Slow Food: Small, Simple, Sustainable
by Tim McGee, Western Massachusetts 
on 03.20.08
For many people sustainability starts with food. Everyone eats, and our connection to food is a direct connection to our environment. The slow food movement works to reconnect people to the food they eat. Local food, and local food traditions are central to reclaiming our relationship with nature.
"Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."
Featured this week on slow food news, Food Down the Road is an excellent example of a group of people reconnecting their community to food. Based in Kingston (Ontario, Canada), a group of farmers and eaters thought people should know more about their local food. Their website provides a wealth of local information for those with a itch to think about local food. My favorite is the seasonal food chart which gives a clear idea what you should really find in your local market at any time of year (if you live around Ontario).
Eating slow and local is likely one of the simplest and most life changing acts that can lead to a sustainable future.
Awesome Image credit to: oskay
:: Food Down The Road via :: Slow Food News
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So... are you suggesting we eat snails?
I discovered the slow food life after moving to Japan. Here are the ways that it happens (in my case): a) we grow vegetables in our garden b) we eat from a communal plate, which is constantly added to your own personal plate and c) alcohol is poured into smaller sized glasses, and are only refilled by someone other than yourself.
These three things help to prolong the eating experience. Having a single plate with everything that you will eat on it right from the get-go encourages over eating and eating too quickly. Buying processed foods or even vegetables at the grocery store DRASTICALLY affects the "deliciousness" of what you put into your mouth. Lastly, when you rely on others to pour your drink, it helps for everyone to connect and worry about those around you... not just yourself.
I am still not satisfied though. I would personally like to be able to cut the entire grocery shopping aspect out of my life. Without living near farmers though, this could be quite challenging. In the meantime I will just get by on organic items.
there are lots people in the south of china eat the samal animals in the river ,and lots of people disgust at this,but what is the real natural food,is it real the rough ones .i also donnot like food in japan!
look here to find the meaning of nature and meaning of food!!
http://www.madeinchina.com
have a try!!!
I see a lot of homes with beautiful flower beds and huge lawns. For just a little more work those beds and lawns could be spectacular veggie gardens. Once you grow a garden, you finally realize how much effort it takes to feed your entire family. How much food from big industrialized farms could be saved and how much food prices would go down if everyone in suburbia had thier own little garden.
I have been working for 4 years now (reading in the winter and doing in the summer) to make a garden big enough and diverse enough to support our family of five. It takes a lot of thought and effort (good and fun effort). My dreams are to support us through a year, trade with the local farmer for meat and then offer it out to others for trade of other things we might need in life. Dare to dream! If nothing else, I am hoping to show my children where food comes from and how to get it themselves. Life in the near future could be vastly different then how I have been raised.
I take serious issue with the so called sustainable and just diet that the SlowFood movement promotes. How is the needless slaughter of animals in the name of 'traditional' cuisine just and sustainable? The energy requirements of an diet that includes the consumption of meat far exceed that required for a plant based diet. Furthermore, the links between meat based diets and human disease and undeniable. People are head over heals for the hedonism and good vibe that SlowFood promotes....I just wish they would wake and up and realize that they haven't even begun to live in a just and sustainable manner. People also don't realize that SlowFood at its core is also strongly anti-technology and anti-globalism. People like the idea of these things, but if they are really confronted with what anti-globalism entails I think most reconsider their position. Most people wouldn't have very many possessions if the systematically eliminated things not made with 100 miles of their home. Technology stands to lead toward a more just and sustainable way of living that 'traditional' methods could ever hope to achieve.