The Myth of Genetically Engineered Food and How it Threatens Slow Food

Slow Food Metro North board member on why we all need to be concerned about genetically engineered food.

By Analiese Paik

Good, clean and fair food. I use these words each morning to establish a compass point upon which to set my sights, and to prevent myself from being lulled into a false sense of everything-is-okay-ness.


It’s easy to fall prey to seductive food marketing, and nobody’s mastered the propaganda better than the biotech seed industry. Dominated by a mere three players worldwide – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – the global market for genetically engineered (GE) seed has grown into a $13 billion dollar industry since its introduction in 1992 on a promise to help feed the world.


But there is no free lunch. Everything has a price, and sometimes not even the smartest among us can predict what it will be. In the case of GE crop production, it’s everything we as Slow Food members hold precious and dear.


Good food? Not for the farmer who pays more for patented genetically engineered seeds that claim to deliver higher yields, but don’t. Not for the livestock fed an unnatural diet of GE corn and soy. Not for the environment increasingly doused with chemical fertilizers and herbicides, something the industry claimed they’d reduce. Not for the consumer who has unwittingly been co-opted into an enormous human feeding trial. (GE foods have never been tested for long-term safety in animals, humans or the environment). GE crops have, however, been great for biotech profits.


Clean food? The US is the largest producer of GE crops in the world. Rather than fulfilling their promise to reduce the amount of herbicides needed to manage weeds, hundreds of millions more pounds of herbicides are being used each year and this overuse has spawned super weeds. Thanks to nature’s amazing resilience and adaptability, we’re facing deregulation of the next generation of biotech crops whose genes are stacked to confer resistance to more powerful herbicides, including 2, 4-D, one of two chemical constituents of Agent Orange, the Vietnam-era defoliant. GE crops that can produce their own insecticides, called PIPs or plant-incorporated protectants by the EPA, haven’t proven to be a silver bullet either. The corn rootworm is becoming resistant to Bt corn, a variety genetically engineered to kill the difficult to control pest, forcing the EPA to require that all growers put resistance management plans in place.


Fair food? Certainly not for US consumers who are unjustly denied the basic right to know whether they’re eating genetically engineered foods, a right ironically enjoyed by China and Russia. Not for farmers who used to save seeds each year for next year’s crop, a practice prohibited under biotech seed licensing agreements. GE crops pose an ongoing threat to conventional and organic farms, which fall victim to devastating herbicide drift along with pollen and seed (gene) trespass from GE neighbors, forcing them to destroy contaminated crops and seeds and rendering them vulnerable to law suits for patent infringement.


The power of the consumer is not to be underestimated. Some believe that labeling laws are the answer, reasoning that consumers, upon learning that the foods they’re eating are produced from crops that can withstand being doused with herbicides and/or can produce their own insecticides, will create a backlash powerful enough to force food manufacturers to abandon GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Proof of this hypothesis can already be seen in Kashi’s and Ben & Jerry’s pledges to remove GMOs from their US products. Many large, multinational food companies gladly manufacture Non-GMO products for European markets to avoid their labeling laws, something made possible through the segregation and identity preservation of non-GMO crops every step along the supply chain.


Use your powerful voice to defend Slow Food. Write local legislators in support of your state’s GMO labeling bills and ballot initiatives (currently Washington State, Vermont, Connecticut, New Mexico and Missouri), sign national petitions to ban GE salmon, and the Just Label It campaign’s petition to the FDA. There’s growing evidence that major food retailers and manufacturers have grown weary of funding campaigns to prevent state-sponsored GMO bills from passing and may band together to petition the FDA for uniform GMO labeling. What a testament to the power of the consumer that would be, but only if it’s a federal law that reflects what states are pushing for, not what large food manufacturers and retailers want as a compromise.


Sow your organic gardens and fields, raise your animals on pasture, shop at farmers’ markets, join a CSA, but please also become aware of what you’re buying at the grocery store, in movie theaters, cafes and restaurants. Our daily food choices are yes votes that help determine what food manufacturers will produce next quarter, what farmers will grow next year, how retailers will stock their shelves, and what restaurants will put on their menus. Non-GMO choices are yes votes for Slow Food.


Analiese Paik is a local-sustainable food advocate and the founder and editor of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, an award-winning website that informs consumers about local and sustainable food. She is a board member of Slow Food Metro North, worked as a grassroots community organizer to lobby for a GMO labeling bill in CT, and frequently writes and speaks on the topic of GMOs.

Slow Food Potlucks are for Vegetarians too!

Slow Food East Bay member Lauren Zaira gives us a window into potluck fun- no meat allowed.

Slow Food East Bay Vegetarian Potluck, Jan 2013

“Big Pig Roast.” That’s the kind of announcement I’m used to seeing for Slow Food East Bay. Or “Meat CSA” or “Sources for your Heritage Turkey.” There is nothing wrong with these events – unless you happen to be a vegetarian.  So when I saw “Vegetarian Winters Potluck” as part of a “Winter Warmers” evening of potlucks to be held in the East Bay, I jumped at the chance to go. In addition to gathering people to help celebrate the New Year with a focus on the winter season, these potlucks would also be a chance to raise money and awareness about the People’s Community Market in West Oakland.

The coordination for the potluck took place with ease. There were a few emails back and forth amongst the hosts and member participants, which included Slow Food potluck guidelines that spelled out how to do things right. Our menu came together as each person emailed what they intended to bring. The dishes were inventive and at the same time reflected our winter season. Someone asked, “Should we bring beer or wine?” The answer was a resounding “Yes!” Especially after one of the participants acknowledged she works in the wine business.

The end result was awe-inspiring. Our host, a seasoned potluck organizer, had his kitchen well prepared for hungry Slow Fooders. He timed things right and allowed for schmoozing before we dug into our amazing feast, which included: homemade bread, squash soup, roasted vegetables with white bean garlic dip, raw kale sesame salad, farro with arugula, spicy green beans, local cheeses and fruit, gluten-free pizza topped with butternut squash, home-grown dried ground chilies to sprinkle on everything if desired, spicy pickled brussels sprouts, home brew, local and international wines, and homemade aged noccino (green walnut liquor). Having just returned from a year living abroad in tropical El Salvador, I was struck by the complexity and variety of the meal. The Bay Area is so very blessed with great food choices and these people knew what they were doing!

Not that everyone at the party was a practicing vegetarian. Some of us, yes, but for those who weren’t, it was understood that it was OK to do without meat, at least for the night. More than OK, it was a pause worth taking. There’s nothing like eliminating something to appreciate it more.

After eating and getting to know one another, we all listened intently to Brahm Ahmadi, founder of the People’s Community Market. He gave us his thoughtful and thorough pitch to help raise funds to build a neighborhood grocery store in an underserved community.  We asked questions and also shared some of our own experiences with the People’s Grocery, the organization that led to the creation of the People’s Community Market.

When it was time to head home, we left with full bellies, new connections, and the feeling that we are all part of something bigger – the Slow Food Movement. Together, in our own special way, we each did our part to help create community, an ongoing and joyous process.

Lauren Zaira, Slow Food Member
Just back from El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America.
http://ayearinthecountrywithasmile.blogspot.com

A Case for Taste

Slow Food New Orleans chapter leader Gary Granata explores the relationship between taste and health.

A Case for Taste by Gary Granata, PhD, RD, LDN, CLT
Chair, Slow Food New Orleans

Could taste, or more precisely the lack of taste in today’s mass produced food be a contributor to the obesity epidemic in America?

Food that is fresh, seasonal and locally-grown simply tastes better than processed and packaged fare that can be microwaved or ordered through a clown’s mouth.  Why else would we call the latter “junk food”? Yet junk has become the norm as relatively few Americans have ever experienced the fabulous flavors of fresh, seasonal and local food. 

American’s have become increasingly detached from the food they eat as evidenced by the fact that they spend less time cooking (< 30 min/day) than people of any other nation, but do not spend any more time at work. The daily caloric intake of American youth has steadily risen since 1977 and parallels the increased daily consumption of fast food. A child born today in the U.S. is estimated to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents due to the epidemic rise in obesity, which has exploded from 10% in 1990 to over 30% today and may reach 70% in the next 10-15 years. The low cost and convenience myth of fast food spread by the processed food industry has resulted in the loss of the true values of food in American. The value of food is expressed through culture, history, family, community and above all delicious taste.

The pleasure of taste is why we eat, dine and celebrate the joy of food and the culture that surrounds it. The taste of delicious food lingers on the palate long after the taste buds have been excited, much like a bell resonates for several moments after it is struck.  The flavorful sensations of good food can actually take away your breath, cause you to pause, put down your fork and become momentarily lost in infinite pleasures of taste.  Thus, the taste of fresh and delicious food can actually slow down the rate of eating, which in turn allows neural signals of satiety to reach the brain and reduce the amount of food eaten.

But, what happens when food fails to satisfy the innate need for the pleasure of taste?

Sweet and salt are the dominant flavors in American processed and fast food, while the basic flavors of sour and bitter tend to be limited if not absent.  Sweet and salt are big flavors that tend to overwhelm the palate and block the subtle flavors that resonate on the palate and provide lingering pleasure. The taste of these big flavors soon dissipates after the food is swallowed and the innate need for pleasure hastens the next bite.  Speeding up the rate of eating increases the amount of food eaten as the signals of satiety reach the brain long after too much food has been consumed. Thus, eating flavor-lacking fast food, which is “conveniently” served in large portions, tends to trigger overeating.

Exposing the collective American palate to the pleasure of truly delicious fresh, seasonal and locally produced food just might be the key to halting and reversing the obesity epidemic in America. The mission of Slow Food states that all people have the right to Good Food, defined as a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture.  Support Slow Food and it’s slow revolution towards rediscovering the value of local, fresh, seasonal food and make a case for taste.

Getting Kids Back to their Ancestral Roots

FoodCorps fellow Kathleen Yetman talks with FoodCorps service member Gilbert Ivins about connecting First Nation young people with their food culture.

Getting kids back to their ancestral roots
By Kathleen Yetman, FoodCorps Fellow and Gilbert Ivins, FoodCorps service member

Cibecue, Arizona is a community of 1700 White Mountain Apache tribal members situated among stunning red rock hills, scrub juniper, and sprawling grasslands.  It is located on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona at the foot of the White Mountains. Cibecue is off the beaten path—an hour’s drive from any other town or city—and due to its isolation, food options are limited. There are three convenience stores in Cibecue. Last year, while serving as a FoodCorps service member, I perused the shelves of the largest of the three. There was one cooler in the back of the store sparsely stocked with packaged cucumbers and half-ripe tomatoes, and a couple of heads of iceberg lettuce. These are the only vegetables for sale in the community.  In one of the other stores, with a growling stomach, I searched for the healthiest item, and after settling on a 16-ounce block of cheddar cheese, discovered that it cost $7.00. In that same store, one can buy 308 ounces of soda for the same price.

Most Cibecue families make a weekly trip 48 miles to Walmart, where food prices are cheaper and there is a greater variety.  You can imagine then, because access to fresh vegetables is so restricted in Cibecue, what families are left to purchase to feed their families if they can’t make that weekly trek.  So it’s not all that surprising that kids growing up there may have never seen a real carrot.  In 2010 FoodCorps partnered with the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health (JHCAIH) and beginning last year placed two FoodCorps service members on the reservation to teach gardening and nutrition to kids at Dischii’bikoh (Cibecue) Community School. Through the Edible School Garden program third, fourth, and fifth graders learn about the plant life cycle, tools to help them choose healthier foods, and about the wild foods their ancestors used to eat. 

This year, we are fortunate to have Gilbert Ivins as our service member in Cibecue. Gilbert is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and has lived in Cibecue his whole life. Prior to FoodCorps, he worked as an Emergency Medical Technician and firefighter in his community. Last week I sat down with Gilbert to hear about his service thus far. This is what he had to say:

Gilbert: Being a FoodCorps service member is really cool because I get to be the stepping-stone for many young Native American youth making a positive change toward their health and nutrition. So far this year with the kids from Cibecue Elementary, I have seen that my presence there has made a big difference.  I’ve seen kids try all the vegetables and fruits we brought them. I think that with FoodCorps and Johns Hopkins University supporting the cause for which we are fighting we can be very successful. For example, one student told me he wished he could never grow old so he could stay in Edible School Garden and Native Vision forever and that Edible School Garden would continue throughout his time in school all the way up until he graduates. I strongly believe that FoodCorps has touched the hearts and souls of the Apache youth in Cibecue, making it all the merrier to continue this movement in the community of Cibecue.

Kathleen: What are some of the challenges you see facing kids in your community?

Gilbert:  The main challenge here is the gangs and the influences they have on the kids such as drugs, alcohol and violence.  Obesity is another issue that comes into play because the parents don’t discipline their kids enough to choose healthier products and instead feed them all the non-healthy food that is easily available at any given moment.

Kathleen: Do you have a sense of why people (parents) eat unhealthy foods instead of healthy ones?

Gilbert:  I think that the people eat unhealthy because they don’t have anyone to tell them differently or teach them classes on healthy products just like we do with Edible School Garden. Not only that, but also its what they grew up learning so it’s in there genes long before they are even brought into the world. I strongly believe that to be true because everyone here is born and raised on the reservation, not knowing anything else other than what is being served to them on the dinner table. So it makes it easier to hate all the vegetables and fruits that are supposed to be healthy for them.

Kathleen:  How do you see your service addressing all of these challenges?

Gilbert:  I see my service addressing these issues by working through the kids. By that I mean teaching and showing these kids healthy from non-healthy items. I hope that kids take home and share with their parents the information they get from our classes. I hope too that the parents will come to us with questions about healthy eating lifestyles.

Kathleen: What is the biggest challenge you face in your service?  What is the biggest reward?

Gilbert: My biggest challenge I face in my year of service is coming out of this successfully, having touched many lives and changed the community for the better and for the future of the kids.  My biggest reward I would have to say is knowing that I helped make change in my community, especially with getting the youth on the right foot and never going astray from what we have taught them.

Kathleen: What is your favorite part of being a FoodCorps service member?

Gilbert: My favorite part of being a FoodCorps service member is interacting with my Apache youth—teaching them through food that they have had many connections with life even dating back to their ancestors. I like teaching them that this healthy lifestyle has been provided for them even before their time came. The trick is getting them back to their ancestral roots by reintroducing them to the wild foods that grow here. Through the lessons we teach in Edible School Gardens kids now know that there are other alternatives when it comes to choosing what to eat.

Kathleen: How has your service changed you?

Gilbert: I have changed by utilizing what we teach the kids. Knowing in the back of my mind that the kids are doing their part so I figured I’d do my part and step up to the calling that has been presented to me. I am taking the opportunity that FoodCorps has given me and bettering my life not only by choosing to be healthier, but also by being an example to the kids.

Interested in becoming a FoodCorps service member?
Applications are open now through March 24th. You can watch the recruitment video here or go directly to the FoodCorps website to learn more

Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter

Jenny Best sits down with David, the author of Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter

Jenny Best sits down with David, the author of Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter


Q. What inspired you to write about “forgotten foods”?
For several years I’ve followed the local food movement, listening to discussions of food miles and hyper-local diets, of the importance of knowing your farmer, growing your own garden, and learning how to cook and enjoy a home meal. But what exactly are “local foods”? The Slow Food movement creates a wonderful opportunity to expand the conversation—to embrace regionally distinct varieties of fruits, vegetables, meats, and grains; rediscover heirloom varieties with unique flavors and stories; and breed new foods that express our creativity, region by region.


Q. Food and farming has gotten a lot of attention lately in the U.S. But “biodiversity” is not a word you hear a lot in the conversation. Why is biodiversity so important?
My biologist friends may laugh at the use of the word “biodiversity” to describe farming, but even within a relatively narrow range of crops we find significant variations. Choosing the right plant or animal for a particular set of growing conditions can lead to better disease and pest resistance, reducing the need for chemical use. It can also mean better drought tolerance, adaptation to temperature extremes, and improved flavor and culinary use. From the grower’s standpoint, diversifying plantings also brings resilience in the face of climate disasters, because a hailstorm that destroys tomatoes, or a heat wave that prevents corn from pollinating, can be offset by other successful harvests.


Q. We’ve lost thousands of apple varieties. What’s the most shocking loss of biodiversity you’ve encountered in your research?
I can’t say there’s any one loss that eclipses the rest to me. Instead it’s the transformation of vast stretches of farmland from diversified systems, filled with a range of crops with distinct traits, into monocultures of corn, wheat, or soy. This loss of biodiversity extends from the narrow range of crops and uniform genetics of the plants, to the disappearance of adjacent natural habitat, right down to the microflora living in the soil itself.


Q. In your book you talk about the need to preserve heirloom food varieties but also to develop and breed new foods.  What’s the biggest challenge to these efforts? What can farmers do to support these efforts? And consumers?
I believe it’s not enough to look backward to rescue the best of the past, but that we need to embrace change and work with older foods to develop new lines. Plant breeding and animal husbandry are two of the oldest of human arts. I write about participatory breeding in my book, in which farmers and breeders work hand in hand to develop foods that meet specific needs, like disease resistance for organic production. This work faces a lot of obstacles, from lack of funding, to plant and animal patenting that restrains access to breeding material, to wariness from a public suspicious of science. My hope is that such efforts will continue to bring us foods bred in the best interest of growers and consumers alike, and that this will lead to higher yields, diminished reliance on pesticides, and delicious new flavors.


Q. Have you encountered particular heirloom varieties that you are especially attached to?
I’d garden for Black Winter mustard, Chateau Rose tomatoes, and Marina di Chioggia squash alone. Yet much of the pleasure of collecting heirloom foods is the many surprises I encounter along the way—foods like Gilfeather rutabagas that I’d never have imagined would have captured my heart. At the moment, though, nothing interests me quite like fruit trees, and especially antique American cider apples. Fermentation is my new frontier.


Q. Some people write off “heirloom” food varieties as overly expensive, fancy food.  How do we bring flavorful and biodiverse foods to everyone, regardless of income level and access?
Several years ago I helped build a community garden in downtown Lawrence, Massachusetts, a densely urban city with little green space and some of the highest poverty rates in the country. The community was predominantly Dominican immigrants, many with farming backgrounds, and even before construction was complete they started planting herbs and vegetables from back home. To them these foods represented cultural identity and tradition as well as good eating. The truth is there’s nothing fancy about most heirloom foods. They originated in the hands of ordinary people leading ordinary lives.
It’s past time, in my opinion, to remember what the world looks like through the eyes of producers. As consumers we’ve forgotten this perspective, and the real value of good, clean, fair food.


Q. You’ve been a supporter of Slow Food for some time. What does Slow Food mean to you, and where do you see food culture in the U.S. heading?
I’ve been interested in the ecology of food and the rights of farmworkers since I first got involved with food production in the late eighties. I got the “clean” and “fair” part. Until Carlo Petrini came along, though, I gave the “good” part short shrift. It may be a very Italian idea that we can transform the world through pleasure, but what better way to make the world a better place? I’m willing to give it a try.
As far as where we’re heading, my hope is that Americans will embrace the home garden in the years ahead. When we grow some of our own food, we appreciate it in a new light.


Q. What are you currently growing and do you have any tips for those who want to grow their own food with limited space?
I grow a wide range of fruits, herbs, vegetables, flowers, and nursery plants. Some of these we sell at the farmers market, including fruits that I freeze and blend into smoothies. I plan to continue to expand this collection, with increasing focus on rare fruits.
There’s a lot of pleasure in growing even a few herbs in limited garden space. With raised bed planters you can produce greens and other vegetables. Blackberries or blueberries can thrive in a sunny corner of your yard, while espalliered fruit trees can run along the fences. It’s fascinating to think about the many ways good design can help us weave fresh, healthy food into our lives.


Q. What are your future gardening plans?
This past spring we purchased a 115-acre property in Pownal, Maine, a few minutes from LL Bean in downtown Freeport. Our goal is to transform this space into a sort of conservation center, with heritage orchards, gardens, trails, and a small commercial kitchen and cider house. We’re at work right now on the house and barn, and I’ll start the orchard by moving about 400 apple, pear, peach, cherry, and plum trees to the site this spring.

Cultivate New Farmers

Slow Food Western Mass co-leader Dominic Palumbo shares his journey that took him from the city to the farm and makes a strong case for why we need to invest in getting more folks do so the same.

The next generation of farmers grow at Moon In The Pond Farm
by Dominic Palumbo

Twenty years ago I moved from New York City to the rural countryside of western Massachusetts. I had no clue that farming was in my future—much less, did I imagine the career it is for me now.

I love food and I love cooking.  That’s why I started growing vegetables and why I began raising chickens and sheep—I thought, wouldn’t it be cool, wouldn’t it be great, to raise my own, to raise interesting stuff and not to wonder and worry about how clean it might be.  Within a few years I was selling at Union Square market in New York City, and raising lots more vegetables and animals.  Moon In The Pond Farm was born. 

About twelve years on, people started calling me, “Farmer Dom”.  I was kinda surprised. I still wasn’t sure how to judge if there had been enough sun and wind to dry the hay in the field before putting it into the barn; how to get beet seeds to germinate in the hot summer soil; how to adjust a plow behind the tractor so the soil flipped sod-side-down instead of flopping back upright.  I felt like I was a long way off— a dozen years of farming had taught me there was a lot yet to learn. But I did indeed discover an extraordinary connection to nature—more than I had ever dreamed.  As a farmer, every day I’m challenged by the depth and complexity of nature.

Excited about my new life on the land, I was always eager to have friends—and strangers too—visit the farm.  I found farming had started to become second nature and I loved to talk about it and show it off.  Visitors would ask about what had become for me part of my life and daily routine, and be amazed and fascinated at the answers. 

While finding my life as a farmer was learning lots of technical bits of running a small farm—how much hay to store for the winter to feed a certain number of cows and sheep, or what specific organic crop rotations make the most sense on a small farm—a huge part of the learning in those first years was finding myself up close to some much bigger issues.  The dismal state of our food system, and impact of agribusiness on even broader global issues like international politics and climate change, etc. challenged me, dogged me.  And of course, tied to these negative trends, the ever decreasing number of farmers – people directly connected to the land, to farming, to food production, and the planet.

In 2004, when I was nominated as a delegate to Slow Food’s International conference Terra Madre, it blew my mind.  I suddenly found that I was profoundly linked to a groundswell.  Again I found myself changed.  As if the validation of my work as an organic farmer wasn’t enough, Terra Madre energized my dedication and steeled my commitment to teach and to share the life and lessons I was learning as a farmer. 

I had been teaching interns and apprentices on the farm for years, but now I it had become even clearer to me that the teaching itself was the vital link, the most important farming task.  If there is to be a future of good, clean and fair food, is it essential that we grow new farmers, and lots of them, fast.  But it’s imperative also, that those new farmers understand that vital link: farmers must be teachers too.  Intrinsic to the nature and purpose of a farmer is to nurture.  Central to that purpose is to cultivate the next generation of nurturers.

Although Slow Food over the years has been pasted with any number of labels to do with tasty, rare or expensive food, celebrity chefs, and fancy restaurants, Slow Food has always been very much about farmers.  It’s about connecting; developing valued and respectful relationships with our first line, our interpreters: the farmers on the land who represent us, nurture us, and teach us respectful relationships with the land, the planet, our communities, and each other.

It’s been incredibly exciting to see the number of brave young people interested in and attracted to farming. When I started offering internships and apprenticeships there were many seasons, and in fact years, when I couldn’t find young people to work with me. In the past few years, what a welcome change!  I’ve had dozens of applications from amazingly motivated, bright, and committed young people. In my neighborhood as in rural, urban, and suburban communities all over the country, new farms are popping up like radish seedlings.

Find them.  Search them out and support them.  Let them teach and nourish you.  Encourage them and advocate for them.  You, your loved ones and your communities will be healthier, stronger and more vital.  In connecting to farmers, you become a nurturer, a cultivator, and in Carlo’s words, a “coproducer”.  You become a farmer!  Farm on!

You can see how much Farmer Dom likes to show off Moon In The Pond Farm in the video he shot last fall for a Kickstarter campaign.

A New Season, A New Reason For Hope

Reflections on the Terra Madre experience

A person writing in the night may put out the lamp, but the words he has written will remain. It is the same with the destiny we create for ourselves in this world.
-Shakyamnni

By SarahJoy Smith, Slow Food Olympia

As a Slow Food enthusiast it can be a daunting principal. Take something as complex as the current food system and try to rework it to support the local food culture.  Here in our Olympia chapter we talk about this regularly in meetings. But with seemingly insurmountable details and challenging politics the answers come slowly and with many unsolvable questions still looming in the background. How will we recreate the process to make a viable sustainable system that supports local producers? To say we are just around the corner from a solution would be to stretch the truth considerably. But to say that we are far away is no longer a truth either.

Our delegates have returned from Terra Madre with new insights and more possibilities than they left with, which is to say they have returned with hope.  The common word used among the three of them was “overwhelmed”. With 250,000 participants, it is easy to see why. There was a lot to take in only five days. But for the same reason they were overawed they were also filled with a sense of possibility. You see, each of those individual people represented groups of people, chapters from their respective hometowns, all working together for a common good. What started as a movement with a small group of people in one country now spans the continents and includes millions of participants worldwide. It has taken time, and it will continue to take time, but we are doing it. We ARE learning to work, cook and grow together, which means that no matter what we will eventually succeed.

Our delegates have come home with fresh eyes and will be sharing new information over the coming months in the hopes of furthering the process here. In the mean time they impart to all of us two most important principals involved in this work. The first is continue to ask questions so that you can know your farmer and know your food. The second is wisdom from Carlo Petrini, which is to remember that food itself is the celebration, and no matter what forces are against us we are fighting for something good, and to make sure to find JOY in the process of changing the world!

Happy Eating!