Healing Hospitals

If you've been in a hospital recently, whether as a patient or as a visitor, you know that the saddest thing in there might be the food. Maybe you've even wondered: how can they serve this junk in a hospital? The staff nutritionists will meet with patients and tell them to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, but those things generally won't be on the hospital food menu.

Healthcare Without Harm is an international coalition of organizations that works to transform the health care sector so it is no longer a source of harm to people and the environment. They put out an encouraging press release today that reports that 127 hospitals nationwide have made significant changes in their buying practices "towards more sustainably produced, healthier choices for patients, staff and visitors" :

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2008 8:00 A.M. ET

REPORT OUTLINES LEADING TREND IN HEALTH CARE SECTOR: HOSPITALS NATIONWIDE PURCHASING LOCAL, SUSTAINABLE FOOD

Details efforts of 127 Hospitals Nationwide in buying healthier food to promote public health

For 127 hospitals across the United States, the words "hospital food" and "healthy communities, healthy environment" are one and the same, according to a new report released by Health Care Without Harm today. The "Healthy Food in Health Care" report outlines concrete steps being taken by hospitals nationwide to change their food buying practices towards more sustainably produced, healthier choices for patients, staff and visitors. "We applaud the 127 facilities, in 21 states across the country, including some that serve over 9000 meals every day, that have pledged to source local, nutritional, sustainable food," says Jamie Harvie, National Coordinator of the Healthy Food in Health Care Initiative. "These hospitals recognize that their healthcare food dollars are an important investment in preventive medicine." The Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge outlines the steps to be taken by the health care industry to improve the health of their patients, local communities and the environment. This Pledge Report details the concrete food purchasing steps these facilities are making. For example:
• 80 facilities (70%) are purchasing up to 40% of their produce locally
• Over 90 facilities (80%) are purchasing rBGH-free milk
• 100% have increased fresh fruit and vegetable offerings
• 50 facilities (44%) are purchasing meat produced without the use of hormones or antibiotics

"By serving nutritious, local, sustainably grown food to their patients, staff and visitors, hospitals are practicing good preventive medicine," stated David Hutchinson, M.D., and President of the Minnesota Academy of Family Practice.

"The purchase of meat and poultry raised without non-therapeutic antibiotics, milk produced without recombinant bovine growth hormones, organic, whole grain and less processed foods and support for CSA's and farmers markets are important investments for the health care sector to make in the health of people, communities and the environment." "These numbers are just the beginning," adds Harvie. "This initiative is not yet a year and a half old and more hospitals are signing every month. We've jumped from 19 to 21 States and added 8 more facilities in the last month."

Hospitals around the country are linking their operations to impacts on human and environmental health, and an emerging part of this trend is increased attention to food service. Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is not alone in its work to encourage support for local, sustainable food. In 2007, the American Public Health Association recognized the urgency of transforming our food system and passed a policy to promote environmental sustainability, improve nutritional health and ensure social justice. That same year, the California Medical Association passed a resolution that encourages hospitals to adopt policies that increase the purchasing and serving of local, sustainable food.

"By supporting local, sustainable food systems, these facilities are promoting health at the individual, community and global level," stated Harvie. "Across the country, pledged hospitals are continuously working to address the public and environmental impacts from current industrialized food production practices by sourcing nutritious, local sustainable food."

Slow Food USA Partners with LocalHarvest

Slow Food USA has begun an exciting partnership with online food locater LocalHarvest. Local Harvest is an easy-to-use site that helps consumers all over the country find the sustainable food in their area–that means farmers' markets, family farms, CSAs, retailers who sell free range poultry, grass-fed beef purveyors, etc. Now, for the first time ever, LocalHarvest will be keeping track of producers of Slow Food USA Ark of Taste products. They announced the partnership in their April newsletter.

As they explained:

Together we will bring more attention to the role small farmers play in preserving our food heritage and protecting some of the biodiversity that is threatened by corporate scale agriculture. Central to the new partnership is a joint outreach effort. We are using the LocalHarvest database – now over 13,000 strong – to find more farmers and artisanal food producers who might be interested in producing Ark of Taste products. Many of these foods are quite difficult to find in the marketplace, and one of the main goals of the Ark program is to increase their availability, and thus their longevity.

This will help us in our efforts to bring the Ark of Taste off the page and into farms and kitchens! Already, over 600 farmers have added their Ark products to the database.

Slugs and Snails are Friends

by Slow Food USA staffer Julia De Martini Day

Our beloved Snail seems to have a new (or long lost) friend in the Slug. This morning on NPR, car-pooling commuters – aka slugs – were interviewed about why they choose to find rides with strangers to speed their trips to work up rather than drive their own cars. Car-pooling allows them to ride in the fast, HOV lane (High occupancy vehicle) and save money on gas. This is not your iconic stand on the side of the road thumb in the air hitch-hiking though. It is an organized activity with its own website.

So aside from the Snail and the Slug both being part of the Mollusk family – what is the connection to Slow Food USA? Images of slow creatures helping us decrease our environmental impact a little faster!

A Picture of What We Eat and What We DON’T Eat

Sunday's NY Times article about how much food gets thrown out in this country was notable both because of its thesis–perhaps now that food prices and food scarcity are on the rise, people will be ready to engage in a conversation about reducing food waste–but also for its picture.

Were we the only ones who noticed a similarity to the beautiful photographs from the 2005 book Hungry Planet? This one looks like the evil twin of those–not what we eat, but what we throw away. Chilling stuff.

A lot of that waste is institutional, of course (restaurants, schools, etc.) but there is personal waste as well. The first thing to do is to be a conscious shopper, and to try to plan for the week–making what you need and cooking/preserving/freezing the rest. If organic matter goes bad (or even if it doesn't!), you can compost it. For tips on managing household organic waste, see our February 28th posting.

Good Farming= Good Asparagus

"Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously. We never bought into the "bigger is better" mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking — not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but food that has evolved from the world's thriving peasant cuisines — is based on the correspondence of good farming to a healthy environment and good nutrition. It's never been any other way, and we should be grateful. The future belongs to the gourmet."

-Dan Barber, NY Times, May 11, 2008

Inspired by this quote and by the piles of asparagus at our local farmers' markets here in NYC, we polled the Slow Food USA staff members to hear what they're doing with nature's bounty.

Many of us agree that the best thing to do with asparagus is simply to grill or roast it at a very high heat. Slather it with good olive oil, plenty of salt (Maldon sea salt, says Winnie) and pepper, and cook it up.

• Executive Director Erika suggests roasting it "alongside some young garlic bulbs, halved lengthwise. Dressed with homemade breadcrumbs and a squeeze of lime, what more do you need?"
• Cecily adds that it's best to eat them hot off the grill, with your fingers.
• Sharleen wraps them in prosciutto.
• Intern Jessica offers: "Asparagus, mint and lemon risotto. Asparagus works so well in risotto! It gives you these little bits of earthy crunch to counter the creamy tartness of the rice."
• Jenny pickled hers, and followed this recipe, adding julienned carrots. For the pickling spices, she used this, minus the cloves.
• SFUSA Board member, Chef Kurt Friese blogged over at Grist about what he's doing with his wild foraged edibles (not asparagus, but other cool stuff).

Dig in!

Note from the HR Department

The Board of Slow Food USA is seeking to fill a new staff position at SFUSA, that of President. The complete posting can be found here, after the jump, as well as on other job sites such as idealist.org. Please read and pass on to anyone you think fits the bill.

Slow Food USA Seeks President

Slow Food USA seeks to hire a dynamic leader who will build the organization to its full potential as the major NGO player in the American sustainable food movement. The post of President is a new position that will augment SFUSA's national leadership capacity by working closely with the Board of Directors and existing key staff, including the Executive Director. This position is being created as part of SFUSA's strategic plan and in anticipation of aggressive organizational growth. SFUSA, affiliated with Slow Food International, is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization with its main office located in Brooklyn, NY; a subsidiary office, Slow Food Nation, located in San Francisco, CA; and nearly 200 grass-roots membership chapters in 47 states. SFUSA membership has grown from 1,500 in 2000 (when the national office opened) to over 16,000 today. SFUSA currently directs several national programs in education, biodiversity and network building (visit http://www.slowfoodusa.org for more information) and is developing a strategy for future involvement in food policy.

Responsibilities:

The President will direct and oversee all activities of SFUSA. In particular, he or she will have primary responsibility in the areas of strategic vision, major fundraising, external affairs, and organizational development, while working with the Executive Director to oversee all other functions of the organization, including programs, finances and administration. The President reports directly to the Board of Directors.

Qualifications:

Candidates must have:

• A professional career of progressively challenging responsibility and leadership.

• Excellent track record as a visionary leader, nonprofit entrepreneur and manager with verifiable accomplishments in fundraising and organizational development.

• Excellent skills in public speaking, communications, strategic planning, and strong interpersonal ability.

• A Bachelor's degree, Master's preferred; or comparable professional experience.

• Candidate must understand and share Slow Food values. He or she should have an interdisciplinary knowledge of national and global food issues, and ideally, familiarity with the culture and history of the organization.

In addition, an ideal candidate has experience in directing complex institutional functions, including capital campaigns, budgeting, government and legislative affairs, educational programs, and marketing.

Salary: commensurate with experience, plus standard benefits package

Qualified candidates should direct inquiries or send resumé, references, and a letter of application to

Lynne H. Frame
SFUSA Search Committee Chair
38 Helens Lane
Mill Valley, CA 94941
email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
(Please, no phone inquiries to the national office.)

Application deadline: June 13, 2008

Fast/Slow, Big/Small: Bedfellows

A few recent stories got us thinking about this question of bedfellows. Can fast food be slow if it's sourced locally and made with quality ingredients? Can a small producer sell itself to a corporate food giant and maintain its integrity?

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the latest small food company to hop into bed with big business, and wonders if they are deluded in thinking that further distribution and a larger market share will be a good thing (and not a harbinger of doom). Honest Tea has given Coca Cola 40% of its shares, joining the ranks of Stonyfield Yogurt, Ben and Jerry's , etc.–small alternative companies, known for quality ingredients, who sold themselves to big business. We've shown graphics like this one before, but here's another one to throw into the mix: last month's NY Times offered this look at how small organic businesses get "gobbled up by big food."

And what about this question of fast food being slow? Possible? Last month came reports that the Chipotle burrito chain (which already uses Niman Ranch pork products) was going to source local Polyface farm products for its Virginia-area stores. Ode magazine's April issue has the following cover: "Eat a burger, SAVE THE WORLD. Why the "new" fast food is good for you (and the planet)." It covers chains such as Chipotle, Burgerville and Seller's Markets, and explores the notion of fast food that can be good for you. Is it still "fast?" Does it count as "slow " now…?

Zap it?

by Slow Food USA staff member Jerusha Klemperer

Today, in the Dining Section of the NY Times, Mark Bittman and Harold McGee both approach the subject of the microwave.

Actually, I hesitate even to mention microwaves since we have this problem here in our office of getting calls from people wondering about our stance on microwaves (we don't have one); this will mean that Google searches will start turning up "slow food" and "microwave" in the same textual vicinity and our office will get even more confused callers. Ah well.

As a city dweller who has lived with mostly teeny, tiny kitchens, I got rid of my microwave years ago when I moved into a studio apartment. Counter space was precious and a big plastic box meant no room to chop veggies, so I gave it to a friend, wondering as I did so if I'd miss it terribly. I never did.

Once, about three weeks after I moved, I wanted to melt some chocolate for brownies. I unwrapped the chocolate, put it in a pyrex bowl, and cast my eyes about the small kitchen, confused and forlorn. So I pulled out a pot, put the chocolate in the pot, and once I realized that "hey! You can, like, heat stuff on the stove!" I never looked back. In four years I haven't felt cramped at all (well, maybe physically but my style, no my style has not been cramped).

It seems like Bittman and McGee, though gamely trying to find the virtues of a microwave for the sake of their articles, agree with me. I think, deep down, they do. No, Slow Food isn't about being anti-microwave, but I do think it's about knowing your food; McGee talks about pine nuts cooking on the inside but not browning on the outside, and the strangeness of needing to keep opening and closing the microwave door to assess the state of affairs, and it makes me think that a microwave gets in the way of that knowing.

Bruce Sterling & Metropolis Miss the Point: By, well, about as far as you can miss it

The March, 2008 issue of Metropolis focuses on the overarching idea of localism and its relationship to sustainability. It is, as always, a beautiful and well-written issue, but in it one particular columnist, Bruce Sterling, has taken Slow Food to task accusing us once again of that old canard, elitism.

Now while it is true that the movement is often accused of such things, it is not true, nor is it always such a bad thing anyway. Bear in mind that most of the great social movements throughout history were begun by the so-called "elite," (witness abolition and suffrage - not to mention that Ghandi was a well-to-do attorney). But the places Mr. Sterling gets it wrong are so manifold it's hard to know where to start.

Let's try here:

The Cornish Pilchard. The Chilean Blue Egg Hen. The Cypriot Tsamarella and Bosnian Sack Cheese. You haven't seen these foods at McDon­ald's because they are strictly local rarities championed by Slow Food, the social movement founded to combat the proliferation of fast food. McDonald's is a multinational corporation: it retails identical food products on the scale of billions, repeatedly, predictably, worldwide. Slow Food, the self-appointed anti-McDonald's, is a "revolution" whose aim is a "new culture of food and life."

Actually you haven't seen these foods at McDonald's because McDonald's sells hamburgers. Here Mr. Sterling has blundered by believing that who/what Slow Food is is somehow stagnant and monolithic. If such things were true then the US would still be a few puritan slave owners dotted up and down the east coast. Or the Chicago Cubs would have been the National League power for the last century. He goes on…

Slow Food began as a jolly clique of leftist academics, entertainers, wine snobs, and pop stars, all friends of Ital­ian journalist and radio personality Carlo Petrini.

I've often wondered what it is about food and wine that makes those who appreciate it automatically labeled "snobs." Wine is just fermented grape juice actually one of the simplest foods known to man. Appreciating quality is not snobbery. Pretending to know something one doesn't actually understand - that's snobbery. For some reason someone who appreciates the inner workings of a fine internal combustion engine is not a snob, but someone who likes a well made buerre blanc is.

The group is the suave host for massive international food events in Torino. Other Slow Food emanations include a hotel, various nonprofit foundations, and—in a particularly significant development—a private college. The University of Gastronomic Sciences, founded in 2004, is the training ground for 200-plus international Slow Food myrmidons per year, who are taught to infiltrate farms, groceries, heritage tourism, restaurants, commercial consortia, hotel chains, catering companies, product promotion, journalism, and government. These areas are, of course, where Slow Food already lives.

My, we are sinister, aren't we? We are "suave," and we are "infiltrating" a host of consortia and other institutions (notably journalism, after all, here I am) with our "myrmidons." (Curious? Yeah, I had to look it up too - despite my apparent position in my ivory tower as an intellectual elite - it means "a follower who carries out orders without question." Evidently now we're a cult)

I'm not sure why Mr. Sterling considers these ideas to be so threatening, but the fact is Slow Food couldn't care less what the McDonalds and Monsantos of the world do, until they start to crap where we live. In the meantime, we promote these ideas because we believe them to be good ideas worthy of proliferation and preservation. Food defines who we are as individuals and as cultures. We are truly what we eat, and too many people are fast, cheap and easy. The right of ADM or Monsanto, Applebees or Burger King to swing its arms ends at the tip of the eater's nose. Who owns your food owns you, and it is unwise to let that power rest in the hands of a very few wealthy corportations.

As the spiritual, political, and ideological wellspring of all things "eco-gastronomic," Slow Food has woven a set of quiet understandings with the city of Torino, the region of Piedmont, the Italian Foreign Ministry, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Sir, due respect and setting aside your constant condescension for a moment, but there's been nothing "quiet" about it. Logos for those government bodies and organizations are emblazoned on, for example, ALL the literature regarding the Salone del Gusto, (need proof? click that link) the largest food show of its kind, atracting 200,000 people each year. Oh, and yes, it's in Italy. The organization was founded there, that's why. Our last International Leaders' Congress was held in Puebla, Mexico because preserving the foods and traditions of the so-called "developing" world is at the top of Slow Food's mission list. We are not as exclusionary as you seem to think.

In regard to Slow Food's Presidia project, he had this to say:

The cleverest innovation to date is the network's presidium system. The Slow Food "presidia" make up a grassroots bottom-up version of the European "Domain of Control" system, which requires, for instance, that true "champagnes" must come from the province of Champagne, while lesser fizzy brews are labeled mere "sparkling wines." These presidia have made Slow Food the planetary paladin of local production. Slow Food deploys its convivia to serve as talent scouts for food rarities (such as Polish Mead, the Istrian Giant Ox, and the Tehuacan Amaranth). Candidate discoveries are passed to Slow Food's International Ark Commission, which decides whether the foodstuff is worthy of inclusion. Its criteria are strict: (a) Is the product nonglobalized or, better yet, inherently nonglobalizable? (b) Is it artisanally made (so there's no possibility of any industrial economies of scale)? (c) Is it high-quality (the consumer "wow" factor)? (d) Is it sustainably produced? (Not only is this politically pleasing, but it swiftly eliminates competition from most multinationals.) (e) Is this product likely to disappear from the planet otherwise? (Biodiversity must be served!)

Sterling seems to think this is being done for our organization's own aggrandizement, or perhaps even profit. Simply not so. it s being done because, as the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity do clearly states:

5% of European food product diversity has been lost since 1900

93% of American food product diversity has been lost in the same time period

33% of livestock varieties have disappeared or are near disappearing

30,000 vegetable varieties have become extinct in the last century, and one more is lost every six hours

The mission of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is to organize and fund projects that defend our world's heritage of agricultural biodiversity and gastronomic traditions.

We envision a new agricultural system that respects local cultural identities, the earth's resources, sustainable animal husbandry, and the health of individual consumers.

And yes, Mr. Sterling, biodiversity MUST be served. Nature does not function without it and the industrialization and standardization of food and flavors is a direct threat to that diversity. For those who would like to know the true mission (and criteria) of the Foundation for Biodiversity and the Presidia Projects, please click here.

It is, among its many other roles, a potent promotion machine. Transforming local rarities into fodder for global gourmets is, of course, profitable. And although he's no capitalist—the much honored Petrini is more justly described as a major cultural figure—he was among the first to realize that as an economic system globalization destroys certain valuable goods and services that rich people very much want to buy.

There he goes again, thinking that there is some profit motive behind what we do, like our 501(c)3 status and clear and concise billing as an educational organization is just some sort of front for gluttonous Nobles Oblige rather that an honest attempt to help preserve flavors, traditions, and ways of life. Does he really believe that mankind's only choices are get on board with the agribusiness oligarchs or get run over by them? We think not. We think it's a good idea to try to preserve great food. We think there should be more than one kind of hamburger in the world. More than one flavor of beer. We believe foundations and traditions are important because they make us who we are.

He concludes:

But while McDonald's mechanically peddles burgers to the poor, Slow Food acculturates the planet's wealthy to the gourmand quality of life long cherished by the European bon vivant. They have about as much in common as an aging shark and a networked swarm of piranhas.

Yes, McDonald's does do that, as the overwhelming rates of obesity and diabetes among "the poor" (especially children) so clearly demonstrates. But far from reserving these "cherished" foods of the world for some elite class, Slow Food is working to proliferate them, and to return them to the artisans and yes, often peasants, from which they originated. we seek to make people aware of the connections between food and pleasure on the one hand, and awareness and responsibility on the other.

Mr. Sterling's dismissal of Slow Food's successful efforts as snobbery or elitism rings quite hollow on closer examination of what Slow Food is truly trying to do. I suggest, Mr. Sterling, that you read more, learn more, and perhaps visit Slow Food Nation this coming summer. There you may open your eyes to a food system we call "Good, clean, and fair."

"He who distinguishes the true savor of his food," Thoreau once wrote, "cannot be a glutton. He who does not, cannot be otherwise."

Read Mr. Sterling's entire article here

Note from our department of incredulity

Products boasting "authentic food court flavor."