Pecha Kucha: November 2011

All Rights Reserved, Copyright of Kris Vester.

Pecha Kucha SFC Presentation- November 23, 2011. Thanks to my wife, Tamara, for all of the beautiful photographs

1. It is an honour to  have been invited here to give a brief presentation on Slow Food under the rubric of “reclaim”, as Slow Food, both locally here in Calgary and internationally, is passionately committed to the idea of reclaiming our food systems, the foundation upon which our entire culture rests.

1. To give you all a brief idea of what Slow Food represents and how it is trying to reclaim our food culture, we must start with a brief history lesson. When we think of a nation whose food culture is a praiseworthy manifestation of pleasure, community, family, diversity, geography, history and climate, Italy might well come to mind. It is not without reason that this phrase, La Dolce Vita, the sweet life, has come to encapsulate all that is right with Italy.

1. However, in 1986, like a deathstar on the horizon, the golden arches appeared for the first time in Italy, not in some tasteless mall or bland suburb, but in the very heart of Rome near the Spanish Steps. This was a wakeup call for many intellectuals and gastronomes, who realized that this meant that not only their food culture, but their culture as a whole, was now under serious threat of being undermined by the homogenous forces of global capitalism. Slow Food was born.

1. Both the founders of Slow Food and those who followed in their footsteps, including myself, understand that food is a manifestation of a culture’s complex and myriad relationships. Our food and our food culture reflects our relationships with the ecosphere which nourishes us, of which our domesticated plants and animals are but one small slice, and it also reflects our relationships with each other.

1. My purpose here is to urge all of you to take those steps which will help us to reclaim the dignity and sacredness of our relationships with food, and thus to all life on this planet. Our roots as complex, organized civilizations are all anchored deeply in our history as agricultural peoples, and given the many serious problems we are currently facing, I believe that if we can restore the dignity and sacredness of our relationship to food, we will have started down the path of a just society which will be healthier, happier and more sustainable.

1. If we are to restore these relationships we need to begin by looking no further than to our grandmothers and grandfathers, who are the repositories of generations of accumulated wisdom and experience in regards to food. My own father, now 86 and pictured here on the right, was born on a small farm in Denmark where all of their work was done by horse or by hand. There are countless others like him, and we need to stop looking at their generation as a burden which must borne, and start asking about their valuable and irreplaceable experience and knowledge.

1. There is no better way to appreciate the sacredness of food than to be involved in growing it. This is something that is accessible to all and I encourage you all to dig in, whether in your backyard, your childrens’ school, a community garden plot or planters on your balcony. The deep satisfaction of growing food from seed to plate is something with which very few activities can compete and in terms of building a real relationship between yourself and the life of our planet, there is nothing, perhaps with the exception of becoming a parent, which does.

1. Even for the most committed gardener or farmer, there is no getting around the fact that you will have to buy some of your food. Going to a supermarket where you will be another faceless, anonymous consumer browsing the isles of agricultural commodities is not going to rebuild a meaningful relationship to food. Seek out the real farmers’ markets and get to know and support your farmers. Barring that, find the retailers in your community who nourish meaningful and supportive relationships with farmers. Either way, you will have more fun than going to the big box down the road.

1. We all like to indulge in the experience of going out to eat. Here too you can deepen your relationship to food by choosing to spend your dollars at establishments which have real relationships with farmers, rather than standing orders with food service corporations. Such restaurants respect and foster the important role played by food producers in their bioregion and your support reinforces the choices they make in using quality, local ingredients. By seeking out and supporting such food establishments, you are choosing to support and build vibrant local communities.

1. Eat together! There are few pleasures in life as genuine as those which arise from taking the time to eat an unhurried, delicious meal in the company of those you love or perhaps even in the company of pleasant strangers. This sharing of food, and perhaps a little drink as well, reinforces the shared, vital interest we all have in taking sustenance. It also makes time and space for thoughtful conversation in a fast-paced world which seems to conspire against thoughtful conversation.

1. As a farmer, there is no greater lesson learned than the importance of cooperation. In fact, were it not for the historical relationships built by people acting cooperatively in the pursuit of a better future, there would be no civilization to speak of whatsoever today. Committing ourselves to the project of a better, healthier and happier future is not an individual undertaking. Such a goal can only be realized by respecting the importance of every human being and fostering strong relationships within the community.

1. Within the present context of food, where so many of us are almost completely alienated from the life processes which give rise to our food and the farmers who guide those life processes, one of the most important things a person can do to deepen his or her relationship to food is to get to know your farmers.

1. Educate yourself as to the importance of soil, for without soil, there is no food and without healthy soil there is no healthy food. Industrial agriculture acts as though soil is merely a growing medium, a place for roots to anchor and nutrients to rest until required by a growing plant. This could not be further from the truth. Soil is the life blood of our food system, a complex mix of organic and inorganic, living and dying, a spoonful of which contains more cells than are contained in your entire body. Add to that the fact that almost every failed civilization of the past has collapsed due to depletion of soils and soil nutrients, and I think you might understand its importance. Your life depends on your relationship to soil.

1. Seeds and seed-saving are an inheritance of our collective, global culture. The bias of governments, especially in Canada and the US, towards corporate control of seeds and genetic modification, pose a real risk to this inheritance. Slow Food is strongly opposed to GMOs and corporate control of this incredibly valuable treasure trove of genetic diversity and supports the right of all eaters to know whether the seeds used in the production of their food are genetically modified. If you want to reclaim a positive relationship to food, plant seeds and learn how to save them.

1. Bees play a critical role in our food system, the importance of which goes way beyond their production of that sweet golden nectar called honey. It is estimated that one third of our food supply would disappear if bees were to disappear. The vital relationship of humans to bees is self-evident and we would all do well to learn more about them and to create the conditions for bee colonies to thrive rather than the toxic environment industrial civilization has created, which is killing our pollinators. We are blessed here in the Calgary bioregion to have a very active urban beekeeping movement. Seek them out and learn!

1. Those of us who are omnivores cannot pretend that the animal products which we eat come from the supermarket. Behind these animal products are animals, and we do not pay ourselves or these animals the respect they are due by allowing them to be kept in appalling and cruel conditions commonplace in industrial agriculture. Omnivores who wish to have a dignified and respectful relationship to the animals who supply their eggs, dairy products and meat, should be fully informed as to the provenance of their food.

1. The reality of our situation here in Alberta is that we live in a rather harsh northern climate where nothing grows for about five months per year. The flip side of this is that our intense summers yield great quantities of quality produce which can be preserved for those dark, cold days. The satisfaction of putting up your own preserves, preferably by getting together with your friends canning bee style, and enjoying them in the winter is one of the best ways to restore the dignity of your relationship to food.

1. We all need to recognize that human beings, in spite of the massive impact we have on this planet, are not a species separate from the rest of the ecosphere. If we truly wish to reclaim a dignified and respectful relationship to food, we must recognize the reality of the interconnectedness of all life. This means leaving the wild spaces wild and making room in our civilization for all life forms, both for the sake of our own spiritual health and for the sake of future generations.

1. Standing here in our pond on a glorious summer day is one of my primary motivators in my own personal efforts at reclaiming and promoting a sacred and dignified relationship to food. My son represents not only his generation but generations yet to come, and we must take back control of our food system from those corporations who cannot think beyond the next fiscal year and career politicians who cannot think beyond the next election. To me, reclaiming our food systems is reclaiming our own dignity as a part of the web of life on this planet.

1. On the 10th of December, international Terre Madre, or Mother Earth, day, Slow Food Calgary and Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association are hosting a potluck and public dialogue on food. This event, held concurrently with events around the world, will seek to promote discourse around both the Pleasure and the Politics of Food. The event is free and details about it will be posted on the slow food Calgary website in the next couple of days. I hope to see some of you there. Thank you for your time and attention.