also means cutting down on all the junk food that is fueling an epidemic of obesity, putting far too many Americans, young and old, at greater risk of costly, chronic conditions. That’s a lesson Michelle and I have tried to instill in our daughters with the White House vegetable garden that Michelle planted. And that’s a lesson that we should work with local school districts to incorporate into their school lunch programs.”
Hear the full interview at this link.
ED of Slow Food International speaks at Hudson Valley Slow Money Institute
April 9, 2009
Born from the international Slow Food movement, Slow Money is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2008 to catalyze the flow of investment capital to small food enterprises and to promote new principles of fiduciary responsibility to support sustainable agriculture and the emergence of a restorative economy.
With a spirit of fiduciary activism, Slow Money is building the Slow Money Alliance, convening Slow Money Institutes, publishing books and white papers, and incubating new funding intermediaries. Central to its mission is the building of regional stakeholder networks—consisting of food entrepreneurs, NGO leaders, farmers, and investors committed to financing local food systems. Slow Money Institutes bring together 50 to 100 of these individuals in each region to assess strategies for investing in local food systems in their communities. So far, three SMIs have taken place in Vermont, California, and Washington state, with the fourth being held in Hudson Valley, New York April 25-26.
Paolo Di Croce, the Executive Director of Slow Food International, will be a featured speaker at the Greater Hudson Valley Slow Money Institute. To learn more about the organization, visit the Slow Money website (www.slowmoneyalliance.org) or read a Q&A with Woody Tasch, founder of Slow Money, and Slow Food staff member Jerusha Klemperer on the latest book titled: “Inquires into the Nature of Slow Money.”
Naples Daily News provides video and photos from Coalition of Immokalee Workers visit
March 17, 2009
“This movement has been missing something fundamentally important. Today we are making that connection,” said Josh Viertel, president of New York-based Slow Food USA, a sustainable food nonprofit. “Historically this movement has focused on the environment, health and preserving small farms. But we’ve completely missed the boat when it comes to work. Farmworkers need to be part of this movement.”
To read the full article, click here.
Slow Food Portland gets recognized for its push towards food justice work
March 13, 2009
The 600-member Portland chapter—the first in the United States, founded in 1991—is deeply engaged in this shift away from pleasure only and toward policy issues. Its planned events for later this spring include a reality tour of, no, not a craft brewery, but farmworker housing. They also anticipate discussions on Oregon’s need for fair-trade certification that goes beyond imported chocolate and coffee.
To read the full article, click here.
Slow Food and Chef’s Collaborative team to save edible biodiversity
March 10, 2009
Over the past weekend 30 farmers and chefs met with members of Chef’s Collaborative, Slow Food Seacoast and Slow Food USA for the 2009 Grow-out. By bringing old foods back to the table, they are working to help save New England seed varieties which might otherwise become extinct.
To read the full article, click here.
Glenn Roberts and Kraig Kraft Join Slow Food USA’s Biodiversity Committee.
March 9, 2009
Slow Food USA is pleased to announce the election of Anson Mills’ Glenn Roberts and agricultural ecologist Kraig Kraft to Slow Food USA’s “Ark of Taste Committee,” a group that governs a growing catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products Slow Food USA helps ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
To read the full press release, click here.
Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel to give keynote at NJ conference
March 3, 2009
Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA, will be the keynote speaker at the New Jersey Farm to School Network’s conference at The Lawrenceville School 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. April 18. At the first convocation of its kind in the state, discussions will focus on how to start school gardens and increase the use of farm-fresh produce in school lunches.
To read more about it click here.
Slow Food USA President to Visit Coalition of Immokalee Workers
March 3, 2009
Immokalee, FL – On Wednesday, March 4th, a dozen prominent food authors, leaders of sustainable food and food security organizations, and small farmers will participate in a day-long delegation to Immokalee, Florida to witness firsthand the miserable living and working conditions of migrant farmworkers. Delegates will spend the day with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a nationally recognized farmworker organization at the forefront of fighting to improve farmworkers’ sub-poverty wages; combating forced labor in the Florida agricultural industry; and demanding that corporate food retailers use their market power to ensure more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers.
To read full press release click here.
The Gourmet Q + A: Joshua Viertel
Tracie McMillan
November 21, 2008
By the time Joshua Viertel took the helm of Slow Food USA this fall, the 30-year old already had a quiet reputation for mixing a refined palate with grassroots sensibilities. The former farmer’s résumé would make most recruiters pause: There are stints in Sicilian sheep pastures, hurricane-ravaged towns in Honduras, and small New England farms; a philosophy degree and protester bona fides from Harvard; and a job history that includes a reference from Alice Waters. If it seems like a no-brainer to hand the reins of the country’s most prominent food-culture group to this man, some of Viertel’s other passions—grassroots organizing and social justice—suggest where the next generation of American foodies may be headed. Writer Tracie McMillan spoke with Viertel, fresh from Slow Food International’s Terra Madre conference in Italy, to talk about founding Yale’s landmark farming initiative, whether we should be paying more for our food, and finding inspiration in a bodega.
To read full article click here.
Terra Madre conference reveals Slow Food at crossroads
Ann Le
November 5, 2008
Reporting from Turin, Italy—Around the Oval Lingotto, the massive sports complex built to host some of the events at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the buses were moving at a glacial pace. But last week it was 6,000 farmers, fishermen and food artisans from more than 132 countries that had descended upon the halls of the Palasport Olimpico, and they were here to discuss the future of the world’s food supply. This was the Terra Madre conference—a gathering of those who swear by the Slow Food International manifesto—held every two years in conjunction with the Salone del Gusto, the largest artisanal food fair in the world.
To read full article click here.
Letter from Terra Madre, Parts 1 and 2
Ragan Sutterfield
Published: October 27, 2008
At the opening ceremony of this international Slow Food conference, the crowd was dominated by small farmers and the under-30 set.
Nearly six years ago at the age of 23, I began a journey toward becoming a farmer. I started with an apprenticeship that grew to a small livestock farm in Central Arkansas. I did not come from a farming family, and most of the farmers I knew were large-scale commodity farmers. But along the way I found out that Slow Food was holding a meeting in Turin, Italy to gather together farmers who are concerned about quality food and the environment. When I was selected as a delegate to that first Terra Madre gathering, all I had to do was buy a plane ticket and everything else would be taken care of. That trip opened me to a whole new community of sustainable farmers from around the world. So when I had the opportunity to go again this year, I jumped at the chance.
To read parts 1 and 2, click here and here.
Plenty Magazine: Slow Food is planting itself in the South and catching on like Kudzu
Eleanor Barkhorn
Published: October 8, 2008
Despite a love affair with processed cheese and canned meat, the Southern (whole) foodie soul is rising.
Southern kitchens are known for their love of processed foods. In an essay called "Eat Here," Mississippi-born author Julia Reed praises the South as the only place in the country that provides "the opportunity to consume an entirely gelatin-based menu." To read full article, click here
The Pacific Northwest Inlander: Aboard the Ark
Kevin Taylor
Published: October 2, 2008
The Ark of Taste, akin to Noah’s, is a slow boat to salvation. Only on this Ark, even the fishes of the sea are welcome to board.
Jennifer Hall, Spokane’s link to the Slow Food USA movement, did just that recently after a busy summer dealing with sockeye salmon and a particular selective fishing technique known as reef-netting.
To read full article, click here
Sonoma State Star: Campus Club Slowing Down Food
Published: September 30, 2008
Sonoma State has the first official university chapter of Slow Food, USA, a branch of Slow Food, Inc, which is an international organization of over 85,000 members in 1000 local chapters worldwide.
The chapter promotes locally produced food on campus, working with dining services to bring more local food to campus and sponsors chef demonstrations in addition to cooking workshops, farm parties and tours and workdays on farms as hand-on workshops.
To read full article, click here
Asheville Citizen-Times: Slow Food is good for you, planet
Carol Motsinger
Published: September 19, 2008
ASHEVILLE - Salmonella scares and spiking food prices are prompting consumers to rethink eating habits - from what they eat to how they eat it.
To read full article, click here
Wisconsin Ag Connection: Minnesota Farmers to Attend World Food Meeting in Italy
Published: September 18, 2008
Two area farms will represent western Minnesota’s community based food systems work at this year’s Slow Food International gathering, Oct. 23-27, in Torino, Italy. Attending the conference will be farmers and Land Stewardship Project (LSP) members Richard Handeen and Audrey Arner of Moonstone Farm (http://www.prairiefare.com/moonstone), west of Montevideo, and Jim and LeeAnn VanDerPol of Pastures A’ Plenty (http://www.prairiefare.com/pastureshp.htm), north of Clara City.
To read full article, click here
New York Times: Instead of Eating to Diet, They’re Eating to Enjoy
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: September 16, 2008
AFTER decades of obsessing about fat, calories and carbs, many dieters have made the unorthodox decision to simply enjoy food again.
That doesn’t mean they’re giving up on health or even weight loss. Instead, consumers and nutritionists say they are seeing a shift toward positive eating; shunning deprivation diets and instead focusing on adding seasonal vegetables, nuts, berries and other healthful foods to their plates.
To read full article, click here
Golden Gate XPress: Slow Food ideas enhance the palette of Midwesterners
by Lexi Bondar
September 14
To read full article, click here
Yale Daily News: YSFP’s Viertel to leave Yale for national Slow Food movement
Since the Yale Sustainable Food Project’s launch, Josh Viertel has taken the movement to all 12 colleges. He now sets his sights on the 50 states.
Tiffany Petrosino
Contributing Reporter
Published Thursday, September 4, 2008
To read full article, click here
Grist: Slow Food Nation interview: Anna Lappé
Why climate change may have more to do with your shopping cart than your car
Posted by Tom Philpott at 10:54 PM on 15 Sep 2008
Anna Lappé might be called a green-diaper baby. Her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, brought out the seminal Diet for a Small Planet back in 1971, and has been agitating forcefully for a just, sustainable food system ever since. Her father, the toxicologist Marc Lappé, was an early, important, and persistent critic of the agrichemical industry.
To read full article, click here
Washington Post: Claiming a Seat at the Slow Food Bar
By Jason Wilson
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, September 3, 2008;
SAN FRANCISCO—Green and sustainable cocktails, the spirits industry’s latest trend, were the beverage of choice here at the four-day Slow Food Nation conference.
To read full article, click here
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: At Slow Food Nation, four days of taste and teaching
Thursday, September 11, 2008
By Marlene Parrish
SAN FRANCISCO—"Come to the table," a daily invitation familiar to families all over the world, was the slogan of Slow Food Nation, a four-day festival celebrating food that is "good, clean and fair" over Labor Day weekend. It also was a tenth birthday party for Slow Food U.S.A.
To read full article, click here
Santa Barbara Independent: Can American Be a Slow Food Nation?
September 11, 2008
A Report from Last Weekend’s Sustainable Eating Conference in San Francisco
To read full article, click here
OrganicToBe.org: A teaching garden in our National Mall in Washington D.C.
Archived Sep 10 2008
by Jeff Cox
I read in the newspaper that Alice Waters suggested at the recent Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco that there should be an organic garden on the White House lawn.
That stimulated my memory, and I remembered having that discussion with colleagues back at Organic Gardening magazine at least 30 years ago. “No, not on the White House lawn,? someone said. • The only people who will see it are visiting dignitaries and the President’s family. We should put it in the National Mall where ordinary people can see it. It should be a teaching garden to show people what organic gardening is all about.?
To read full article, click here
USA Today: Strategies: Think locally, act locally? Give it a try in this case
By Rhonda Abrams
Friday, Sept. 12
Want to help your own and fellow local small businesses? I’ve got an appetizing suggestion: buy and eat more "local" food.
To read full article, click here
Plenty: Notes and photos from a Slow (Food Nation) Reporter
By Jessica Tzerman
Friday, Sept. 12
Eight days after returning from San Francisco, Jessica Tzerman reflects on the birth of a Slow Food Nation and shares pictures from the event.
To read full article, click here
Pop City: The Fast Rise of Slow Food
By: Cally Jamis Vennare
Sept 10, 2008
First let’s start with what it is. An idea. A way of eating. A way of living.
It’s global, yes, but very local, a grassroots movement that links the joy of food with a commitment to community and the environment. And it seeks to regain the biodiversity of food that was once so common. Slow Food is all about this and more and it is growing at a not-so-slow pace.
Slow Food USA now boasts 200 chapters as more and more local communities work to strengthen the connection between the (local, seasonal and sustainably grown) food on our plates and the health of our planet.
Marlene Parrish, co-chair of Slow Food Pittsburgh (SFP) and food writer for the Post-Gazette, likes to start with what Slow Food is not. “It’s not cooking slowly. And we are not a dinner club. We’re also not crock-pot cooking.?
To read full article, click here
Revolutionaries by the Bay
Sep 11th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition
If America is what it eats, then at least one part of it has changed
TOURISTS who took a wrong turn on their way to San Francisco’s cable car recently were in for a shock. There, between City Hall and other government buildings, a temporary organic garden had sprung up. Around it bustled a farmers’ market. Healthy-looking people were sampling local hams, heirloom tomatoes and raw-milk cheeses.
And thus the Slow Food movement, founded two decades ago in Italy, officially arrived in America, the home of fast food. For several days there were taste pavilions here and slow hikes, slow picnics and slow dinners there. Chefs demonstrated their craft and put the footage up on YouTube. The world’s food celebrities weighed in on everything from the global food crisis to the role of food in the presidential election.
To read full article, click here
Slow Food, fast dinner? It’s possible
By MICHELE ANNA JORDAN
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
When Alice Waters was at the Sebastopol farmers market earlier this month, she said something, almost an aside, a throw-away line, that continues to resonate. It is worth exploring.
In the summer, she said, with its abundant harvest, you should be able to get dinner on the table in 10 minutes.
To read full article, click here
The Fast Rise of Slow Food
By: Cally Jamis Vennare
September 10, 2008
First let’s start with what it is. An idea. A way of eating. A way of living.
It’s global, yes, but very local, a grassroots movement that links the joy of food with a commitment to community and the environment. And it seeks to regain the biodiversity of food that was once so common. Slow Food is all about this and more and it is growing at a not-so-slow pace.
Slow Food USA now boasts 200 chapters as more and more local communities work to strengthen the connection between the (local, seasonal and sustainably grown) food on our plates and the health of our planet.
To read full article, click here
PlumpJackin’: Local Food Policy Under Development
Friday, September 5, 2008, by Paolo
The hangover from last weekend’s Slow Food Nation has barely subsided, but already Mayor Gavin Newsom is proving himself to be serious about extending the whole movement beyond Labor Day, for better or worse. His latest proposal involves an official food policy that would make locally-sourced food a priority in the public arena:
To read full article, click here
The Aftermath of Slow Food Nation
by: Jill Richardson
Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 11:38:53 AM PDT
Now that the first Slow Food Nation is a thing of the past, the press (and all of us foodies) are getting a chance to weigh in with our opinions. I really like what Chef Kurt Michael Fries said on Grist. He addresses the charge that Slow Food is elitist. Of course, this charge is not without merit but as he points out, it is not a reason to dismiss Slow Food altogether. Their work is valuable and aligned with the values all of us in the movement hold, even if they are flawed.
To read full article, click here
Slow Food Nation 2008
Molly Birnbaum
2008-09-04
Slow Food Nation, the sprawling first-annual food festival held in San Francisco over Labor Day Weekend, burst at its seams with vendors and visitors. With offerings and events that ranged from raspberry preserves to buffalo stew, lectures to concerts, the festival aimed to include experiences of both taste and education while entertaining and informing the public.
Whether or not Slow Food Nation accomplished its wider ranging goals-to create a framework for deeper environmental connection to what we eat and to build a sustainable, healthy, and delicious food system in America-cannot yet be told. But the event itself was vibrant and fun, and not even the price tag attached to many events stymied the enthusiastic turnout.
To read full article, click here
Slow Food for Thought
By Eric Schlosser
This article appeared in the September 22, 2008 edition of The Nation.
September 3, 2008
"Come to the Table" was the motto of Slow Food Nation ‘08, and over the Labor Day weekend roughly 60,000 people heeded the call, gathering in San Francisco to eat organic food, meet local farmers and listen to panel discussions about the future of sustainable agriculture. The plaza in front of City Hall was transformed into a fruit and vegetable garden flanked by an outdoor market. An exhibition space at Fort Mason, near the waterfront, featured "taste pavilions" with artisanal foods and meals prepared by well-known chefs. Measured solely by attendance, the first get-together of this kind in the United States was an unqualified success.
To read full article, click here
Indians’ Water Rights Give Hope for Better Health
August 31, 2008
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Correction Appended
GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY, Ariz. - More than a hundred years ago, the Gila River, siphoned off by farmers upstream, all but dried up here in the parched flats south of Phoenix, plunging an Indian community that had depended on it for centuries of farming into starvation and poverty.
If that was not bad enough, food rations sent by the federal government - white flour, lard, canned meats and other sugary, processed foods - conspired with the genetic anomalies of the Indians to sow an obesity epidemic that has left the reservation with among the highest rates of diabetes in the world.
To read full article, click here
Slow Food was here
How a looming mega-event-Labor Day weekend’s four-day Slow Food Nation-prompted the gastronomically minded organization to finally back away from the cheese plate and get real about how America eats.
By John Birdsall, Photograph by Chris André
To read full article, click here
Got a Happy Story? Outstanding in the Field Edition
by: Eddie C
Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 18:38:26 PM PDT
(promoted by Jill Richardson)
Cross-posted at both Daily Kos and SF Kossacks.
From my perspective this is a very special happy story. A very fond memory that is about the many joys of blogging and the privilege of knowing OrangeClouds115. Truly a story of serendipity in the electronic age and one of those very rare days when I honestly felt that if there was one perfect place to be in this world, I was there!
This is also a story of friendship, fellowship and bathing in that often elusive sense of belonging. This is a people powered politics story about forming a bond with some of my fellow Americans who are bravely working for change in this very broken nation.
This is also the story of a plate; (photo essay follows)
To read full article, click here
I do declare: Life in the Slow Lane
September 1st, 2008 by leslie
But for some off-site tours and dinners tomorrow, Slow Food Nation has pretty much come to a close, and although I’ve heard and even voiced some constructive criticism of the event (there wasn’t a section for fresh fruits or vegetables at the sold-out spectacle that was the Taste Pavillion, for one) I think it’s fair to pronounce the weekend a qualified success.
To read full article, click here
Tastemakers
The Taste Pavilions at Slow Food Nation fed the curious
By Kim Carlson
September 2, 2008
I could swear that somewhere I saw the Fort Mason Taste Pavilions at Slow Food Nation billed as “United Tastes of America.? Strictly speaking that’s not an untrue characterization, but United Tastes of Northern California would have been more accurate.
To read full article, click here
National: A Slow Chat With Michael Pollan
MP: San Francisco Editor Adam Martin is covering this weekend’s Slow Food Nation conference in the city by the bay. Here’s the latest!
With Slow Food Nation all around, a Civic Center marketplace of local, sustainable foods, and every retailer in the city jumping on the bandwagon, it could be easy to make all kinds of grand lifestyle decisions this weekend
To read full article, click here
Slow Food Nation Recap
Slow foodies came from near and far to celebrate and eat
September 3, 2008 at 10:05AM by Anita Crotty
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s just no denying that Slow Food is a force to be reckoned with in the realm of sustainable eating. And nowhere was this fact more obvious than at the Labor Day weekend extravaganza known as Slow Food Nation.
To read full article, click here
Slow Food Nation kicks off alfresco
From Food editor Miriam Morgan and staff writer Stacy Finz:
While Barack Obama was giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, 500 Slow Food Nation organizers, farmers, dairymen, ranchers, food producers and press broke bread in a private dinner at the Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, with an illuminated City Hall dome as a backdrop.
To read full article, click here
5,000 Show Up for an Edible Education
A Field Report from Slow Food Nation
By SHEPHERD BLISS
"Come to the table,? Slow Food Nation invited. And come to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend they did•around 50,000 people, making it perhaps the largest food celebration in American history.
To read full article, click here
The slow approach: Followers of a healthy food revolution gather in San Francisco.
Sep 2, 2008 - McClatchy Tribune Business News
Sep. 2--So, is the Slow Food movement really just a club for high-minded epicures? Or is it a crusade toward a more just and sustainable food system?
To read full article, click here
A Slow Food Festival Reaches Out to the Uncommitted
By CHRISTINE MUHLKE
NEXT stop, the White House lawn? If Alice Waters has her way, a Victory Garden, like the quarter-acre plot at City Hall that was the leafy, heirloom heart of the Slow Food Nation gathering here last weekend, will feed policymakers in Washington.
To read full article, click here
Can Slow Food Feed the World?
By Bryan Walsh
Over Labor day weekend, thousands of foodies flooded a special farmers’ market set up by Slow Food Nation in San Francisco’s grand Civic Center. But the gourmands who showed up eager to fill their baskets with dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes and muslin-wrapped Cheddar cheeses might have been surprised to find that the first event of the conference wasn’t a seminar on artisan bread but an earnest panel on the global crisis of rising food prices.
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YSFP’s Viertel to leave Yale for national Slow Food movement
Since the Yale Sustainable Food Project’s launch, Josh Viertel has taken the movement to all 12 colleges. He now sets his sights on the 50 states.
By Tiffany Petrosino
Six years ago, Josh Viertel dreamed of bringing more sustainable food to Yale’s dining halls. Now, he is setting his sights on a bigger target: America.
Viertel, a co-director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, will resign his post at Yale in October to accept a newly created position as president of Slow Food USA, a nonprofit organization working nationally to promote a sustainable- and fair-food system.
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Slow Down, Slow Food!
Slow Food Nation was magnificent in many ways, but overshot its mandate
By Tom Philpott
05 Sep 2008
Slow Food Nation—that grand, sprawling culinary event that seemed to permeate San Francisco over Labor Day weekend—has passed. Now we can ask: What was it? A brazen display of foodie elitism, as some critics charge? A transformative moment in an ongoing effort to overthrow the industrial food system, as its organizers sometimes hinted?
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Digesting Slow Food Nation
A few thoughts on an amazing event—and a recipe for a delectably slow-cooked pasta sauce
By Kurt Michael Friese
It’s going to take me more than just a few days to fully understand the effects and implications of the first Slow Food Nation, held in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. The brain power on display was impressive enough: Wendell Berry, Vandana Shiva, Michael Pollan, Winona LaDuke, Carlo Petrini, Raj Patel, Eric Schlosser, and other luminaries took center stage at panels. Add to that the myriad of other events and mind-blowing food, and you get a truly unforgettable event for the thousands who attended.
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SF’s Civic Center Welcomes Fresh Veggie Garden
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS) ― For the first time since 1943, the first edible garden was planted over the weekend at San Francisco’s Civic Center, with the hopes of encouraging residents to eat healthy food.
The Slow Food Nation Victory Garden was in part planted by its founder, Bay Area restaurant owner Alice Waters, who believes the time has come for all of us to make changes in life by eating healthy and fresh.
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Fast times at Slow Food Nation
By Glenn Bardgett
The Slow Food movement, which began in Italy in 1989 as a countermeasure to the growing emphasis on fast food, encourages more attention to traditional products that are local, distinctive and often family owned - and that includes wine. So I was excited to learn that Slow Food USA planned to include a wine bar serving wine from all 50 states at its inaugural Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco late this month. At this writing, 30 states have committed wines.
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Slow Food Nation in San Francisco touts ‘sustainable food movement’
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 24, 2008
By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / The Dallas Morning News
When the Slow Food movement took root in Dallas in the spring of 2003, it was a group of nine friends gathered in the kitchen of fellow foodie Timothy Mullner, craving better-tasting foods to cook at home.
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THE FRONT BURNER Lingering over lunch
By MARCIA VANDERLIP
Published Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Eating lunch with Bernadette Dryden is a bit like eating at an outdoor caf&eaccute; in Italy. The meal is beautifully crafted, and you can easily forget the time.
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Sustainable food advocates to gather in San Francisco
Updated 8/6/2008 4:18 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Labor Day weekend marks the first major stateside event for the Italian-born group that trumpets sustainable, local and artisanal foods as the best antidote to the world’s increasingly industrialized (and sometimes troubled) food system.
Slow Food has made great strides in Europe, where its biennial celebration attracts hundreds of thousands of people, but so far the group has been just a blip on the American foodie radar.
Organizers of Slow Food Nation, as the San Francisco event has been dubbed, hope to change that during the four-day gathering of farmers, chefs, food artisans and others concerned about food quality.
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In SF City Hall front yard, a bounty of produce
By SCOTT LINDLAW - Jul 31, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - For generations, the lawn at Civic Center Plaza was a lush, quarter-acre welcome mat outside City Hall, and a frequent staging ground for demonstrations.
But the grass has been torn out and replaced by tomato plants, spinach, beans and squash - an officially sanctioned and very organic protest against a culture of mediocre, unhealthy food.
The Victory Garden, as it is known, is the centerpiece of a food festival scheduled for Labor Day weekend that is intended to underscore the connection between planet and plate.
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Going slow to move fast
Well, sure, there are a ton of great things you can do during next month’s Labor Day weekend-head to the ocean, the lake, or the mountains. Work on your tan. Finish that book that’s been sitting on your nightstand for weeks on end. Go see Dark Knight and feel sad about Heath Ledger. Hit the sales and stock up on flip-flops for next summer. Or ... you could grab your best pair of green jeans and be a little part of culinary U.S. history by heading to the very first Slow Food Nation conference in eco-happy, sunny San Francisco.
Created by Ms. Alice Waters herself, the organization’s international vice president, the event is already garnering much attention far and beyond those tuned into the Slow Food movement.
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