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Slow Food Nation to converge on San Francisco for celebration

Tulsa World
August 20, 2008
By Joan Obra

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FRESNO, Calif. — They're the kinds of products you'd expect to find at a festival of California artisan foods: organic heirloom rice developed for Merced County soils, a Firebaugh farmer's cheese made with milk from backyard goats and organic olive oil pressed from hand-picked Tulare County olives.

Come Labor Day weekend, these items and others from the central San Joaquin Valley will join Slow Food Nation, perhaps the largest celebration of American food ever attempted.

About 50,000 visitors are expected to converge on San Francisco between Aug. 29 and Sept. 1 to taste the wares of about 1,000 producers from around the country. They'll head to Fort Mason for the Taste pavilions, collections of regional foods selected by experts. And they'll buy sustainable food from the Market at Civic Center Plaza.

Its organizers intend the event to change how food is produced and distributed in the United States.

"By connecting visitors to the people who grow and make their food, we are demonstrating and celebrating the personal, social, economic and environmental benefits of a strong local food system," says event spokeswoman Naomi Starkman.

The four-day event is America's most extensive demonstration of Slow Food, an international movement that celebrates local and rare foods — and rebels against industrial food production. To this end, Slow Food Nation will feature panel discussions about issues affecting food, including treatment of farmworkers, climate change and international distribution of food.

At these venues, the stories of farmers will be just as important as the food itself. Robin Koda of Koda Farms in South Dos Palos will describe Kokuho Rose, the organic heirloom rice developed by her family in the 1950s.

"It's definitely not going to be a product I can retire off of tomorrow," she says during a recent visit to the organic fields. The grains grow slowly and offer low yields. Plus, weeds vigorously compete with the rice plants. But her family nurtures the rice anyway: "We're just kind of stubborn. Some people may say stupid; I don't know."

One taste, however, explains the Kodas' dedication. A plain, steamed bowl of Kokuho Rose has a complex aroma and flavor that slowly reveals itself as it's eaten. At Slow Food Nation's Market, visitors can taste this for themselves. They'll also see Organic Nirvana, Koda's blend of organic rice and grains.

In the Taste pavilion, John Teixeira of Lone Willow Farms will show off homemade goats cheese and jalapeno pepper jelly.

He bought goats, installed them in a clover field behind an old farmhouse, and read books on cheesemaking.

The results: a chevre so mild and soft, it's reminiscent of ricotta. Young and aged bleu cheeses. And a cheddar wrapped in wax. Plus, lots of stories about interns who care for the goats, which spend their days in fields of clover, rye grass, and other treats.

While these bucolic scenes are an important part of Slow Food Nation, they have also brought criticism from folks who see the Slow Food movement as a glorified supper club.

In the March issue of metropolismag.com, Bruce Sterling explains this viewpoint. "Slow Food began as a jolly clique of leftist academics, entertainers, wine snobs, and pop stars, all friends of Italian journalist and radio personality Carlo Petrini," he writes. After Petrini and his friends staged a 1986 protest against a McDonald's in Rome, the Slow Food movement was born.

So far, Slow Food has had a distinctly European feel. "Slow Food acculturates the planet's wealthy to the gourmand quality of life long cherished by the European bon vivant," Sterling writes.

Willey hopes that Slow Food Nation will help change this notion. In addition to bringing Valley producers to San Francisco, he and Slow Food Madera are helping organize a tour to Central Valley farms that embrace this philosophy.

As far as Slow Food Nation's larger goal, however, it remains to be seen if the organizers' vision will be fulfilled. Willey says: "We intend this event to catapult Slow Food into a major leadership role in the movement to transform the American food system."

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