Biodiversity Committee

U.S. Ark of Taste nominations are reviewed by a committee of Slow Food USA members from around the country, including home cooks, gardeners, culinary instructors, grocers, chefs, food historians and farmers. Committee members hold three-year terms during which they review Ark of Taste nominations, promote Slow Food USA's national biodiversity program to the public and the press, and guide chapters' food identification, recovery and promotion activities.

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As President and Principal of Right Stuff Enterprises, Robin specializes in creative culinary concept, product, menu and market development. Robin and Right Stuff have also served as incubators for the nurturing and co-creation of several businesses focused on delicious, regional, seasonal and sustainable foods. Robin writes about food and culinary R&D for several publications and regularly teaches and speaks on subjects from varietal honey in cocktails to the process of menu ideation. She is Vice Chair of the Chefs Collaborative and President Emeritus of the Vermont Fresh Network, both which strive to connect chefs with more a more wholesome and sustainable food supply.

"It seems both an obligation and a privilege to align my passion, profession and politic and I find the notion of rescuing, preserving and celebrating endangered cultural, gastronomic treasures infinitely compelling. We too often overlook the culture in agriculture, the flavor in food and the pleasures and connections found in sharing the table. I see social, environmental, economic acts and outcomes as inextricably linked. Eco-gastronomy is Slow Food's way of positively focusing that interconnectedness. The Ark of Taste is demonstrative of the inherent relationship between a flavorful food culture and a diverse agri-culture."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Ben is a writer and editor specializing in food and agriculture issues. As Senior Editor for Chelsea Green Publishing, he has developed and edited dozens of books dealing with sustainable farming and artisan foods and food culture, including the RAFT Alliance book, “Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods.” Ben has written or co-written several books, including, "Cider, Hard and Sweet" and "Taylor's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables." He is a Lifetime Member of Seed Savers Exchange and the co-leader of Slow Food Monadnock Region (NH) chapter where he works to conserve heritage apple varieties of New England through a regional nursery project.

"The Ark of Taste is neither a living history museum nor a static repository of quaint, traditional foods that have had their day. It's more like a temporary vessel for preserving and promoting foods and traditions until more people rediscover and embrace them. Because we focus on foods that not only are important, but delicious, I have confidence that most, if not all, of these now-unfamiliar products will someday find their constituency in the marketplace."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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David Buchanan is a farmer and horticulturalist based at Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he grows heritage foods and promotes their use through tastings, including farm dinners with guest chefs. His current focus is development of a plant nursery with an emphasis on unusual varieties of fruits and berries. In the farm's off season he writes and consults on sustainable landscape design, drawing on experience working on urban parks, native habitat restoration, agricultural sites, community gardens, and multi-use trails. Agricultural design projects in Maine include a master plan for the non-profit Morris Farm in Wiscasset and an urban “farm” and orchard for the non-profit educational organization Cultivating Community. David helped found and then led the Portland, Maine chapter of Slow Food for three years.

"I believe in the Ark of Taste because preserving and celebrating heritage foods is an important part of the local food movement. If we're growing the same varieties shipped from around the world, then we're missing the point. At its deepest level local food can be different in kind as well as quality from commercial foods grown in other regions. Local food traditions reflect culture, creativity and experience of the land. As a grower the Ark of Taste and agricultural diversity represents resilience and the ability to adapt to changing field conditions, while at the table it means better flavor, culinary richness, and stories that enhance our sense of place."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Leah is Executive Chef and Local Food Liaison at Metcalfe’s Markets in Madison and Milwaukee, WI, where she is building relationships with local food producers and raising the culinary profile of these locally-owned markets. Previously, she was Chef-Proprietor at The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School on Washington Island, WI. From the island-grown wheat in the buttermilk donuts, brick-oven bread and ale, to the smoked whitefish pizza and the afternoon's Burbot catch in a delicate saffron broth, every dish at The Washington Hotel featured local and sustainable products. Leah also taught classes at the hotel's culinary school with a focus on island foods. Through Leah's innovation, the island's wheat has also been incorporated into Death's Door Spirits and Capital Brewery's Island Wheat Ale. As a result of her commitment to rebuilding the agricultural economy of this small island, commercial farming has gone, in five years, from zero to 900 acres of grain that is farmed using sustainable methods.

"The Ark of Taste and Slow Food are natural extensions of what I'm doing on a hyperlocal level on Washington Island- saving/restoring food and farming to preserve heritage, flavor, rural beauty and lifestyles. There is a world of flavor that I want to experience and learn about through the Ark-Presidia Committee and all the knowledgeable resources connected to it."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Jennifer Casey is a Registered Dietitian who weaves the concepts of nutritional ecology into her work. She works for the diabetes program at an urban American Indian health center in Milwaukee, WI where she promotes traditional foodways as a means to prevent and control diabetes. In her monthly blog, Sustainable Nutrition, she explores the connections between food, the environment, community, and health. As the biodiversity chair for her local Slow Food chapter, she is working with others to bring back the endangered Milwaukee apple to its home. Along with serving on Wisconsin’s Organic Advisory Council and on the Get Active Today advisory board, her volunteer efforts revolve around local and sustainable food access. Prior to entering the field of nutrition, she graduated from the Natural Gourmet Cookery Institute and has worked in the culinary field in various settings; in restaurants, catering, backstage at a music venue, and operating a pastry stand at Burlington, VT’s farmers market. Her culinary background assists with helping clients and groups develop their kitchen literacy.

"Biodiversity is a key marker of health for any natural system, and as such, the alarming degree of food biodiversity that we have lost throughout the world as we’ve moved towards industrialization of the food system has contributed to the environmental and public health crises we face. Our goal to protect and restore food biodiversity is linked to safeguarding food security, food sovereignty, the environment, and personal health…I’m thrilled to be a part of Slow Food’s conservation efforts to save 'one cherished food at a time.'"

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Kraig Kraft is an agricultural ecologist specializing in crop domestication and evolution. His research focuses on the origins and ecology of Mesoamerican foods. His career has included education and program leadership for numerous international development projects in sustainable agriculture, technology transfer, and grassroots community development. His culinary zeal is based in a great affection for the people, customs, and landscapes in which food is rooted. A member of Slow Food for four years, Kraig is an active participant in local food and farming events. He has traveled and eaten extensively in Latin America and is most at home seated on a milk crate next to the taco truck.

"The Ark of Taste represents an important effort towards the conservation and preservation of agricultural diversity and their associated culinary traditions. The stories of these foods and crops tell our own histories. These are part of our cultural heritage that we need to remember and renew."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Arie McFarlen, PhD, is co-owner of a ranch in South Dakota, promoting the preservation of endangered livestock breeds through conservation, breeding, production and marketing. A published author, Arie is well versed in a variety of disciplines including nutrition, theology, organic farming, animal husbandry, sustainable agriculture and cooking. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, national Family Farm Coalition, and Dakota Rural Action.

"Actively participating in Slow Food USA is a natural complement to our mission of preserving the world's food supply. It is a joy to be around people who appreciate the time and care that goes into producing natural and artisanal foods and who relish every bite. Representing the Bison Nation on the Ark is a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with food artists and producers, bring them to the public eye, and help them connect with people who are seeking their products."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig

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Glenn is a South Carolina sustainable farmer, seedsman and miller of American landrace cereal grains and legumes threatened with extinction. He founded Anson Mills in 1998 to introduce chefs and bakers to organic ingredients milled from heirloom grains grown on farms located in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Glenn is president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, past lecturer at the French Culinary Institute and Johnson & Wales University, founding fellow of the Fellowship of Southern Farmers, Artisans and Chefs and an avid supporter of Slow Food’s activities throughout the USA and in Italy. Glenn is a specialist in connecting historic foodways, chef’s tables and farms.

"I love the challenge of making relevant nearly forgotten or little known aromas, flavors and textures of the extraordinary foods of America, both past and present. That these foods are without exception culturally vital, local, low input, low fuel and reach perfection only with careful and slow preparation seems astonishingly fitting for our time. I’m thrilled to be able to share and contribute to this passion for discovery within the Ark of Taste."

Photo courtesy of Kay Rentchler

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Elissa's foraging and gleaning business, Artisan Preserves, specializes in wildcrafted and rare heirloom fruit. She writes for "Mushroom: The Journal of Wild Mushrooming" and teaches cookery courses about foraged and heirloom foods, as well as preserving. Elissa has developed recipes and menus for Slow Food Sonoma County's Ark Dinners and is a co-creator of the “Ark Trunk,” an exhibition of Ark products featured at Slow Food USA events.

"The Ark is a tool to help bring about the restoration of the traditional American pantry, both indigenous and historic. Several of the foods that have already been boarded onto the Ark—the Olympia oyster, Gravenstein apple, Blenheim apricot, traditionally harvested and parched manoomin, Single-Leaf pinon and the Klondike strawberry—are foods that are fortunately part of my personal history as well."

Photo courtesy of Maveric Heritage Ranch Co. Photographer Tony Laidig