Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 11, 2011
Slow food options require only small changes in choice
Erica Tuggle
Tricia King, Jami Brown, Ashford Rosenberg and Ginny Richardson are all part of the Slow Food group at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. These women say that slow food is not all about just buying local and can include simple steps like cooking at home more often, switching to products with natural sweetner and exploring organic options.
- Erica Tuggle
The international slow food movement began in Italy in the late ’80s when a McDonalds was built near the historic Spanish Steps. Although our culture may not see the issue with a fast food restaurant setting up shop here, these Italians argued that this was an invasion of their culture and was just another example of fast paced consumption taking over their way of life. Similarly, the slow food movement that developed out of this and has spread all over the world is about connecting people who feel the same way about preservation of cultures, a slower lifestyle and making good, clean and fair food part of their life.
Tricia King is the head of the Chattanooga chapter of slow food and the faculty advisor for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga slow food group. This campus organization is one of only 30 student organizations dedicated to slow food that exists in the nation.
The university slow food group has started strong and given away food at every event they have had so far. Last semester, the group did a tailgating event where they gave away 400 to 500 sausages, hamburgers and Neidlov’s buns. They have also served at the Presbyterian Church ministry on campus, and recently did a potluck and seed swap event.
Jami Brown, a graduate student in environmental science and a co-chair of the group, says, “It’s good to know us because we will feed you, and we will feed you good food.”
The group is also providing a Valentine’s Day dinner $50 gift certificate for any of the Tastebudsguide.org restaurants that support and serve local foods. Over 30 restaurants are on this list that was compiled by Crabtree Farms. Some of the names include Good Dog, St. John’s Restaurant and The Terminal.
Part of what slow food stands for will be addressed in an upcoming April 26 speech at UTC by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned environmental leader and thinker who stopped modified and genetically altered seeds from coming into India.
Genetically modified seeds are grown with insecticide, pesticide and herbicide inside the plants. These seeds were taken to India recently and, although they are highly work and technology intensive, Indian farmers were given these seeds with the assumption that they would grow and have 10 times that of the traditional method. When the farmers planted them and nothing grew, this caused massive devastation in India.
“Genetically modified food is pretty much banned in every industrialized country but ours because we produce it,” Brown says. “Europe won’t even let it in. Here, we are just fighting to have it labeled as genetically modified.”
Another co-chair of the UTC slow food group, Ashford Rosenberg says, “All these E. coli outbreaks are not just contamination. When they do genetic modifying, they use a bacterium to insert the genes in the genome and the bacterium that they use is E. coli. If it doesn’t go correctly, that is one of the reason you have E. coli outbreaks.”
Rosenberg says in joining the slow food movement, it’s about making small changes in eating habits. Because organic and local can be more expensive than traditional products, she suggests picking products with natural sweetener as opposed to high fructose corn syrup or to eat at home more often instead of supporting a fast food chain.
King says, “It’s easy to think about slow food as all local, but that’s not just it. It’s not that it has to be local or I can’t have it. It’s really more about the relationship between the food and the place where it came from and how the people transform that food that we enjoy, the care that they take with it. The tagline for Slow Food USA is ‘good, clean and fair.’”
This means that slow food is good, nutritious and real food with a recognizable ingredient list, she says. Clean means it is produced in environmentally sustainable ways. Fair brings the social justice component into it in that the workers or farmers are treated fairly, paid a livable wage and work in good conditions, she says.
“It really just comes down to feeling really good when you take a bite of food that, if it’s got those things going for it, you can enjoy and appreciate it,” King says.
Rosenberg says she joined the group for the health aspect.
“You don’t have some of the more healthy options here on campus and you don’t know where this food is coming from. The whole campus life is supporting that fast food, fast-paced lifestyle. I think, both from a physical health and a mental health standpoint, if you had that option in the cafeteria and had a moment to sit down for a break from your day, this would facilitate better physical health and better community within the students,” she says.
King says that the group is working on partnering with the food services at the University, and the effort is not about pointing fingers, but rather about just working to have a slow food option.
“We are here to help the University. We know they are in a difficult position in trying to make affordable food, but even just the smallest of changes will help,” King says. “It’s not like every bite of food you take has to be perfect.”
Brown says the group is not against fast food, and do not want to come across as the “food police.” Rather, they would like everyone to know their options and the changes they can make.
“If every family were to spend $5 on locally grown food, it would bring in $100 million worth of economic development to the area,” Brown says.
That’s a statistic worth slowing down for.
To get involved with the Chattanooga chapter of Slow Food, access www.slowfood.usa.org and type in your zip code to be put on the mailing list for Chattanooga slow food news and events.
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