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Slow Food USA

"We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods," states the Slow Food Manifesto.

Italian journalist Carlo Petrini initiated Slow Food in 1986 as a protest against the infiltration of McDonald's into the Piazza de Spagna in Italy. Petrini quickly gathered supporters in his quest to preserve and promote the biodiversity of regional foods. Slow Foods' international membership boasts more than 70,000 members in 45 countries.

Slow Food USA's guiding values include "sustainability, cultural diversity, pleasure and quality in everyday life, inclusiveness and authenticity and integrity." The organization's 10,000 enthusiasts comprise more than 100 convivia, or local chapters. "Each convivium advocates sustainability and biodiversity through educational events and public outreach that promote the consumption of seasonal and local foods and the support of those who produce them."

When Jan Mettler's Sonoma County convivium planted a garden for the county teenage probation camp, they got mixed reactions. "Some of them remembered their grandparents' gardens," Mettler recounts. "Others were surprised about how a strawberry grows."

Mettler's group's current activities include an upcoming bread and cheese tasting. They are also working with the Food Matters organization on food policy in the county and schools, and a backyard garden-gleaning project that teams up young people to pick produce that owners aren't able to pick, and makes the food available to local restaurants.

The Slow Food USA Ark is working to save the endangered Delaware Oyster, the Blenheim Apricot, naturally grown, hand-harvested and -processed wild rice, and many other endangered animals and plants. Some of the endangered wild rice is harvested by the Anishinabe Indians from Minnesota's first lakes to be certified organic. In the process of salvaging potentially lost plant and animal species, cultures and small farms have been re-invigorated.

In the December 2002 issue of The Snail, a quarterly Slow Food USA publication, Slow Food USA president Patrick Martins emphasized that "Teaching students about where their food comes from and about the future of us living on a planet with a finite number of resources is incredibly important." In the same issue, Martin questioned the government definition of organic. "Slow Food USA hopes we can soon return to a purer definition of the word-not a federal definition, but one that embodies the ideas of sustainability, preserving the land and the small independent family farm."

For information on how to join Slow Food or further information, call 212-965-5640 or visit their websites, www.slowfoodusa.org and www.slowfood.com.