Natalia Bonilla Food and Adventure Blog

Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco- the buzz was all about food. The downtown streets throughout City Hall were filled with more than 60,000 aficionados of food and drink to celebrate the first-ever Slow Food Nation event. Thousands of participants came together to take part in a variety of educational workshops, tours, music, film, art shows, and markets dedicated to building awareness around food and important food issues of the day. The theme of the event was 'Come to the Table', an idea promoting solidarity behind food and related issues as well as a call for reform to the current food system. In fact, revolutionizing the current food system to one based on values of sustainability, affordability, nutrition, social justice, and good flavor was a center piece of this event.

If this sounds like a movement- you're right. A Slow Food Movement. This movement is gaining wider popularity each day with the help of organizations like Slow Food Nation.

Slow Food Nation is a subsidiary non-profit of Slow Food USA based in New York City and part of the international Slow Food movement. With over 200 chapters, the organization's goal is to raise food awareness for change. "We are dedicated to expand this movement," says Anya Fernald, Executive Director of Slow Food Nation. "At Slow Food Nation we want to create a movement of celebration and joy suffused with a mandate for political change that leaves people with more knowledge of the simple changes they can make to build a sustainable food system in America."

Such a philosophy is based on a grassroots ideology started in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini. Petrini founded Slow Food in response to the globalization of western fast food culture invading Europe. Petrini feared fast food was disconnecting communities from their food, their local economies, and surrounding environments. Petrini decided the only way to save his food heritage from fast food was to spread the word on the importance of food and food cultures and build a movement supporting traditional tastes and flavors of locally grown food. He founded the publishing house Slow Food Editore where publications dedicated to the relationship between ecology and gastronomy in over 5 languages are currently registered. Then in 2004, he founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences, which further established The Slow Food movement in Italy, Europe, and all over the world including the US. Finally in 2000, through international and domestic collaborations, Slow Food USA was born.

With the help of Slow Food USA and hundreds of Slow Food organizers, a national food movement has emerged based on slowing down with respect to living, eating and overall consumption in order to reconnect people to the pleasure of food as well as how and where good food is grown. This fundamental idea is becoming more popular with Americans as they look for alternatives away from an industrialized fast food culture, which many argue is bad for the earth, unfair and just plain unhealthy. In fact, major food companies reported at Slow Food Nation that demand for local foods is skyrocketing.

"Our society is just on the wrong track," says Scott Murray, Board Chair of Slow Food- San Diego chapter and small farmer. "We're living the consequences of an age of resource abundance. We now need to learn to live more sustainably within our means and begin to save our intellectual property with regards to food. This calls for more public awareness and education. Slow Food is standing up and providing a hub for this to take place. Through events like Slow Food Nation we can seize control of our food and put it back into the hands of the public."

Slow Food Nation is a dream venue for the thousands of Californians dubbed 'foodies'-an endearing term for people who not only love food, but also know something about the food they eat. They may even know why some food tastes better than others, know the nutritional value of it, and genuinely care about how food is grown and where. "Anyone can be a foodie" replies Chelsea Nilmt, 19 from San Mateo. "I'm here at Slow Food Nation to learn more about creating a new sustainable food system I can be proud of."

For Chelsea, Slow Food nation was the opportunity many were looking for. The event showcased a series of discussions and public awareness sessions during the two main lecture series events: Changemakers Day and Food for Thought. Both events convened hundreds of community leaders, change activists, journalists to discuss ways to change the current food system in California, some of the guest include Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Carlo Petrini, Eric Schloser, Vandana Shiva, Van Jones and many others. Another strong event were the fifteen Taste Pavillions at Fort Mason where some of the nation's fine foods and wines were sampled. At the Civic Center Plaza the outdoor marketplace and eatery section appropriately called Slow on the Go was bustling and alive with food venders and vegetable and fruit farmers selling prized produce.

Slow Food Rocks, a two-day outdoor music festival at the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, presented artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Ozomatli, Phil Lesh & Friends, Medeski, Martin and Wood, G Love & Special Sauce and the New Pornographers. "It was so nice to be at an event I could earnestly relate to", say Felicity Baun, a realtor in San Francisco. "I don't think many people will find it difficult to rally around food- this venue made that easy and enjoyable."

Beyond the music and discussion, Slow Food Nation also invited participants to experience the celebrated Victory Garden - a quarter acre garden filled with planted vegetables and flowers in the middle of the Civic Center Plaza, and especially installed for the event. "It is so nice to just sit next to this garden in the middle of this busy city", say Diane Leemer, a Santa Clara resident. Diane smiles, "I've never seen a squash plant before- let alone grown in a garden". For some like Diane, the Victory garden was an opportunity for many to experience gardening and learn about the origin of food for the first time.

"To understand the food movement requires a hands-on process that involves education and participation," say Alice Waters, a strong advocate for the Slow Food Movement, owner of the famous Chez Panisse restaurant and author of many books- her most recent the Edible Schoolyard that emphasizes the power of growing, cooking, and sharing food. "I wish everyone could plant a garden to understand food and this movement." Such honest sentiments from a true food advocate. Yet, even the most passionate advocate can admit that not everyone can plant a garden in order to connect themselves to the food they eat. Fortunately, Slow Food Nation and collaborators have addressed other ways anyone can get involved in the Slow Food Movement. Here are a several anyone can start with:

1. Sign the National Declaration calling for healthy food and agriculture policy
at fooddeclaration.org
2. Become a Locavore and buy more sustainable food: local, seasonal, organic, biodynamic.
3. Ask your School District to make food part of the curriculum.
4. Make Friends with Your Food Producers: farmer, fisher, farmworker, cheesemaker,
baker, chef.
5. Support a Local Organization
seeking healthy food and agriculture.
6. Read a Book about food systems.
7. Plant a Garden at home.

8. Ask the Governor and President to plant victory gardens at the State Capitol
and White House.
9. Learn More about these important concepts:
*urban-rural partnerships
*biologically integrated farming systems
*food sovereignty
*foodshed
*farming with the wild
*working landscapes
*ecosystem services
10. Be informed. Be invited. Be involved.

If you missed Slow Food Nation and wonder where it will go from here- just stay tuned. Slow Food Nation is currently undergoing a series of interviews with farmers, food producers and community organizations that collaborated in the planning and delivering of the event to learn how to increase the scale of similar events in the future. "We like to see this event happen each year," say Anya Fernald, executive director of Slow Food Nation. "It's been an incredible success so far".