The Slow Food Movement has swept around the world as an antidote to fast food culture. It focuses on enjoying our food and each other’s company as well as sustainability and justice in food.
During the last Green Drinks: Celebrating YEG Local Food, Cynthia and I nipped outside to record this little interview.
If you wan to know more, you can check out Slow Food Edmonton, local food or Green Drinks or other video interviews too.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGi0nUFBYYc[/youtube]
Wonderful, articulate interview, Cynthia!! Great job Tad and Hannah! Incredible event!
🙂
V
I picked up Dr Vandana Shiva from the Calgary Airport. She was in YYC to speak at a U of Calgary event. I asked her about her food justice advocacy, her involvement with Slow Food International and how that conflicted with the North American Slow Food movement which is essentially an elite dining club approach to food. She said it was indeed a concern but surprisingly, for this incredibly intelligent and well spoken woman, Dr Shiva was without a solution to the elitist food dilemma. Food Justice & Food Elitism are two completely different approaches to food. Food Elitism is about access to good food, in fact the best food possible, prepared by the best chefs, but only if you can afford it. Food Justice is good food for all, regardless of your financial capacity. Food Justice speaks to all of the ethical issues involved with food production & consumption.
For more clarity on this issue, read Not My Revolution http://now.tufts.edu/articles/not-my-revolution-food-access
Paul – thanks for your comment. In fact, many recent initiatives by Slow Food USA have been more about food justice than elitism -and even the high-end restauranteurs within the movement who have been accused by some of elitism are concerned not so much with good food at any cost, as with ensuring that food producers are able to make a fair living in the face of tremendous downward pressure from the industrial food system. They are also working to preserve regional culinary traditions, foods, and ecosystems that otherwise would disappear. Please do not write off Slow Food’s North American branches. They are doing some very important work that is complementary to the work done by groups primarily concerned with food justice.