Food For Thought

We are coming into a new year and much is in a stte of crisis. What if we were to decide to support the things we want in our world things that support our imagined futures. What if we made this year the year we took steps, regardless of how small, toward creating the world desired. Donations could be made to Local Food, or to the Organic Consumers Association. Our donations help to fuel this work.

Recently, we have been asked, "What is Slow Food"? According to a statement from Slow Food Bloomington, "The opposite of fast food, an international movement that emphasizes eating seasonally, regionally, and pleasurably". Recognizing the importance of how we enjoy our food, Slow Food U.S.A. is being developed as an educational organization dedicated to promoting stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; reviving the kitchen and the table as the centers of pleasure, culture and community; invigorating and proliferating regional, seasonal culinary traditions; creating a collaborative, ecologically-oriented, and virtuous globalization; and living a slower and more ecologically-oriented and virtuous globalization; and living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Check out these links to get a better idea of the global origins of the Slow Food movement and how it is improving the quality of local communities here and elsewhere.

THE BETSY LYDON SLOW FOOD ARK USA AWARD GOES TO MICHAEL PHILLIPS, ORGANIC ORCHARDIST
In celebration of the life and work of Betsy Lydon, who devoted herself to sustaining small scale food producers by encouraging local, seasonal eating and an appreciation for diversified farming, the first annual "Betsy Lydon Slow Food Ark USA Award" is to be presented tonight at the Savoy Restaurant, to Michael Phillips, a farmer and author based in the Northern White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Building a Slow Society where Large and Small Cycles are in Harmony http://www.via3.net/pooled/articles/BF_
DOCART/
view.asp?Q=BF_DOCART_120591

Bloomington Slow Food contact Christine Barbour is the Bloomington, IN Convivium Leader and can be reached at barbour@indiana.edu. The web address is http://www.slowfoodbloomington.org/

-Slow Food USA http://www.slowfoodusa.org/
-Center For Sustainable Living - http://www.simplycsl.org
-Local Food Network - http://www.greendove.net/localfood.htm
-MIDDLE WAY Food Works - http://www.bloomington.in.us/~mwhouse/
mealsd
-Rustic Chocolate (an adventure in slow old fashioned deserts) will soon be open for business at http://www.rusticchocolate.net

Check out GREEN DOVE'SGREEN SHOPPING PAGES WHICH ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED. Or check out the IHHN's Green Shopping Directory

Iraq's New Patent Law:
A Declaration of War Against Farmers

PRESS RELEASE / Focus on the Global South and GRAIN 15oct04
[More on Monsanto]
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/d
Monsanto-Roundup-Glyphosate.htm

When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." [1] This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. [2] With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy.

WHO GAINS?
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law. Read complete article