A cavernous hall once used by the U.S. Army was divided into 16 colorfulmini-pavilions for the Each offered a different treat for the tastebuds, including coffee, chocolate, wine, pickles, bread, olive oil, cheese andmeat.
Festivalgoers sampled food and drink and learned about where it came from and how itwas produced. Farmers, chefs, andconservationists delivered lectures and held workshops. World-renowned chefs, using farm-freshingredients, demonstrated how to make simple meals with sustainableingredients. Slow Food merchants fromall over the United States sent products for display.
Atthe ice cream pavilion, local pastry chef William Werner was giving out samplesfrom nine different manufacturers. Werner volunteered at the festival tosupport the Slow Food Movement, and compared the ice cream he was serving towhat he called "pre-made fabricated ice cream? You can buy local frompeople who are being sustainable, making it, spinning it every day, keeping itfresh, and, also, keeping it healthier for you."
As part of the weekend-long festival, California farmers whosubscribe to the slow food philosophy set up stands to sell their produce. Asfestival executive director Anya Fernauld explained, it's all aboutreclaiming elements of the traditional food system that Americans abandonedwhen ? as she put it ? 'canned food rolled our way,' and incorporating thoseelements into modern American life.
Fernauldsaid she would consider the festival a success if a tenth of those who camemake just one small healthy change in their approach to their food. "Somepeople who come to the event might be inspired to try making some things fromscratch," she suggested, "inspired to ask their local sandwich place:'Well, where is that meat from and does it have things in it that are going toreally be bad for the environment or bad for me?'" She said she'd alsolike to see people cooking more, growing more of their own food, and buyingproduce that's in season in their area.
Many at the festival saw politics as a catalyst to change howAmericans eat. Daniel Bowman Simon drove cross-country from New York in adouble-decker yellow school bus with an organic garden on top. His goal was togather signatures for a for thenext president of the United States. It asks him to eat from a community gardento be grown on the White House lawn and tended by local school children.
MichaelDimmick was at the festival with another Hewants to deliver a million signatures to Congress by November 2009, asking forSlow Food philosophies to be incorporated into the 2012 Farm Bill, thelegislation that provides funding for all federal food and agricultureprograms. "is a framework for changing policy in thiscountry so that we actually give the right incentives to farmers and tocommunities so we can actually create a food system that is healthy," heexplained. "Right now, we have just the opposite."
The Slow Food Nation festival ended with an outdoor sit-down potluck dinner for250 young people. The newly appointedpresident of Slow Food USA, Josh Viertel, said it was to honor young farmers,restaurant owners and workers, and others who support the movement. "Weare the next generation of Slow Food Nation," he said. "Slow Food isgoing mainstream and we're to help it and we're here to sort of take chargeourselves because we are the generation that was not taught slow food valuesbut we, ourselves, are taking charge."
Butliving those values is not that easy. Not everyone has access to local freshproduce, and the organically grown food that slow food supporters advocateoften costs more than conventionally grown and processed foods. Also, manyAmericans think it's just another fad. So critics of the Slow Food Movementcontend that it's elitist, impractical and too expensive.
Restaurateur Alice Waters ? recognized as the visionary behind the AmericanSlow Food Movement ? rejects those claims, noting that people have a choice ofpaying for healthy food up front? or for doctors' bills later on. "We haveto learn how to cook again," she insists. "Vegetables and grains andfruits and nuts can be affordable. We just don't know what to do withthem."
SlowFood advocates such as Waters say there is a lot of work to be done to get themovement's philosophy into mainstream America. But judging from the crowds atthe festival, Waters says she's hopeful that Americans and people around theworld will choose more healthful, sustainable foods over convenient ones.