First Ever Slow Food Nation

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Slow Food is not about taking your sweet time getting that fork into your pie hole. It's bigger than that.

The Slow Food movement was inspired in Italy in 1986 (and officially founded in 1989) when Carlo Petrini protested the opening of the first McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome. The mission of the movement is to shift to a sustainable food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice.

This Labor Day weekend, Slow Food Nation — what organizers are calling the largest celebration of American food in history — will take place in San Francisco. Slow Food Nation will feature tastings, chef demonstrations, a major conference on food values, social justice and the environment, an urban farm, a music festival and workshops, forums, films and interactive exhibits, all intended to highlight the relationship between the food you eat and the planet you live on.

Local and organic food champion Alice Waters is involved in the event. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she and other participants plan to petition Congress with demands to overhaul the American food system following the festivities.

Waters is quoted in the article. Referring to our current food system she says: "The one we have is making us sick. And it's ruining our planet and hurting us socially."

Some worry that the event headquarters of San Francisco will cause many to roll their eyes.

The Chronicle quotes Chris Lehane, a political consultant, who says he likes the idea of the event but worries about perception. He says, "The troglodytes will decry it as 'San Francisco values.' It will be the same people who in the '70s ridiculed California for talking about energy conservation."

Anya Fernald, the executive director of Slow Food Nation, says in the article that she hopes to take the movement more mainstream: "We need to go to the red states to people who celebrate traditional values."

In any case, you can get your grub on and learn a thing or two Friday, August 29, through Monday, September 1, at various venues in San Francisco. Go to the Slow Food Nation website for a schedule of events and to buy tickets.

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