Anybody following the Slow Food movement?

[Shakespeare]

It's good on so many levels--saving heirloom and other "endangered slow foods," and promoting biodiversity and a healthier, closer-to-out-roots lifestyle.

Bearfan's post about HFCS got me thinking about this--I'm not sure it's been discussed here before. Here's a link to the Slow Food USA website:

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

I am incredibly blessed to be living in Sonoma county, which is pretty much ground zero for the US branch of the movement (it originated in Italy). With the bounty we have here, there's no reason to ever buy another highly processed, bad-for-you food product again.

on edit to include some history of the movement:

The Movement

The founding father of the Slow Food Movement, Carlo Petrini, recognized in 1986 that the industrialization of food was standardizing taste and leading to the annihilation of thousands of food varieties and flavors. Concerned that the world was quickly reaching a point of no return, he wanted to reach out to consumers and demonstrate to them that they have choices over fast food and supermarket homogenization. He rallied his friends and began to speak out at every available opportunity and soon the movement was born and Slow Food was created. Today the organization is active in 50 countries and has a worldwide membership of over 80,000.

People have responded to the growing movement, because they have become tired of buying the same things, eating the same foods and living the same lives. With these interests in mind, our mission is to create a robust, active movement that protects taste, culture and the environment as universal social values. Slow Food programs are dedicated to the mingling of taste, culture and the environment.

Slow Food International

The Italian association was founded in 1986 and its birth was celebrated in Barolo in the Langhe district in the province of Cuneo. The International Movement was founded in Paris in 1989. The International organization now has over 80,000 members on five continents. There is a large Slow Food USA membership, with 12,000 people sharing in the movement countrywide.

Slow Food's International Office, situated in Bra (Cuneo), a small town in southern Piedmont, employs over 100 people. They are the hub of a close-knit network of grassroots offices in Italy and abroad, which promote the movement by staging programs and events, overviewed in our "Change the World" section.

Slow Food U.S.A.

Slow Food U.S.A. is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America. From the spice of Cajun cooking to the purity of the organic movement; from animal breeds and heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables to handcrafted wine and beer, farmhouse cheeses and other artisanal products; these foods are a part of our cultural identity. They reflect generations of commitment to the land and devotion to the processes that yield the greatest achievements in taste. These foods, and the communities that produce and depend on them, are constantly at risk of succumbing to the effects of the fast life, which manifests itself through the industrialization and standardization of our food supply and degradation of our farmland. By reviving the pleasures of the table, and using our tastebuds as our guides, Slow Food U.S.A. believes that our food heritage can be saved.

Slow Food U.S.A. believes that pleasure and quality in everyday life can be achieved by slowing down, respecting the convivial traditions of the table and celebrating the diversity of the earth's bounty. Our goal is to put the carriers of this heritage on center stage and educate our membership on the importance of these principles. We hope you will join us.

Slow Food U.S.A. oversees Slow Food activities in North America, including the support and promotion of the activities of 140 local chapters, each called a "convivium," that carry out the Slow Food mission on a local level. Each convivium advocates sustainability and bio-diversity through educational events and public outreach that promote the appreciation and consumption of seasonal and local foods and the support of those who produce them.

As a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, Slow Food USA is governed by a Board of Directors which meets on a regular basis and keeps minutes of their meetings.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. I don't know if this is a part of Slow Foods or a parallel to it

This link is to an Italian organization that certifies authentic Neapolitan pizza.

http://www.verapizzanapoletana.org/vpn/charter.html

A good friend of mine (and fellow foodservice consultant) in Seattle has worked directly with these people to get a certified pizzeria open and running (very successfully, now) in the Seattle area. She worked with her client and with the people from Italy who do the certification (she is now certified herself). The people in Italy are serious about what they do. They are concerned not only with method, but with ingredients. They even want a certain stone to be used in the oven's hearth. Even the water's pH is tested and must be within a certain range or you have to use bottled water that is! Very thorough ... and that, as Martha might say, is a good thing.

Good on 'em! I say.

They're but one of seemingly countless organizations that protect traditional Italian foods by certifying the manufacturer or purveyor. Not only pizza, but salumi, Mozzarella di Bufala, formaggi (such as Reggiano, Gorgonzola, and Asiago), prosciutto (such as Parma), various grains such as the best rissoto rices and semolina, etc., etc., etc.

And the Italian government has taken a very high profile in this and allowed all these certifiers to have the weight of law. I think the initials of the program are D.O.C., but I don't know what that stands for. None of it is mandatory, but if you want to maintain certification, you have to be very careful about what you do.

By the way, you are so lucky to live in Sonoma. I envy you. I was in Santa Barbara this past weekend and the raw food is so much better than here.

[Shakespeare]

2. I AM lucky--the artisanal products are good beyond description.

The locally made olive oils, cheese and breads--so, so good (and don't even get me started on the wine). Organic products are very easy (and more affordable) to get here, and the land is so fertile that you can put just about anything in the ground and it'll grow.

I'm starting a 15'x15' vegetable garden in our community plot--all organic. I'm still planning out the final details of what I'll plant, but I suspect we're going to be inundated with good stuff beginning in June, onward through the end of the year. I can't wait!

[wildeyed]

3. I read something about this in the book 'Under the Tuscan Sun'

or maybe its sequel.

Once I started cooking, I was amazed at how easy it is to make stuff that I had assumed was hard. For instance, I made yeast bread for the first time last weekend. I had been told that it is difficult to make bread. But it is not. Mostly it is being around the house enough to do it, but with little kids I am around the house allot, so who cares? We are being brainwashed into thinking it is easier to go for fast food than it is to throw together a quick pasta dish. But it is not. And then people get to prefer the crap and develop all kinds of health problems, and maybe spiritual problems too, since food is love, but not if it is from McDonald's.

I am making an effort to get better produce in the spring. I hope to get a share in an organic farm, but if that doesn't work out, I will at least get to the farmer's market more often.

I read the other day that in France the teach cheese eating in school. They get a cheese guy to come into the classroom with amazing cheeses and teach the kids, this is what perfect cheese tastes like. This is your heritage.

[Shakespeare]

4. "This is your heritage."

That's it EXACTLY. You've also nailed the other aspect that I think is just as important, and that's that we're being trained to rely only on mass-produced crap that isn't good for us or the environment, but makes us utterly dependent on corporations.

Think of it as a great way to fight the corporate machine!