Slow on the Uptake

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http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18900

 

 

Slow on the Uptake

 

By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, The Nation

June 8, 2004

 

Slow Food, a growing international movement, is perhaps best defined as an

alternative to its fast counterpart. McDonald's means unhealthy fare, ecological

exploitation and usurpation of local idiosyncrasies; Slow Food means nutritious

and tasty diets, preservation of food-source biodiversity and locally,

sustainably grown food.

 

 

 

Slow Food's adherents are far-sighted hedonists, committed to protecting the

sources of their treasured foods and fine wine. Gustatory pleasure is the

cornerstone of Slow Food's philosophy, and environmentalism the corollary – call

it eco-gastronomy.

 

 

 

Mirroring Slow Food's multifaceted philosophy, the movement's followers promote

its message in various ways. From chapters throughout the world, they plant

gardens, hold tastings and educational events, disseminate manifestos and

publish newsletters and guidebooks. This summer, events include the Second

Annual Italian Wine Tour, hitting cities throughout the country, and a New York

Taste and Learn Series Seminar focusing on the local dairies.

 

 

 

Another new Slow Food project is a guidebook, recently published by Chelsea

Green, for " slow " New York City restaurants, bars and markets. The book, the

first in a series, evaluates establishments on criteria typically unnoted by the

likes of Zagat's, such as sustainability and conviviality. Patrick Martins, head

of Slow Food USA and co-editor of the guidebook, recently talked to The Nation

about both the movement and the book.

 

 

 

RTD: Can you talk about the origins of the Slow Food movement?

 

 

 

PM: Slow Food was founded by a journalist named Carlo Petrini in 1986, as a joke

reaction to the opening of a McDonald's franchise near the Spanish Steps in

Rome. Because fast food was a household name, he wanted Slow Food to become a

household name as well. And so he started Slow Food through a pasta-eating

protest in front of the Spanish Steps.

 

 

 

At the time, Slow Food was very much a gastronomic organization. It was about

long, drawn-out meals, drinking delicious wine, cheeses, staying up until the

wee hours of the morning talking about philosophy. Eventually, they understood

that being purely gluttonous was not sustainable, and was not going to change

the world. And Carlo looked around the world and saw that biodiversity was being

threatened, and that we were losing many varieties of fruits and vegetables and

farm animals, and so he decided that something needed to be done. That's when

Slow Food became more of an environmentally conscious organization, and now we

define ourselves as an eco-gastronomic organization, dedicated to preserving

food and food traditions from soil all the way to the table.

 

 

 

Can you talk about the differences between the movement in the United States and

the one in Italy? Italy seems like a country you'd think of as being ideally

suited to something like this, and the US, as the home of fast food, less so.

 

 

 

It is a little different, Italy and the US. The US has a rich array of terroirs

and tastes. It's just that in Italy people embrace these things more. Everyone

knows what cheese is being raised in their backyard. Everybody knows what wine

is local to their environment. What Slow Food in the US is trying to do is get

people to understand that we have that same diversity, that same richness. The

US is not just the fast food center that people think. We have farmers' markets,

we have the richest beer-brewing culture in the world, great bread culture, a

great artisanal cheese culture that's growing. Bourbon whiskey. We have some of

the best wines in the world here now. So I think there's general quality of the

foods. It's just that I don't think it's embraced in the same way as in Italy.

 

 

 

Can you say a little more about what exactly Slow Food USA does? I know you

published the New York City guidebook...

 

 

 

We publish a newsletter called The Snail, which is really its own magazine now.

We have projects, like the Ark of Taste, where we list products in danger of

extinction because of the industrialization of our food supply. We have a

children's education program. Short-term, we're opening school gardens and we're

trying to teach children the importance of traceability in the food supply. The

long-term goal of that is to introduce dietary education – lunch class – as a

part of the curriculum, just like math or science. Then obviously our individual

chapters – there are 125 in the USA – organize events on a local level:

tastings, barbecues, picnics, but always with an educational component in mind.

 

 

 

We live in a very puritanical society here in the US, and pleasure is something

to be avoided. And we're saying that it's OK to enjoy things. In fact, all of

the foods we promote taste good. We really believe in promoting local,

great-tasting foods. So we're a very positive organization. We don't believe in

being dire, like many environmentalists. We believe that in order to be an

eco-gastronome in the twenty-first century, you have to have respect for where

your food comes from, but you also have to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, then

what's the point? The exact reason it's important to save those farms is that

they're producing the greatest-tasting, best-cared-for food in the world, and if

we lose them then we're left to factory farms and genetically modified foods.

 

 

 

Maybe we can talk about the guide now. You mentioned in your introduction that

it might seem counterintuitive to associate Slow Food with New York City, but

that New York is actually a very " slow " city.

 

 

 

I think it's the slowest city of all. It's the care that people put into

preparing their food, and the great availability of produce through one of the

biggest and oldest green-market systems in the country.

 

 

 

Sustainability is the reason the guide was written. So that's why, if an

establishment excelled above and beyond the call of duty for sustainability, we

gave a snail rating [the book's equivalent of a Michelin star] to those

eateries. Babbo is a restaurant like that. The vegetarian restaurant Angelica's

is definitely on that level. I'm not a vegetarian, but in terms of the

sustainability aspect, Angelica's excels. There are also some very cheap

restaurants like Zum Schneider, an inexpensive German restaurant in the East

Village that purchases all its foods locally, and buys Amish pretzels and local

meats. We're trying to encourage restaurants to earn the snail rating. In New

York, obviously, it's hard to ignore tradition and conviviality, so places like

Katz's delicatessen and Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse do well. And we put a lot

of effort into remembering those great bagel shops and knisheries, and real

old-school delis and restaurants. But the reason for the book was to get people

to buy locally. Local foods from local farms taste better. And that is a very

inspirational reason to stay healthy.

 

 

 

Are other guides going to follow this?

 

 

 

The Chicago guide is being published this month. And the Northern California

guide will come out in the spring of 2005.

 

 

 

Slow food is not a protest organization, although we do often support in spirit

organizations that do protest big business. We are also not anti-globalization –

we believe in a virtuous globalization, where small farmers and producers get

the same advantages as the big guys. Our efforts so far in the USA have revolved

around increasing business and attention for the farmers and producers who

deserve it.

 

 

 

Does the movement have any plans to get involved in electoral politics in the

United States?

 

 

 

I think the extent of it will be that we will come out with statements on

obesity and about the direction that the United States should be going in terms

of agriculture. We'll also issue manifestos, mission statements and

declarations. But I think we'll still always stay connected to the pleasure

aspect.

 

 

 

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, a Nation intern in fall of 2003, is a freelance writer

based in New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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