Taste, Traditions, and the Honest Pleasures of Food

 

Slow Food Tallahassee Movie Night

Friday, February 10, 2006

Slow Food Tallahassee Movie night was a great success. We viewed the first half of the documentary The Global Banquet: the Politics of Food and paused for some hot fair-trade coffee, homemade brownies, cheese cookies and wonderful cream cheese and marmalade (made locally by Joanne Chamberlain, see Local Sources for contact information) with crackers.

	Click here for more information or to order a copy on DVD or VHS.

The documentary raised many issues of how we view food production and the complex issues of trade policy around the world. Interviews with organic farmers, small farmers worldwide, and economists provided insightful commentary on the status of food production worldwide, and explained in lay terms why this isn't good for the land or the people of the world. A great discussion followed amoung those present about how we can do our part to change things, our experiences, and our frustrations.

Louise of Turkey Hill Farm offered a bright note and reported that Sysco (a food distributing giant) is now working through an area of the Florida panhandle to buy product from local farms and distribute it in that area instead of following their normal practice of trucking foods over great distances.  The high costs of diesel fuel may bring similar positive changes in our nation's food production and distrubution system, something you won't hear about on the news.