SUSTAINABLE LIVING, LLC

Slow-down, you eat too fast, you gotta make this flavor last, just kicken back the mashed-taters, lookin for slow-food and eatin gravy…. (read this to the tune in your head of Simon & Garfunkle’s hit song)

Wait, what is slow food?
First it might be helpful to describe what slow food is NOT.  Basically, it’s called “fast food.” It can be found in most towns, cities and in between on highway exits. Often, it is a place where you don’t even have to get out of your car, where you interact with a disembodied voice, then with a person through a tiny window for less than two minutes. Then you race off to your destination while wolfing down your purchase.  The food is always convenient, ultimately it came from factory farms and industrialized agriculture, available night and day, with no dirty dishes or cutlery to wash- when done, just throw the whole mess out (often you’ll see evidence of these meals along the roadsides.)  The meals are processed in a factory; the food sent down conveyor belts to be chopped, ground and packaged into plastic containers.  Then these convenient packages are transported from across the country and even across the globe where few or no environmental regulations or workers rights exist or if they do, are rarely enforced.  Once they get to the fast food store, they are assembled on an assembly line much like you’d see in any factory.  The workers are generally poorly paid, bored with doing unskilled labor, and so disconnected from this lifeless food that there is little or no pride in the final product.  There is no regional diversity in this product that a local employee could even take pride in or identify with on a cultural level:  Burgers and fries are the same whether you’re in N. Dakota or S. Carolina.

Now contrast that too familiar scenario with what is now known as slow foods. This fare can be found in any town, city or country home, a few wholesome cafes’, and many high-end restaurants. I have yet to run across one on a highway exit or one that has a drive-through.  The ingredients of slow foods come from sustainable regional farms and nearby organic gardens.  The produce arrives at the destination intact, where it’ll then be processed by skilled hands wielding their craft with sharp knives and a pride in what they’re creating.  The humanely-locally-raised meats are often delivered by the ranchers or ranch-hands themselves who come with details of the free-range lifestyles these animals enjoyed.  To access this final product you must sit at a table, interact with the wait staff, family members or friends sitting with you, use ceramic plates and bowls with metal cutlery that will then be washed and reused countless times.  If at a home, you’d be with friends or family, chopping and cooking the foods that were gathered from field, garden, produce stand or the Forsyth Farmer’s Market, perhaps your meat came from the locally owned health food store, Brighter Day, or the Savannah Food Co-op that both buy from sustainably managed local ranches and farms. The meals themselves are a reflection of local culinary traditions; recipes passed down through the generations and shared with newcomers.  For example, the shrimp and grits you have for breakfast in coastal Georgia would be next to impossible to find in Iowa.

The food of this second scenario definitely takes time to plan, gather and prepare. It requires organization of people if it’s to be shared, initial research to source the foods, and a pleasant place to enjoy the outcome of all this effort.  However, that doesn’t mean it has to cost a lot.  Slow Food International designated September 17^th as a day for a Slow Food $5 Challenge event, inviting individuals, families and organizations around the world to host slow-food meals that cost less than $5 per person.  Savannah has a local Slow Food chapter that you can join by going to SlowFoodUSA.org, and link to the local chapter page.  In this way you’ll be kept in the loop when Slow Food events are planned here in Savannah.

Another event that I hope you all will turn out for this month is Food Day, October 22.  This issue is all about it, so turn to those pages when you’re done here, and please plan your day accordingly.  The Savannah Urban Garden Alliance (SUGA) will be there with workshops on food preservation, cooking and gardening.  SUGA’s vision and mission are fully aligned with the principles behind Slow Food and Food Day. Our vision:Providing access to local healthy food one garden at a time.  Our mission: SUGA is cultivating a gardening movement in Savannah communities through outreach and education.  Please consider joining SUGA’s facebook page to stay informed on gardening and food classes and events that we sponsor.  We are also found at www.SUGAcentral.org.

Folks, it’s time to take a hard look at our lifestyles of convenience, of looking for the cheapest price rather than quality and integrity.  My friend, David Malpass, who has introduced the Transition Town Initiative to Savannah (find it on Face Book) coined the following phrase: “Consumption is the habit of convenience.”  Our culture is addicted to convenience.  Convenience leads to more consumption; over consumption leads to disconnection.  The convenience of fast food leads to the disconnection of where it came from, who prepared it, how it was grown, and the reason for why we should even care.

Certainly there are times when it’s essential to have something quick to eat.  One thing I’ve done to help during the hectic work week is to plan some meals and prep the ingredients on a leisurely Sunday afternoon.  Likewise, bagged lunches can be assembled with last minute additions of left-overs or fresh salad or sandwich the morning of.  Having a healthy nut mix or protein bar in the glove box is another way to forgo pulling through the drive-through in a weak moment.

We live in a time of economic insecurity, broken food system, climate changing, obesity epidemic (up 214% from 1950-2000!) and cancer epidemic (up by 55% since 1950.)[i]  In our electronic era we spend a large part of our waking hours in front of a TV and/or computer. Screen time is out of control: 8 hours for adults and 6 hours for kids ages 8-18[ii] (not including school-work related computer time.)  We need to get back to basics!  Much of this imbalance can be addressed by changing our food lifestyle.  And by that I mean cooking and eating wholesome meals together, gardening, buying from local farms, being active with family and friends outside.  Consider getting involved in worthy causes in your community that you can feel good about, using your time to make the world a better place, one community at a time.