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Slow Food and Carlo Petrini


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There's a great, interesting article in this month's San Francisco magazine on Slow Food Nation:

The paradox of Slow Food lies somewhere between the Taste Pavilions’ high-ticket gastronomists swooning over bloomy-rind triple-crèmes, and the Victory Garden firebrands pushing for organic 2 percent milk for the masses. Stung by accusations of offering little more than epicurean thrills for the well fed, the organization is seeking new relevance at a time when the politics of the plate have moved center table. “Everyone else is organizing to try and save the world,” says the festival’s executive director, Anya Fernald, “but we’ve just been sitting around, talking about the cheese course.”

It's very thoughtful and shows all the pros and cons much better than I've seen anywhere else. It's also nice to see Anya Fernald admit mistakes were made. It calms the critics and allows things to move forward.

And of course I'm quoted a little, making Pulitzer prize potential.

Slow Food was here in San Francisco Magazine.

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Totally agree, it's a well written, thoughtful article. I'm so tired of little sound bites, this article actually has some meat to it.

I think the author may be right on the money in saying that Slow Food Italy does not have the same starting points, ideals or goals as Slow Food USA. They just can't. It's impossible. The attitude toward food and eating is so different (not better, not worse, just different) between Italy and the US that's it's incomprehensible to even try a one approach fits all method. Italians are fanatical about their gardens, it's in their DNA. The concept of 'teaching' people the value of a garden would be laughable here, but it's entirely valid in the US, for a plethora of reasons. And that's just one example.

To focus on elitism is just crazy. Smaller batch foods will always cost more than large batch foods, that's just an economic reality. Finding ways to feed the general population clean food is a noble and difficult goal.

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NYT got their facts wrong - Corby Kummer is not a member of the Board of Directors and does not speak for Slow Food USA (or international) in any official, formal respect.

The Slow Food website lists Corby Kummer as a member of the Slow Food USA advisory board. The Times piece describes him as "Corby Kummer, a food columnist, book author and Slow Food board member." So while he is indeed not a director, the statement in the Times may not be factually incorrect.

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Someone was asking about groups that are actually helping low income people get better food? One organization is the Master Gardeners (State Agricultural Extension Service). That's just the one that comes to mind at the moment and that I personally am familiar with.

I've read articles about groups in other areas. In my area, which is a rural/semi-rural, resort coastal county (w/plenty of low income people), the Master Gardeners have: (1) built & help people grow veg & herbs in a number of raised beds in the front yard of our local Food pantry building--the people using the raised beds are low income; (2) started & help kids plant & work in at least 3 school yard gardens, the kids get some of the produce & I think any surplus may be donated to the local food pantries; (3) a garden for veg, herbs, on land run by the BLM, upon which is also a tourist attraction (a lighthouse). MGers supervise, kids who are interested plant, weed, get some of the produce, any surplus is, I believe, donated to the food pantry; (4) at least two other community gardens in other parts of the county have been started by Master Gardeners. As far as I know, spaces or beds in these community gardens are available for use by any resident, low income or mid income.

A friend of mine who is low income, has a large veg garden & an ever multiplying container garden just outside her house. She lives in a rural part of the county & has a fair amount of land (bought when she was married & the land was cheap). She has apples, two kinds of plums, pears, quinces & cherries, raspberries, strawberries, Tayberries, blueberries, hazels (hazelnuts), black walnuts. She's not able to pick everything herself now & her kids are gone, so I help as do some of her neighbors. In return, we get fresh produce. She grows cucumbers for me as it doesn't get hot enough where I live to grow much (without cold frames or a greenhouse) other than cool weather crops like salad greens, potatoes, herbs, cole crops. Her garden produces beets, flint & sweet corn, brussel sprouts, asparagus, a seemingly endless supply of self-seeded kale, winter squash, summer squash, snap peas, Romano beans, yard long beans (for the first time), carrots & many many potatoes.

When I first met this person, her garden was large enough to keep a family of four supplied with produce almost all year round (she had a large freezer). She also has chickens & sells some of the eggs. The chickens eat her food discards, any weeds & produce not only eggs but great fertilizer.

Her son & his partner, who live in a city apartment in a moderate sized city while attending college/working, meet a fair % of their herb/fresh produce needs through container growing on their balcony.

A disabled friend, who lives in a subsidized apt. complex in a moderate sized suburb, grows some of her produce (& enough to freeze some) in a few of the 10 or 12 raised beds on the property of the apt. complex.

All of these gardeners are essentially micro-producers. I grew enough lettuce & other greens for myself for all of the spring & summer in two large containers. If I can figure out a way to build something cloche-like over them that won't blow away in the high wind winter storms, I can probably keep myself supplied with greens & cilantro all year around. For several years, in a relatively small plot, I grew enough potatoes to meet my needs for almost all winter. I have two blueberry bushes, one huckleberry bush & get enough berries to freeze some. Next year I plan to start enough onions from seed to try to meet at least 6 months worth of my needs. That will all be microproduction & it will all be organically grown. I'm not working full time right now but I had a bigger garden during part of the time I was working full time. I do not have a large lot, some of it is too shaded for growing veg or fruit & the climate is such that I am limited in what I can grow without a greenhouse and/or wind protection. Despite those limitations, I could grow a substantially larger % of my produce requirements or wants then I do.

This is a long post & I'm sorry if it seems too long but these are issues that are important to me.

I guess my point is that there are low income people who grow quite a bit of their own produce and are, essentially, micro producers. I started growing greens in containers because I was tired of paying what seemed like increasingly high prices for organic produce like lettuce but had gotten temporarily tired of dealing w/some problems concerning my veg garden.

I had to pay for the containers & soil, & a heating pad (to start seeds), but after that, my main cost has been seeds-- I believe that, over a 3-4 year period, I am saving money by being a microproducer. I save some seeds from some of what I grow. Oh, for the record, I am not Italian & I grew up in suburban/urban areas, although my father had a large veg garden & some fruit trees in the backyard of our first house.

Second point is that, yes, there are organizations, such as the Master Gardener program, offered by the Agricultural extension service, who are working to help low income people get access to fresh produce & have the opportunity to grow their own. Community service of some kind is a part of the requirements for becoming certified as a Master Gardener.

Agricultural extension offices exist pretty much everywhere in the US, not just in a rural or semi-rural counties. There is at least one Ag Extension office in Nassau county, on Long Island, NY, it has a Master Gardeners' program & that's definitely not a rural area. Does that program or its members focus on establishing community gardens? I don't know.

As for food not being political, good luck. When Earl Butz, a former Sec'y of Agriculture, effectively declared war on small farmers in favor of large corporate farms, it was political. It is political when a new Farm bill continues to give huge subsidies to corporate ag but a relatively miniscule amount to small farmers & organic farmers. It is political when small farmers who happen to be black had to file a class action against the USDA to obtain their share of the subsidies, i.e., they successfully alleged discrimination in how subsidies were awarded (& may not yet have collected their awards, despite having gotten a favorable decision). It is political when McD's habitually sues (for slander/libel) those who criticise its food, see the "McLibel" case in the UK. That particular lawsuit--which became the longest running civil suit in England--rather backfired on McD's when two of the defendants chose to fight (pretty much on a pro se or unrepresented basis). They ended up winning on several counts, losing on others.

I like Gary Nabhan's approach. He & some other started a native seeds/SEARCH program to help the preservation of heirloom seeds of food plants. He wrote, "Coming Home to Eat" & was editor of a book titled "Renewing America's Food Traditions". In one of his books he includes a quote that goes something like, if you want to save it, you gotta eat it. According to his website, he was going to give a talk or speech at the Slow Food thing in SF.

azurite

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  • 2 weeks later...

Personally, I'm wondering if the prices on the Posh and Becks blog are fairly compared - she checked the Safeway online delivery service - I know in my area, the delivery service is more expensive than shopping in the store, naturally, it'd be more expensive than shopping at the farmers market. Seems an unfair comparison to me.

“"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.”

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