permaculture

["Sharon Gordon" <gordonse@one.net>]

Info on the SlowFood organization:
"Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the
pursuit of happiness, Slow Food U.S.A. is an educational organization
dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production;
to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture,
and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal
culinary traditions; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of
life." See their guiding principles and Manifesto at
http://www.slowfoodusa.org


At the November meeting of SlowFood's International Congress, Alice Waters
was elected the international vice president.  And here's some news about
her request to each local group:


"Newly elected international vice president Alice Waters proposed her own
challenge to the assembly. Inspired by the success of the edible schoolyard
project she helped develop in a Berkley public school nine years ago, she
suggests that every Slow Food Convivium work to promote and create edible
schoolyards in their areas. The concept, already working in 30 American
schools, is for children to plant and tend fruit and vegetable gardens and
learn to cook with their fresh produce, all as part of a school curriculum.
With school gardens children become connected to the land and to food, learn
about seasonality, and enjoy the unparalleled taste of freshly grown food."

One of the main foci of this congress was a call from officer Giocomo Mojoli
for the increase of "environmental sustainability in agriculture into Slow
Food’s taste education projects. Rather than viewing the health of a country
as how much they produce and consume, he suggests we consume less and pay
more attention to sustainability and quality."

So each local group is asked to become more involved in the ecology of the
local foods.  Most of the local groups will not have been involved in
gardening aspects or growing of heirloom vegtables as a group or have
sponsored a community garden.  Hopefully, there may be members in some
groups that have this as a personal interest.  So most groups would probably
benefit from people with experience in setting up community gardens and
particularly school gardens.  In the US now, I think there are around 130
local groups (not sure about counts in other countries), and if each does
the minimum of helaping to start at least one school garden, that would be
130 new community gardens started up in the near future.  This seems like a
really good opportunity to develop Permaculture gardens, gardens which
reflect the ethnic background of students as schools (and possibly to help
preserve any seeds of their grandparents that might be available), and to
get some of the areas hierloom vegetables more widely grown.

If you'd like to know if there is a SlowFood group in your area, check at
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/contact/index.html
http://slowfoodusa.org
http://slowfood.com

Sharon
gordonse@one.net