Whoa, Slow Down, Pard’ner!
In 1986, an Italian by the name of Carlo Petrini started the Slow Food movement in response to the onslaught of homogenized fast food and a new accelerated pace of living. Determined to preserve the cultural identities of local and traditional cuisines, the now-international organization has more than 80,000 members in over 100 countries today.
Considering that creating a meal from scratch has become a novel idea in the past 20 years, Petrini wasn’t overreacting. (As I often have to remind the hub, microwaving a TV dinner or pouring something out of a box or can doesn’t count as “cooking.”)
Slow Food’s early warning flare, however, wasn’t enough to hold back the tide of globalization.
Some number crunching that may be … heh … tough to swallow, figuratively, that is: The New York Times reports that a child from a low-income family living in New York City has a one-in-four chance of becoming obese by the age of 2. “Childhood obesity is known to increase the likelihood of adult obesity, which has been linked to illnesses like diabetes and heart disease,” the story goes on to say. Meanwhile, the April 2006 edition of the journal Pediatrics notes that hundreds of American children are too obese to fit safely into their child car seats, and that the rate of childhood obesity is rapidly outpacing car-seat designers’ ability to keep up. In fact, the eggheads at Harvard University tell us that we’re facing an “epidemic of obesity,” especially in light of the Center for Communicable Diseases’ report that the good ol’ U.S. of A. has seen a 61 percent increase in obesity in the last decade.
The rest of the developed world isn’t lagging behind, either. Obesity levels in Australian children are increasing at a rate of 1 percent annually. Most European countries have expanded their waistlines by 10 to 40 percent over the past 10 years. Economic progress and urbanization in Asia has also caused “a sharp upswing in obesity, a condition virtually unheard of in Asia a quarter of a century ago,” according to Time.
And it appears that the lower your income, the more likely you are to be overweight and even diabetic. Not too surprising when you think about the ubiquity and affordability of junk food that’s loaded with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). (According to Grist, HFCS makes up nearly half of the calorie-laden sweeteners in processed food, and is the sole caloric sweetener for popular soft drinks.)
From Grist:
[C]heap and abundant additives such as HFCS allow manufacturers to sweeten food liberally without adding much to their production costs. For people on a tight budget, these additives can also make cheap food the most efficient way to get calories.
To illustrate his point, [Professor Adam] Drewnowski distinguishes between “energy-dense” and “nutrient-dense” foods. For energy-dense, think of a package of Ding Dongs—360 calories, 19 grams of fat, and a liberal dose of high-fructose corn syrup. For nutrient-dense, think of a three-ounce chunk of wild salmon, delivering high-quality protein and essential fatty acids, among other nutrients, in a 185-calorie package. The former will run you about a buck at any convenience store, bodega, or supermarket in the country. For the latter, prepare to sidle up to a pristine Whole Foods fish counter and shell out about $5.
From a short-term economic viewpoint, the Ding Dongs present a better deal: 360 calories per dollar, and no need for the time or skill to cook. “If you’re on a limited income trying to feed a family, in a sense you’re behaving rationally by choosing heavily sweetened and fat-laden foods,” Drewnowski says.
This is where grassroots efforts such as community gardens and the Slow Food movement come in, empowering us to challenge what Grist dubs “the hegemony of processed foods,” to regain control of the quality of what we eat, and to defend our agricultural biodiversity and gastronomic traditions.
Now if only finding the time and energy to cook a healthful meal after a long day at work had a similar solution, we’d truly be home free. Or at least have a less deep and meaningful relationship with our Chinese takeout place.
(Visit the Slow Food Web site to locate a local chapter or “convivium.”)
Additional resources:
1. My previous post on obtaining organic foods affordably
2. A list of food and products containing HFCS, Accidental Hedonist
3. “Live the slow life,” Slow Food USA
4. “In praise of Slow Food,” NPR
5. “Greenpeace: McDonald’s Fueling Rainforest Destruction,” FoxNews.com
6. “Find time to cook,” Rebecca Wood
7. Allrecipes.com
kyrie said,
April 7, 2006 at 2:54 pm
have you read the book in praise of slowness? it has a chapter on slow food, as well as slow other things ;) love your posts, as always.
Amy said,
April 7, 2006 at 4:32 pm
I just tried to make this exact point to my parents, sighting this article, and do you know what they said to me, “How are Ding Dongs and salmon in even that same class of consumption. I don’t sit down with a glass of milk and think, ‘hmmm, I could really use a slab of salmon with this.’”… they missed the mark totally. *sigh*
Clay and Wattles said,
April 20, 2006 at 7:40 pm
[...] I don’t have much more to say about this right now, but here are some helpful resources on the topic from The Worsted Witch. [...]
The Worsted Witch » Fast Clothes Nation said,
March 5, 2007 at 2:04 pm
[...] We’ve heard of “slow food”—now prep your noggin for the concept of “slow clothes.” Fast clothes, as defined by the International Herald Tribune, are “low-cost garments that can be used and discarded without a second thought.” Think cheap, readily disposable clothing from your usual suspects—such as Old Navy, Target, Kmart—which are replacing more-durable hand-me-downs that last one or two generations. Consumers spend more than $1 trillion a year on clothing and textiles, an estimated one-third of that in Western Europe, another third in North America, and about a quarter in Asia. … [...]
The Worsted Witch » said,
May 8, 2007 at 11:37 am
[...] Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement, will be talking about his new book, Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean and Fair at the American Museum of Natural History on May 15, 7pm; $15. RSVP through the museum box office at 212-769-5200. [...]