Friday, August 29, through Monday, September 1, will be Slow Food Nation weekend in San Francisco. Plans are developing for the event, which will bring together farmers, food artisans, consumers, commentators, and others for a weekend focused on good, clean, and fair food and food production. As described in the San Francisco Chronicle:
Two venues - the Civic Center and Fort Mason - will be in play. At Civic Center, it will be all about the farm, and a farmers' market of 60 to 100 vendors. "Slow on the Go" stands will sell slow fast-food-like tacos made with homemade tortillas, dosas and grass-fed hamburgers. Speakers will illuminate issues that affect the food we eat, and activists and nonprofit groups will gather to develop ways to make the American food system more sustainable.An enoteca devoted to wine is on the agenda, as are taste workshops, dinners, and educational seminars. We look forward to sharing more information as it becomes available.Fort Mason will be mainly about eating, with hundreds of American producers offering tastes. Each food type will be organized by a local specialist - Acme Bread's Steve Sullivan will gather the bakers, for example, and Tom Worthington of Monterey Fish will curate the seafood.
Attention will turn to Turin this October, where the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, Slow Food's biennial international gatherings, will be held from October 23-27. News about Terra Madre, which is open to approved delegates and observers, is now available on the 2008 Terra Madre website. Information about the Salone del Gusto, which is open to the public, will be available soon, and we'll share links and additional information.
For Slow Food members and friends in the community:
† Slow Food Nation, the four-day event originally announced for May 2008, has been changed to Labor Day weekend, August 29 through September 1, 2008.
The Slow Food Nation team changed the date in response to input from farmers who were eager to show their produce at its peak in late summer, as well as opportunities to use some of San Francisco's most emblematic public spaces, including Fort Mason on San Francisco Bay and the Civic Center Plaza in the heart of the city.
Information will be made available here and on the Slow Food Nation website, but mark your calendars in the meantime!
† Slow Food USA has just launched the Slow Food USA blog, now available at www.slowfoodblog.org. The blog is already a source of articles, opinions and commentary, and news, and we encourage you to take a look and visit it frequently.
† Something GOOD for Slow Food: Slow Food USA has also announced a partnership with GOOD as part of GOOD's partnership program with 12 nonprofit organizations. The monthly magazine focuses on social, political, and environmental issues, and will donate 100% of its subscription revenue to nonprofit groups. If you sign up for a subscription to GOOD you can designate your $20 subscription fee to Slow Food USA, a win-win situation. Visit the subscription page and consider adding GOOD to your monthly reading list.
† Slow Food's Fifth International Congress was held from November 8-11 in Puebla, Mexico and brought together nearly 600 delegates from over 130 countries to discuss business issues and strategies and to explore new opportunities for cooperation among Slow Food's national organizations. Southern California was represented by four delegates, and highlights and information will be posted shortly.
Slow Food Nation, an unprecedented celebration of the principles of sustainability, ecogastronomy, and conviviality that are at the heart of the Slow Food movement, will take place in San Francisco from May 1-4, 2008.
As part of the organizing effort, Alice Waters, Mark Peel, and Lisa Kring, cochair of the Slow Food Los Angeles Wine & Spirits Committee and a member of the Slow Food Los Angeles Steering Committee, are hosting what promises to be an extraordinary fundraising event at Campanile:
When: Sunday, September 23, 2007
Where: Campanile Restaurant, 624 South LaBrea, Los Angeles
Cost: $250, $500, and $1,000 tickets are available
How to reserve your place: Reservations can be made through Caroline Allain at Campanile Restaurant by email to caroline [at] campanilerestaurant [dot] com or by telephone to 1.323.938.1447.
What is Slow Food Nation?
Slow Food Nation is a campaign to change the way America produces and eats food. It will demonstrate how everyday choices affect our well being, our culture, and the health of the planet. Slow Food Nation's goal combines pleasure with responsibility to inspire a new activism with food at its core.
If Brillat Savarin's assertion that "the destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed" is correct, then America is in a state of crisis. We are one of the richest nations in the world, yet we are also one of the unhealthiest. Our current approach to food, while steeped in a system with the potential to eliminate hunger in the world, has reduced the quality and diversity of legacy American foods, moved us away from the positive conviviality of the table, and distanced Americans from the source of their food to the detrimental effect of food, farmers, producers, the environment, animals, and humans.
In the coming months we will share with you more information about Slow Food Nation. In the meantime, we hope that members and friends of Slow Food Los Angeles who are able to lend their support at this time will join us on September 23 at Campanile.
In Slow Food Nation
Instead of consumers, Petrini persuasively proposes that we should become co-producers, active participants in the production of our food. As the Manifesto states, "everyone can contribute to Good, Clean and Fair quality through their choices and individual behavior."
With publication of Slow Food Nation
"A worthy successor to Brillat-Savarin, Carlo Petrini has reinvented the idea of gastronomy for the twenty-first century. An important book."
-Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire
"Carlo Petrini is one of the most important thinkers of our time, not only about what to eat, but also about how to live. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about social justice, the environment, and the fundamentals of a good meal."
-Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation
"This is the argument I have been waiting for-—an irrefutable demonstration that making the right decision about food can change the world."
-Alice Waters, from the foreword
Slow Food Nation
Based on the Salone del Gusto, Slow Food's biennial event, Slow Food Nation is being planned for May 1-4, 2008 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California.
Slow Food Nation's aim is to bring people into a new relationship with food through a market of artisan products, tastings, demonstrations, films, and lectures. The Slow Food values of good, clean, and fair will be the guiding principles of Slow Food Nation, and programs will seek to dispel the myths that good food is expensive, that America lacks culinary traditions, and that good food is a privilege for the few.
Slow Food Nation promises to be an incredible social and gastronomic event, and we hope you'll both mark your calendar and check back with us for more details as they become available. In the meantime, you can also visit the Slow Food Nation page of Slow Food USA's site.