Slow Food Nation '08

Every possible malady has a name and a pill. Your kids can’t focus, they now have Attention Deficit Disorder. Your leg moves while you sleep so you get a diagnosis of restless leg syndrome. I just found out that I have Eco Anxiety. I heard an editor from a magazine say that one of his writers covers so many doom and gloom environmental stories that he went screaming from an assignment and took to bed. It hit home for me. I read and write so many scary health and environment stories that I give myself the shakes.

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 Cheese, we were treated to a different kind of pairing—cheese and beer. Two cheese experts, Jeff Roberts (also a Slow Food USA Board Member and beer aficionado) and Laura Werlin, led us through the tasting of seven cheeses and six craft ales.

On the heels of last weekend’s successful Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco, participants will discuss where the Slow Food Movement should go from here, especially with regard to the world food crisis. This panel will feature food activist and Vice President of Slow Food International Dr. Vandana Shiva, author and Knight Professor of Journalism Michael Pollan, author and scholar Dr. Raj Patel, and farmer and scholar Dr. Frederick Kirschenmann, moderated by author and Professor of Geography Richard Walker.

See more at the Slow Food Nation flickr album (now almost 700 photos strong!). If you have your own photos to add, please put them in the SFN08 pool and consider giving them a Creative Commons license so they can be shared on blogs and among the community!

As the sun sets on the fourth and final day of Slow Food Nation, we’re thrilled to announce that the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden will remain in place on the lawn of San Francisco City Hall until November. The garden, which has been producing substantial amounts of fresh produce and supplied some of the food for this weekend’s events, has received tremendous support from Mayor Gavin Newsom and the city. Most everyone who has come down to witness the beauty and bounty of the garden has voiced their desires to see this project become a permanent symbol of San Francisco’s progressive position on food, farming, and social justice.

After two days of inspiring talks, I personally feel ready to take some action. Three great panels were packed with the world’s most important food policy thinkers, including farmer and essayist Wendell Berry, who rarely gives public talks, but has been one of the primary thinkers influencing the Slow Food movement in the U.S.

The second day at Slow Food Nation was as sunny as the first, and even more people poured into Civic Center plaza to enjoy the Marketplace, Slow on the Go, the Soapbox, the Victory Garden, and the Food for Thought series nearby at the Herbst Theater. On the other side of the city, thousands of people filled the Taste Pavilions to get their fill of pickles, cheese, ice cream, bread, beer, and much more.

Slow Food Nation is under way, and the panelists at Food for Thought have jumped right in to the discussion of the issues our food system faces, and how to bring about change. Today’s panels discussed the world food crisis, building a new food system, re-localizing food, and the rights of farm workers. Throughout the day, there were many ideas that crossed paths.

Today kicked off Slow Food Nation’s 4-day extravaganza of good, clean and fair food. We have ahead of us many hours of tasting, talking, learning, proposing new policies, and planning systems changes. It was a magnificent day and Civic Center plaza was absolutely electrified with the first batch of visitors who’ve come from far and wide to the bright and sunny (if a little hot) weather of late summer San Francisco. Fortunately the trees that line the garden offer plenty of shade.

When Tamara Hicks went to post her “Goat Milker Wanted – $10/hr” ad on San Francisco’s Craigslist in January, she wasn’t sure where to file it. Unsurprisingly, “Agriculture” isn’t a job category on the site. With only 1% of Americans still in the business nationally, even the Census doesn’t count “Farmer” as a job anymore. So Hicks decided on “General Labor,” and settled in for the long, slow wait for someone willing to drive 20 miles out of Petaluma for a part-time shift mucking stalls and milking goats, at a salary that would barely cover the gas to get there.