Slow Food Time

Dutch Shepherdess on the Heath

	Each morning we take our 600 Drenthe Heath Sheep, the oldest European breed, out onto the balloërveld (heathland) to graze, as farmers have done before us since the Middle Ages in this northeastern corner of The Netherlands. While industrial farming, hypermarkets and chain restaurants are increasingly the norm, we are quietly continuing a tradition that gives us and those who visit us a great deal of pleasure, is important for the local environment, and is helping to revive a rare breed that provides a delicious, organic meat for the local market...

	Marianne Duinkerken Mail: gakeck@aol.com Click here to read the rest of Marianne Duinkerken’s story on the Terra Madre website.

The Drenthe Heath Sheep and the Kempen Heath Sheep recently became the newest of some 300 Slow Food Presidia worldwide. Special thanks to all the individuals who brought these native breeds to the attention of Slow Food and worked long and hard to attain Presidium status. Both food communities have successfully brought together sheep farmers with the local Slow Food convivium, chefs, butchers, and local agricultural and environmental groups to work to preserve these two wonderful and important native sheep breeds. They embody the collaborative spirit necessary for our goals.

More information on the Presidia can be found here.

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Food Traditions

Reindeer Suovas To Go
Newly formed Slow Food Sápmi promotes production of this traditional cured fillet

Members of one of Slow Food’s newest convivia—Slow Food Sápmi—have been active in the Terra Madre network for many years and launched a Presidium several years ago to promote the production of suovas, a salted and smoked reindeer fillet which is one of the region’s oldest food traditions. Sámi are the indigenous people of northern Europe who inhabit the area called Sápmi, an arc of land sweeping across northern Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. While they traditionally relied on a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding, their food supply is almost entirely dependent on the giant herds of reindeer. Much of the traditional Sámi food was developed to remain edible for the long periods when these nomadic people were on the move and suovas are one of the most traditional preparations of reindeer meat. True suovas are prepared by dry-salting meat and smoking fillets from the upper leg of the reindeer in a traditional peaked hut for eight hours over an open fire. Once smoked, the fillets are thinly sliced and grilled over an open fire or eaten raw, and are often accompanied by pickled mushrooms or lingonberries. Suovas, meaning smoked in the indigenous language, or rökt in Swedish, were traditionally packed by Sámi along with unleavened bread to eat on long trips and today, you can find suovas served in Nordic flatbread at some festivals.

Contact:
Convivium leader Lars-Ove Jonsson
lars-ove@sapmi.com
For more information on the Reindeer Suovas Presidium click here.

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In print, On screen

Red Carpet Rolled-out
Launch of documentary on Terra Madre communities at international film festival

A key attraction in this year’s Culinary Cinema line-up at the Berlinale international film festival, was the world premiere of Italian director Ermanno Olmi’s documentary Terra Madre on February 6. In this production inspired by the Terra Madre network of food communities, internationally renowned Olmi delivers a powerful message about the critical issue of food, and its economic, environmental and social implications. Terra Madre was conceived in 2006 by Ermanno Olmi and Slow Food president Carlo Petrini, united by their passion for the work and values of the farmers and others gathered at the international Terra Madre gathering in Turin.

Click here to read a review of the film

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Slow Food on Film Program

The international festival of food and film supported by Slow Food and the Cineteca of Bologna will be held over May 6-10 in Bologna. The day by day program as well as the 'program in brief' can be downloaded at: www.slowfoodonfilm.com

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Food for Thought

Can Sustainable Agriculture Feed the World?
Georges Desrues interviews Michael Pollan

The honest answer is: we don't know, because we haven’t tried. However, we have to equally figure out how to run an industrial civilization with less fossil fuel, we have to figure out how to grow food with less fossil fuel. There is a lot of evidence that it can be done. We have seen small farms that are more productive than big farms. We have seen that polycultures, which require less fossil fuel, can grow more real food. We have to keep in mind that all this high-yield commodity agriculture is not producing real food. Fifty percent of what we are growing is feed for animals and another ten percent is food for our cars. Ethanol and biofuel are industrial raw materials, not food people can eat. If we would grow food people can actually eat, there would be plenty of land. I question the assumption of the argument that you need industrial agriculture to feed the world. We are not feeding the world. We are feeding animals and cars and people are going hungry with this system. The Slow Food idea of growing real food near to where people are going to eat it has enormous potential. But it will take a lot of time and work. We will need to put into polycultural agriculture the kind of research and development dedicated to industrial food systems.

Extract from an interview published in the Italian magazine Slowfood N°38.
To read the whole interview, click here.

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