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| Slow Food | Slow Food International / Slow Food USA |
| Slow Food – Carlos Petrini and my Thoughts | |
May 23, 2007: We Heard Carlos Petrini speak last night on the topic of Slow Food. It was intensely moving and important. He said terribly radical things that came across as so simple and already known, though often not expressed. I will try to summarize some of what I took away from the talk. |
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We have removed ourselves from what food MEANS. I and countless others have been saying for years that most of us are completely removed from what food IS, how it is grown, how it truly functions in our lives. How has it become possible for us to be removed from what sustains us – what is us? Petrini reminded us of how our bodies work, how we eat and digest, how we truly, and not laughably, become what we eat. He reminded us very simply that we came from ashes and to ashes we will return. His point in this was not to be morbid or sad – but to remind us that we are of the earth . We are not spirits or robots or gods. We are mammals with souls. Our very survival, our daily survival, depends - - on - - the - -earth . When I look at those words, they seem so simple, so obvious; silly to even need to say them. Well, of course our survival depends on the earth; we've been saying that for years! We all know that! But we don't . To know, to truly know, means that we are affected by our knowledge; that we must act in accordance with our knowledge. Instead, we act as if tomorrow we will develop a Star Trek life where we can order anything we want from a magic machine that will provide good tea or steak or gorgeous salads, and we will no longer need the pesky soil and messy worms, and smelly shit that are actually required to live as biological beings on this earth. |
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| The most moving part of the talk for me, was when Petrini described the aroma of tomato sauce being cooked all over the small town in Italy where he was raised. Tomato sauce cooked from the tomatoes grown in small gardens all over the hillsides. He said that now, that aroma has disappeared. It is inmeasurably sad to me that we have become nostalgic for such simple, basic, human activities. We no longer experience the aromas, the sweat, the particular ache of our shoulders that are these life giving acts. He didn't elaborate. He didn't spend time on many examples. He knew the power of this story. He knew that this one story, told to those who are listening, would convey all that he needed to say. | |
| Petrini talked about the “breath of life”, which for him is the metabolism of life, the cycle of life. The very breathing in and out and cycling of nutrients, the ecology of life. For him, this ecology of life – eating, defecating, growing the next food, eating again, breathing in the life giving air; these basic sustaining acts are our “breath of life.” This, for him and for many, many of us, can only be done authentically if our sustenance is not derived by the fouling of the future sustenance of our children and our children's children. This can only be done authentically as well, if we respect and preserve the old and meaningful food traditions of our cultures, the things that make our regional food truly regional and sometimes sacred, completely interwoven, with the ecology of life in those regions. | |
It is mind blowing how we have done this. The growing, the cooking, the eating, the shitting, the procreating… It is sacred. As soul-beings, biological beings that can appreciate and develop poetry and philosophy and ideas of spirit, we divide ourselves from ourselves when we cease to honor the means of our survival. Petrini talked about our pleasures: eating and sex. He maintains that God gave us these pleasures; to eat to sustain life; to have sex to create life. Petrini says that, this was “a good idea!” As humans, we make both eating and sex more pleasurable – more nuanced – more ornamented than do the animals. This, I think, is beautiful and good – but they must not be so nuanced and ornamented as to be removed from their life giving qualities, or their authentic value. |
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| Petrini wrapped up his talk by asking us to be this slow food movement. He asked the audience to support the farmers with their energy and resources, but also to support them socially and culturally. He asked us to preserve our traditions and to value the new traditions that are authentic to the earth. He basically asked us to live lives of integrity, with love for our Tierra Madre, for ourselves, for our children and their children; to live lives that make good life possible now and into many future generations. | |
For me, what is the meaning of these thoughts? I – and I hope others – must renew our energy and commitment for honoring in a real and practical and daily and routine and sacred way the central importance of the “breath of ife ” in our lives. To have truly good, authentic , non-polluting, sustainable food – it must be local. It must be grown with respect for the earth. We must save our Tierra Madre (our Mother Earth) if we hope to continue to receive life from her. Would we pollute our own mother's bodies? No, and no again. There is a growing and intense awareness in our culture currently of the importance of special diets, no alchohol or tobacco, good sleep, low stress (the list goes on and on) for pregnant women. We want perfect conditions for the womb-nurture of our children. But then, we are willing to allow them to be born onto and into a polluted, disrespected, chemicaled, exploited, culturally homogenized planet. We try to provide perfect womb conditions – but what about the world conditions? What will sustain these precious life forms when they emerge? How will our children's children continue if we cannot relearn to love, to nurture, to defend, to respect the life of the earth and the human creativity and culture that sustains us? |
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I renew my commitment to the following:
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