This Labor Day Weekend, the Slow Food movement is coming to San Francisco, which means taking the traditional holiday eating to new heights of celebration and examination.
There will be many events that address a variety of Everyday Sustainable aspects of food around the Bay Area, including:
- policy (Food Bill Declaration)
- Food for Thought Speaker Series, including a panel conversation “about the local, national and globacl impact of the philosophy and practice of Slow Food” with luminaries in this field: Wendell Berry, Vandana Shiva, Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Eric Schlosser and Carlo Petrini (this is sold out, but hopefully there will be a recording available later for viewing/listening somewhere)
- Food for Thought Films (FREE, at Fort Mason–at this point, only one is not yet sold out)
- Taste Pavilions (yum!) My friends at the architectural firm Min|Day has designed the Spirits booth. (Extra yum!)
- Fund-raising Slow Dinners at restaurants around the Bay Area (I have a special place in my heart for the dinner at Cafe Rouge that supports City Slicker Farms, since I used to live down the block from one of the gardens in West Oakland)
- An outdoor music festival (Slow Food Rocks)
- Sunday Streets (on Sunday, Aug 31, 9am – 1pm, a 4.5-mile stretch from Bayview to Chinatown along the Embarcadero will be closed to traffic and open to people.)
- and MUCH MORE. You’ll have to navigate (the somewhat clunky) website to see all the offerings.
- Or follow one of the CHOW-designed seven itineraries (e.g. for the cheese lover; pork enthusiast; policy wonk)
I think one of the most exciting parts of the event is the Victory Garden, because it embodies the spirit of the movement actively; the produce that was planted at the beginning of July will be harvested and donated to local food banks and meals programs over the weekend.
And an essential question–from the Everyday Sustainable perspective–is, what is it that we’ll be able to learn and experience over this weekend that we can integrate into our everyday lives?
[...] And today, I had a spectacular personal experience of the growing alternatives to the mainstream industrial food system that are described in part in the book, and that are being celebrated this weekend in San Francisco at Slow Food Nation. [...]