Slow Your Roll!

No, not that roll, the one you're using to make that hamburger. That all-American sandwich you're building - with the corn-fed, hormone-infused beef - the mealy, tasteless tomatoes from Mexico - the pesticide-protected lettuce trucked in from thousands of miles away - the high fructose corn syrup-spiked salad dressing, that serves as your "secret sauce" - that sandwich is one reason the slow food movement was born.

I'm going to cover the first annual Slow Food Nation '08 event, being held here is San Francisco, and encourage those of you in the area to attend. In case you are not familiar with the slow food movement, this is from the SFN website, "Slow Food Nation is dedicated to creating a framework for deeper environmental connection to our food and aims to inspire and empower Americans to build a food system that is sustainable, healthy and delicious." They had me at "food."

They've put together a tremendous program. There's the Food for Thought teaching and discussion series, featuring heavyweights Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and the man who started it all, Carlo Petrini (see clip below), and, what I'm most looking forward to, the Taste Pavilions!

There will be 15 distinct pavilions which SFN promises will "…present an unprecedented opportunity to sample the regional foods of America, with products from every state hand-picked by 'curators' who are nationally recognized experts in a particular type of food." For a grazing foodie, it doesn't get any better than that. I hope to see you there!

This is Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Food Movement, discussing food and underwear. (more proof that everything sounds better in Italian!)