2 interesting articles on the global food system caught our eye–would love to hear your thoughts on each.
The shipment of 450 pounds of California Strawberries to China, for the Olympians–what else will they slice up on top of their Wheaties?
A piece from Slate on an organic farmer in India.  Although organic production is on the […]

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In what is now becoming a tradition, some links for your weekend perusal:

Eating IS a political act.  Check out this post on The Atlantic blog about that John Schwenkler piece on culinary conservatism that we blogged about a few weeks ago.
Prairie Business Magazine comes out in support of Slow Food and regional foodways, and what […]

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A delightful little review of a deep-fried sandwich, notable both for the sandwich, yes (and YUM), but also for the intro paragraph which gets at the great food divide in this country–the growing interest in real, slow food and the consistent, persistent presence of fake, fast food.
A new survey shows that “consumers … want their […]

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Two interesting articles that highlight the ways in which the poor are being hit by escalating food prices–their pocketbooks, and their reputations.
1. This one from the NY Times, which discusses how food stamps aren’t going as far.
2. This one from Foreign Policy.com, which discusses how, in conversations about how meat eating in poor countries such […]

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Everywhere you turn it’s bad news about food: tomato scares, bad harvests,  peak oil and the global food crisis.
It’s hard not to feel demoralized and/or scared.  As we head into this summer weekend, we’d love to hear some good news.  Call us cock-eyed optimists, call us rose-colored glasses wearers.  Call us crazy, if you must.  […]

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This piece, from Huffington Post, got us thinking about the practice of gleaning. Apparently a food pantry director in New Hampshire, faced with a food shortage that has become commonplace in pantries this year, and an utter lack of anything fresh or green, has started to ask local farmers to plant a little extra […]

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“Amazingly, there is very little attention being paid to what fundamentally underpins all of our food systems - biodiversity and the services provided by ecosystems, such as soil, water and resilience to disasters.” - Gonzalo Oviedo

As the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization convenes this week to discuss food security and rising food prices around the […]

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by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer
As this article from last Friday’s Wall Street Journal reports, the U.S. has proposed 770 million additional dollars of food aid to address the growing food crisis.  The U.S. delegate to the U.N. reported this in his remarks on Monday to the Commission on Sustainable Development, although he (as […]

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by Slow Food USA staffer Jerusha Klemperer
Greetings from inside the United Nations where I am observing sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development; this particular two-year cycle of the CSD is focusing on some important issues for Slow Food including Land, Agriculture, Rural Development, Biodiversity, Drought and Desertification.
I am here on behalf of Slow Food […]

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The UN has scheduled a 2-day meeting in Bern, Switzerland, to discuss solutions to the  escalating global food crisis.  It will surely also be a hot topic of conversation when the Commission on Sustainable Development begins meeting at the UN next week; the main topics up for discussion include rural development, land, biodiversity, and desertification […]

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