In the weeks leading up to Slow Food Nation I saw Alice Waters speak amongst a panel of respected and famed foodies. The thing she said that stuck with me was that today we spend an average of about 8 or 9% of our incomes on food. Back in the 1940’s Americans spent an average of 30 to 40% of their incomes on food. What happened? Cheap food, subsidized by the government. Which caused us to grow a distaste for actually investing in our sustenance. But if we are what we eat, this is a huge mistake. Since that night with Alice, I’ve probably doubled what I spend on food. I feel a whole lot less guilty spending $6 on fruit every morning (just ask my coworkers) or shelling out for a local, organic meal out. Buying lunch with a friend one day, he posed the question “what else do you spend your money on?” - might as well buy good food.
For those of you who weren’t at the event, you can watch Slow Food Nations’ opening session - The World Food Crisis. Moderated by Michael Pollan, author, In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma and featuring Vandana Shiva, physicist, environmental activist and author; Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Food Movement; Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved; and Corby Kummer, journalist and author of The Pleasures of Slow Food, this is a great excerpt from the event.
Post-Slow Food Nation, I’ve been wondering about the results and impact of the festival. Aside from the standard elitist critique, I’ve found the following positive results in the New York Times’s Sept 2nd review:
- Farmers featured at Slow Food Nation’s marketplace were overwhelmed with business over the course of the weekend, so much so that executive director, Anya Fernald, commented that “Farmers were thanking us for helping them get out of debt”
- Over 60,000 people were in attendance - most of whom I can assume were nearly as delighted as I was by the flavors and festivities.
- 20% of attendees were from outside San Francisco
- The event was hugely popular - 98% of Slow Food Nation events sold out
In regards to long term impact, I think most everyone who had the good fortune to attend SFN and sample the Slow Food delights will carry with them an appreciation of good, clean and fair food. The real question remains how this event will impact the rest of the country going forward. San Francisco has a terrific climate for farming and progressive citizens, which makes it the perfect city to spark the Slow Food fire. As the Economist notes, “The country at large may still be obese and recovering from its latest food scare, a salmonella outbreak that was never properly traced. But the Bay Area considers itself a mecca of farmers’ markets, organic growers and discriminating eaters.” If SFN had not succeeded here, it would have a grim chance at catching elsewhere. While the momentum coming out of SFN ‘08 is in Slow Food’s favor, there’s still a lot of work to be done to wean an entire country off processed foods, encourage consumers to invest in local and organic alternatives, and adopt a more discerning, critical eye towards food.
Amie Vaccaro is interested in green companies, entrepreneurs, and movements reducing environmental impact through sustainable innovation. You can read her blog, ecofrenzy, which is focused on green business happenings and other related ommentary.
