Labor Day(s)

Labor Day is a few days gone now—please forgive the slowness of this post.

In honor of Labor Day, we’d like to call your attention to a panel that was held at Changemakers Day this past Friday.  Changemakers Day was just one part of Slow Food Nation, the programming of which focused on sustainable food systems, “featur[ing] the clash of ideas, critical thinking from incisive minds, and inspiring dialogue among potential collaborators,” with the goal of starting important conversations that will lead to effective collaboration. One panel, called “Accessing the Price of Good Food,” attempted to examine the problem of limited access to good food, diet-related chronic health conditions, growing dependency on government food programs, and food insecurity.  An interesting and ultimately essential contributor to the panel was Saru Jayaraman, from the Restaurant Opportunities Center. 

She began by “justifying” her presence on the panel, since the inclusion of restaurant workers’ rights wasn’t necessarily an obvious fit for a panel on access.  She made a firm, powerful and clear cry for the imperative inclusion of restaurant worker rights in any sustainable food movement (i.e. us, Slow Food) worth its salt.  We’ve covered farmworker issues before on this blog, but never the rights of the many, many underpaid, abused restaurant workers in this country, and Jayaraman’s rallying cry was certainly felt here.

As Eric Schlosser said in the closing Food for Thought panel, “workers need to have a place at the table,” and not just the ones who get the food from the earth to the market.  A meal is not sustainable if the tomato picker was abused, nor is it sustainable if the prep cook, busboy or waiter was either.

For more information on the Restaurant Opportunities Center, click here.
For more information on their recent victory reclaiming stolen tips for workers, click here.

UPDATE, 9/10/08: Check out his short video of Eric Schlosser, at Grist.org, discussing the importance of labor issues when it comes to sustainable agriculture.

Slow Food Nation re-cap

Thanks to all 60,000 of you who came to Slow Food Nation and listened, ate, discussed, networked, bought, and cheered.  To the rest of you: we missed you!  We had beautiful sunshine, terrific crowds, and many opportunities to meet each other and expand our growing circle of people supporting a good, clean and fair food system.

As we’ve mentioned before there’s been great day-by-day, minute-by-minute coverage on the Slow Food Nation blog--so do check that out.

Highlights:

• Pictures:  Check out the Slow Food Nation flickr page for hundreds and hundreds of photos taken by people who were there.  Add your photographic gems to the page!
• The Victory Garden: Great news! The Victory Garden, planted on the front lawn of San Francisco’s City Hall for the event, will be kept up through November.  The garden was the heart of the activities of the Civic Center, and was home to a soap box series, musicians, and leisurely strolls.
• New Vision for a 21st Century Food, Farm, and Agriculture Policy: On Thursday August 28th, Slow Food chapter leaders and staff gathered in front of the main steps at City Hall to show support for this new petition which seeks to lay out, in no uncertain terms, what is needed for our food system to move forward in a healthy, systemically sustainable way.  You can read more about the declaration and sign onto the petition Food Bill Declaration.  And we will definitely be writing more about this in the weeks to come.
• Take Back the Tap: Food and Water Watch partnered with the event to make sure that tap water (instead of bottled water) was available at all of the venues; in addition it was an opportunity for attendees to think about how much waste is created by the bottled water industry.  The “Take Back the Tap” stands at the Civic center were cleverly constructed out of old plastic bottles and were selling re-usable metal ones.

We’d love to hear your stories—of a favorite product bought at the market place, or a favorite conversation had on a hay bale, of an inspirational talk you attended, or a slow journey you took in the Bay area. We’ll be sharing more too, day by day, so keep checking back in.

For SFUSA Board Member Chef Kurt Michael Friese’s re-cap on Grist, click here.

For media coverage of the event. you don’t have to look far.  Check out the NY Times Dining section today, or sfgate.com’s ongoing coverage, or menupages.com’s interview with Michael Pollan, or seriouseats.com’s coverage, or…or…or….

A Taste of the Taste Workshops at Slow Food Nation

Many of us think of wine and cheese as two great tastes that go great together (like pizza and beer, milk and cookies).  At Saturday night’s Taste Workshop celebrating American Raw Milk Cheeses, we were treated to something that was new for many of us—cheese with beer.  Cheese expert (and Slow Food USA Board Member) Jeff Roberts and cheese expert Laura Werlin led us through the tasting of 7 cheeses and 6 craft ales.

The cheeses and their makers hailed from Alabama, Indiana, Oregon, Wisconsin, Vermont, and California; several of the producers were in the room with us and shared their processes, working with their sheep, Guernsey cows, Nubian dwarf goats etc. and crafting and shepherding (as it were) that milk into beautiful artisan cheeses.  Ever seen a cheese that’s been rubbed with paprika?  Hillis Peak Cheese from Pholia Farm Creamery was a first for me and I fell in love with its spicy, rich and creamy flavor.  (n.b. it goes really well with Dogfish’s Midas Touch Golden Elixir).

Most surprising were the ways in which the cheeses changed in combination with the beer, and vice versa. 6 pieces of fantastic farmstead cheese + 7 diverse and delicious craft ales meant several interesting and surprising flavor combinations.

If you are interested in reading more about American Raw Milk cheeses, check out Jeff’s Book The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, and Laura’s book Cheese Essentials.

We are a Slow Food Nation

Greetings from San Francisco, where Slow Food USA is holding its National Congress (a meeting of Slow Food chapter leaders from around the country).  We’re discussing our vision and mission, our strategic plan, our national statute, best practices, and the future of the movement and the organization.

Big Stuff.

Other big stuff?  Our new website, and….drumroll please….Slow Food Nation.

We hope to see many of you in San Francisco this weekend.

Host a National Labor Day Picnic

Participate locally in the largest celebration of food in America!

This Labor Day, join us in building a food system that is just, sustainable and delicious by holding picnics in your town or city. A day of generosity and action, we invite you to organize picnics with loved ones and new friends who together will break bread, share a meal and help transform the American food system. Starting August 20th, you will be able to post picnic plans, photos, testimonials, and video content at Slowfoodnation.org.

Held during the first ever Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco, CA (August 29-September 1) Slow Food Nation Labor Day Picnics are meant to build on the momentum created by communities of all kinds across the country eager to support and foster a good, clean and fair food system.

Join us for a day of action dedicated to sharing food and celebrating the realization of Slow Food Nation in dozens of different ways, in different communities across America. If you'd like help envisioning how to do this, and how to incorporate endangered foods into your menu, check out our American Traditions Picnics page.

Who Can Participate:
You, your friends, families, neighbors and community members.

Other Ways You Can Support a Slow Food Nation:
Host a Signing of the Petition Calling for a New Vision for a 21st Century Food, Farm & Agriculture Policy. A Downloadable PDF of the Petition will be available on August 28th, 2008 at fooddeclaration.org.

For more information on how to post your picnic online, and to find out how others are celebrating National Labor Day Picnics, visit slowfoodnation.org.

Everyone’s talking about Slow Food Nation!

As we ramp up for the big event, there's been lots of great coverage:

What to Do and Where to Eat: Check out this handy highlight guide from 7×7.com. The best part? The Greek-gods-of-good-and-plenty graphic featuring Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Gavin Newsome, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.

Featured Products: Check out this article from the Fresno Bee that discusses products from the Central Valley that will be present at the event. How'd we get such a strong Valley presence? Why, Slow Food Regional Governor and local farmer Tom Willey, of course!

Victory Garden Ready to Pick: 1,500 pounds of food, all going to local shelters.

Bite-Size Bulletins: Lil' bits of background, interviews, updates, etc. from Chow.com

How to Cover the Event? The movement?: This article from the Columbia Journalism Review explores the journalist's perspective.

And what about you? If you won't be there, what will you be doing Labor Day weekend to celebrate your food heritage?

Big Slow Food Events. Big.

Things have been a bit crazy around here due to a few upcoming Slow Food Events, near and far.

1. Slow Food Nation. San Francisco, Labor Day weekend. If you are not already reading the event blog every day, please add it to your blog roll! Each day there are new posts–about the various Taste Pavilions, about the big issues in the sustainable food movement (check out the recent post on Proposition 2), and various events leading up to the big event, including the release of a new book: COME TO THE TABLE: THE SLOW FOOD WAY OF LIVING.

2. Terra Madre. Turin, Italy. October 23 -27. This biennial meeting will include over 700 delegates from the United States, and 6,000 delegates from around the world. Together, these delegates represent those who produce, sell, harvest, purchase, cook, educate about and promote sustainable food. It's too late to be a delegate this year, but start planning for 2010! This year's event will, for the first time, have a huge youth presence–cooks, farmers, students–with over 200 youth from the US alone.
3. Salone del Gusto. Turin, Italy. October 23 - 27. This giant public event attracts over 140,000 people (yup, you read that right) and happens concurrently with Terra Madre. Go to Turin and experience this giant sustainable food fair. The market is the heart of the event, but there are also taste workshops, dinners, lectures, etc. You can buy tickets online now, leading all the way up to the event.

Slideluck Potshow

What the heck is a Slideluck Potshow?

If you're in the NYC area, you can find out this Saturday. For those of you who don't live nearby, you'll have to wait until it comes to you–and it just might! Slideluck Potshow is a non-profit arts event that aims to build and strengthen community around food and art. Slideluck Potshow combines a multimedia slideshow with a potluck dinner and it has taken place in about forty cities globally, from Stockholm to São Paulo.

The evening begins with a couple hours of dining on the home-cooked delights of participants, while drinking and mingling. Following the potluck, and as the sun goes down, the crowd is hushed, and a slideshow of work by local artists begins.

Shows regularly draw more than a thousand people in NYC; they expect this weekend's to be much larger. Particularly notable is the location–for those of you not in NYC, McCarren Park Pool is a former public pool that now, waterless, hosts live performances, movie screenings, and, well, Slideluck Potshow. It is estimated this particular event might be the largest potluck EVER. The event is open to the public–all you have to do is bring a Slow dish (your entry ticket) to feed approximately 10 servings.

SLIDELUCK POTSHOW XII
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
6:30pm Potluck
8:30pm Slideshow
RSVP here
McCARREN PARK POOL
Lorimer Street, between Driggs Avenue and Bayard Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L Train to Bedford or Lorimer

Gardens and Ranchers et al

Some Thursday links for your all:

• Slow Food Nation's Victory Garden is complete and it's beautiful. And Alice Waters talks up the street food section of the event.
• But can edible gardens save our broken food system? Check out this very interesting article from one of the people who had his lawn transformed by artist Fritz Haeg's Edible Estate project. He says that "to repair the broken system that supplies the bulk of the nation's diet will require Americans to step out of the garden and into the public arena."
• A Montana environmentalist spends the day with some ranchers and opens her eyes to the threats that ranchers are facing out west.
• Check out the new "Eco-tube" and watch a video about you can reduce energy use in your home.

Slow Food Nation Blog

Happy July 4th to all of you and apologies for a slow week of postings here at the blog–the Slow Food USA offices have been closed this week.If you haven't already, please check out the new Slow Food Nation blog–postings from writers around the country (including Jerusha from our SFUSA offices), generating conversation in and around food as a lead up to our big big event in San Francisco over Labor Day. They're chronicling the planting of the victory garden (great pics), discussing Northern California cuisine, etc. And don't forget that tickets are already on sale–here.