talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

Terrence and I are pleased to have renewed our membership in the Slow Food organization and are looking forward to learning more about the activities of the Los Angeles convivium, the local group to which we now belong. Hopefully all the events for the coming months won't be scheduled when papers are due or exams are looming at UCLA Law!

Some of you have heard me talk of Slow Food before; for those who haven't, here's the background:

Slow Food began in Italy in response to the ever-increasing pace of modern life, which seemed to be epitomized by the expansion of fast food businesses around the globe. Galvanized by the announcement of a McDonald's at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, Carlo Petrini decided to take action, and the concept of Slow Food as a movement began to take shape.

As noted on the Slow Food web site, the organization began in July 1986, with Carlo Petrini as its elected president.

Its original aim was to counter the tide of standardization of taste and the manipulation of consumers around the world. The fundamental importance of conviviality and the right to pleasure are still the basic principles upon which all Slow Food events and activities are built. The movement believes that any traditional product encapsulates the flavours of its region of origin, not to mention local customs and ancient production techniques. With this in mind, Slow Food is working not only to protect the historic, artistic and environmental heritage of places of gastronomic pleasure (cafés, inns, bistros), but also to safeguard the food and agricultural heritage (crop biodiversity, artisan techniques, sustainable agriculture, rural development, food traditions).

In 1989, Slow Food delegations from around the world met at the Opéra Comique in Paris, where they approved the Slow Food Manifesto, one point in which states, ‘Let us rediscover the flavours and savours of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food. In the name of productivity, the Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes’. An emblem of slowness - the snail - was chosen as the movement’s symbol.

The ideals of Slow Food have found a sizeable following here in the United States. We first learned about the organization while living in San Francisco, and joined the convivium there. Our first event was a tasting in honor of Carlo Petrini's tour of the U.S.--good food, wine, and conversation, at a monastery in Marin county. And while I used to curse the snails and slugs that emerged at dusk to nibble on the plants in my Chicago garden, I've started to smile when I see them here in southern California. First of all, they're much bigger than what we had in Chicago, and they leave little trails across the sidewalk, which are still visible when Wallace and I take our morning walk. Wallace sniffs for figs, I look for snails...it all makes for a nice start to the day, and a reminder that not everything needs to be speedily done or speedily consumed.

There's so much more that could be said: about Slow Food's effort to institute "taste education" in schools; the efforts of U.S. members to make the organization and its principles better known and more broadly adopted, perhaps most notably by Alice Waters; the "Ark of Taste" and Slow Food's concern for local products and producers...and the strong ties to local farmers markets, which showcase and make available local produce at the peak of ripeness.

If any of this interests you, you might want to check out Fast Company's take on Slow Food; an excerpt from a Mother Jones article by Michael Pollan, and a piece on the so-called High Priestess of Slow, Alice Waters, from that same MoJo issue; Salon's "Brilliant Careers" profile of Alice Waters; the Chez Panisse web site (I found the weekly downstairs menu a source of inspiration; projects such as The Edible Schoolyard (developed and supported in large part by the Chez Panisse Foundation); an interview with Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a prominent member of the U.S. Slow Food organization; Odessa Piper's¹ statement to the House Judiciary Committee on the dangers of supporting the "global supermarket" concept; Chefs Collaborative, an organization with the mission

To advance and promote among chefs and the general public concepts and benefits of good, safe and wholesome foods, including sustainable food choices, responsible agricultural growing techniques, the impact of food choices on the environment and the advantages of locally grown and seasonally fresh foods, and to provide educational and other programs fostering such concepts and benefits.

I'm probably running the risk of having our server explode and trying your patience, so I'll stop here. But more links and comments may follow! Go Slow!

¹ Odessa Piper is the chef/proprietor of L'Etoile in Madison, Wisconsin and proof that following the prinicples of sustainable agriculture isn't just for those who live in warmer climes. See L'Etoile's site for more information.