Happy THANKFUL THURSDAY!!!

I’ve been a huge fan of SLOW FOOD USA and recently

had the opportunity to interview Emily Walsh,

Manager, Public Relations and Marketing.

Emily joined Slow Food USA in 2011, bringing a diverse communications and marketing background,and more than six years experience in both agency and corporate settings. She has represented a wide variety of sustainable, non-profit, real estate, travel and technology clients. However, healthy and traditional food is in Emily’s blood; her family owned and managed an Italian restaurant for several years, and she lived on a farm in Italy for a summer as a child. Most recently, she helped launch a farm with an innovative Consumer Supported Agriculture model. A graduate of Fordham University with a B.A. in International Political Economy, and a dual minor in Business Communications and Italian, Emily also holds a Digital Media Marketing professional certificate from New York University. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband, friends and family, particularly on the Cape in Chatham, Mass.

Q.  Please tell my readers about SLOW FOOD USA.

A.  Slow food is good for us, good for the people who grow and pick it, and good for the planet.  It is good, clean, fair food.  There is actually a global Slow Food movement.  Hundreds of thousands of people in more than 153 countries, working to change the world so that everyone can eat slow food, everyday.

Slow Food USA is leading this movement in the U.S., with over 225 local chapters, and a quarter of a million people, eating right, supporting local farmers, building gardens in local schools, and pushing for changes to the policies that make real food so hard to access and afford in our country.

Additional info may be found here, http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/.

A.  The global slow food movement was actually born out of a protest of Slow Food International’s predecessor, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald’s near the Spanish Steps in Rome; it wasn’t as much about McDonald’s as it was about large, industrialized food corporations become mainstream.  In 1989, the founding Manifesto of the international Slow Food movement was signed in Paris by delegates from 15 countries.

A.  Slow Food USA is part of a global, grassroots organization with more than 100,000 members around the world who believe that food and farming should be sources of health and well being for everyone.  Through national advocacy, local projects and bringing people together through the common language of food, Slow Food USA members and supporters are making it easier to access real food that is good for us, good for those who produce it and good for the planet.  Slow Food USA’s network includes more than 250,000 supporters, 25,000 members and 225 chapters.  We’re working to create a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet.

A. For those who want to incorporate slow food into their daily lives, here are some ways to do it:

On your own:

1.     Buy whole ingredients. Cook them. Eat them.

2.     Don’t eat processed stuff with long ingredient lists. Eat food.

3.     Grow some of your own. Do it in a backyard, on a windowsill a community garden, or even on a roof.

4.     Know the story behind your food. Make sure its one that makes you proud.

a.     Channel your inner animal. How you would want to live and be treated? Choose humanely raised,

grass-fed, free-range meat.

b.     If you buy food from far away (coffee, chocolate, bananas, etc.) make it Fair Trade.

In your Community:

1.     Cook with friends and family. Eat with them too.

2.     Join a community garden; grow food with others.

3.     Connect with your local Slow Food chapter for events & community-led projects

4.     Shake the hand that feeds you. Meet the person who grows your food. Shop at a farmers market, go to a farm where you can pick-your-own, or join a “community supported agriculture” (CSA).  Through a CSA you buy shares in a farm; you get a percentage of what they grow, either delivered, or you pick it up. It is generally a great deal.

As a Citizen:

1.     Join in the fight for good, clean and fair food and farm policies.

2.     Join Slow Food USA.

A.  Plain and simple, it doesn’t have to be.  It’s all relative to how you look at it.  For starters, fast food is really bad for you. It’s made of things that if eaten in substantial quantities, are likely to have a negative impact on your health in the long-term. It’s also grown/raised in a way that is either terrible for the environment or treated terribly while alive.  Additionally, if you time it, fast food isn’t actually all that fast.  And a value meal isn’t really a value. (At $5.99 per person, it costs about $24 for a family of four to eat a meal.  Spend that $24 on ingredients, and you can have a beautiful meal for four, with leftovers.)

A.   Eating food that is good for you, good for those who grow and produce it, and good for the environment.  Eating food that you know has a story behind it that reflects your values.

We recently launched a fall campaign, challenging people to cook slow food for the cost of fast food. It’s called the $5 Challenge, www.slowfoodusa.org/5challenge.  On Sept. 17 on our national Day of Action, over 30,000 people across the country rose to the challenge to take back the ‘value meal’.  The $5 Challenge is part of our vision of a world where it is easier and more affordable for everyone to eat fresh and local food everyday.  For tips, tricks and challenges about how communities and people are participating, please visit, http://5challenge.tumblr.com.

Do any of YOU have a SLOW FOOD RECIPE you’d like to share?

Please check out my Morsel SLOW icious Recipe Post