Slow Food Utah: Blog

Action Alert - House Bill 187

At Slow Food Utah, we focus primarily on local programs and projects to support good, clean, and fair food in our state - from school gardens to farm mobs to taste education classes to micro-grants for small producers. Occasionally, we also engage in advocacy, since policy decisions at every level of government can profoundly affect our food system, our choices, and our personal freedoms.

On that note, we wish to bring to your attention House Bill 187-Agricultural Operations Interference, which would criminalize as a misdemeanor offense the audio, photographic, or video recording of any agricultural operation on its premises without the express consent of the owner. The bill has passed the House and is being considered by the Senate during the final week of the 2012 Utah Legislative session. You can read the full text and track it here. Recent amendments do not substantially improve the bill.

Given Slow Food Utah's commitment to celebrate and promote local and sustainable agriculture, heritage foods and cultural traditions, we feel that this bill is a step in the wrong direction. Our leadership therefore opposes it in its current form. In recent years, as you know, more and more people want to know where their food comes from, how it is raised, and by whom. Restaurants proudly feature specific farms and ranches on their menus, and farmers markets and community supported agriculture programs are flourishing. Farmers, ranchers, and butchers have joined celebrity chefs as honored public figures. Social media tools allow agricultural producers to connect directly with their customers and showcase their operations, and for the online community to do the same.

We believe that this bill would undermine these relationships and damage the trust and quality that consumers are seeking in their food supply in Utah. Our organization believes this bill is flawed for several reasons:

• It threatens agricultural tourism by criminalizing documentation of farms and ranches without express permission, even by invited guests;
• It places an undue regulatory paperwork and compliance burden on farmers and ranchers if they wish to allow their visitors and customers to take photos, videos, or audio recordings, as well as to organizations, individuals, and journalists who wish to showcase local farmers and ranchers through various media;
• It undermines consumer confidence in Utah agricultural products;
• It targets the wrong people, because any agricultural operator who engages in cruelty to animals or unhealthy practices should be investigated and held legally responsible, not those who expose such wrongdoing; and
• It raises serious constitutional issues for freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

There was also an opinion piece in the Salt Lake Tribune by that discusses additional food safety threats from this bill. Read it here.

If you are concerned, too, please take a moment and contact elected officials immediately and share your own personal comments with them. This is the final week of the legislative session, so things are moving quickly. To find your senator, visit the Legislative website  and enter your address in the form. To send comments to the governor, submit them here.

Thank you for your help on this very important issue!

Sincerely,

Slow Food Utah

The February 2012 issue of Salt Lake Magazine led with the provocative cover headline: "Kids Busting at the Seams: Utah's Obesity Epidemic". I couldn't help but pick up a copy at the newstand, since Slow Food Utah is very concerned about this trend and we seek ways to promote better food in schools, such as with school gardens and taste education for children, as well as adults. Obesity is a complex issue with many related likely causes, from the widespread availability and subsidized costs of high calorie, processed foods to steadily decreasing activity levels both at school and in our everyday lives, to possible effects of chemical pollutants in our environment and our bodies.

So I was pleased to read Mary Brown Malouf's timely piece and find that Slow Food Utah's partnership with Harmon's was featured as one of the local solutions to help address this critical issue.

This is the third year Koehler's first graders have had Teach to Taste as part of their regular curriculum, and she loves the program. cooperatively developed by Harmons and Utah Slow Food's Christi Paulson (herself an elementary school teacher), Teach to Taste is a year-long program designed to teach kids basic nutrition, how taste works and where their food comes from. In 2010, Paulson received the 2010 Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence in Teaching About Agriculture Award, and Teach to Taste sprang form the classroom practices for which she received this award.

You can read the full piece about the Teach To Taste program as featured in the article here.

Former Slow Food Utah leader Christi Paulson created the program to help overcome lack of access for many children to nutritious foods, and to taste buds conditioned to prefer processed food over whole, nutritious foods.

Chef Brian Ralph of the Salt Lake Head Start program is working on this, too, as described in an accompanying feature in the same issue. As he says:

"It usually takes about three times for the kids to develop a taste for a new dish," Ralph says. "What we don't do is offer another option." Other school dietitians call him for advice and recipes. "They'll say, 'Oh, our kids won't drink plain milk,'" he says. "And I say, that's because you offer them chocolate - and strawberry-flavored milk. Change the choice: offer them milk or water. It's all about learning to make the right choices," says Ralph. "Kids aren't really capable of that, so you have to help them along."

Would you like to help improve access to healthy foods and lessons about good food for kids? Contact current Slow Food Utah leader Gwen Crist to find out how you can get involved.

The terrific folks over at the People's Market will host their 6th Annual Seed Swap on January 21st from 5-7 pm at the Community Food Co-op of Utah, located at 1726 South 700 West in Salt Lake City.

Slow Food Utah will once again be distributing select seed varieties that are listed on Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste. The seeds will be free to the public on a first-come first-served basis. Once again, we have purchased heirloom and organic seeds from Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT) partner organization Seed Savers Exchange.

You too can become part of the vital effort to preserve and enjoy rare but culinarily and culturally important vegetables. If you become a seed saver yourself, you can even adopt and steward one or more of these crops.

To learn more about Slow Food's agricultural biodiversity efforts such as the Ark of Taste, Grow-out projects, and more, read this 2009 blog post.

If you are a market grower interested in trying out an Ark variety, please contact us directly about getting larger quantities of seed. Our micro-grant program can help pay for them.

If you have grown out any varieties from seeds donated at past swaps, please take a moment and leave a comment about how well they grew and how you liked them.

Happy garden planning, and we look forward to seeing you at the swap!

 Eat Local Salt Lake and the Slow Food USA $5 Meal - Two Challenges to Inspire you in September

The multitude of issues surrounding our current food system can sometimes seem overwhelming and it can be hard to know how to take action to make a difference. Two challenges in September, one organized locally and one nationally, can help you show your commitment to good, clean, and fair food and link up with larger communities of people doing the same.

The Salt Lake Eat Local Challenge was started a few years ago by Andrea and Mike Heidinger. They were intrigued by the localvore movement and wondered how possible it would be to eat only foods raised within 250 miles of their home in the Salt Lake Valley, as detailed in a 2007 Salt Lake Tribune article. Their experience proved rewarding, and inspired others to join them. Now Local Food Bee editor Tara Poelzing is coordinating the challenge with many local partners including Slow Food Utah. She also hosts a blog dedicated to providing resources and support for participants. The 2011 Challenge begins September 10, and you can sign up here.

Meanwhile, Slow Food USA has issued a $5 Challenge for September 17th, in order "to take back the value meal." Your goal is to get together with friends and family for a meal with a cost of less than $5/person, "because slow food shouldn't cost more than fast food." You can sign up at Slow Food USA's website, or look for a local event to attend.

The two challenges are complimentary, so consider making your $5 meal on September 17th a localvore one, too! Post your stories and experiences here or at both blogs to let us know how your challenge(s) went, and happy eating!

What's a young Utah organic farmer and his new bride to do for their honeymoon? Travel to Cuba to experience that island's sustainable agriculture - and culture - firsthand, that's what. In 2010, Sandhill Farms founder Pete Rasmussen and documentary photographer Kati Greaney traveled throughout Cuba for 3 months. They will give a talk and slide show about their experiences on Thursday, August 18th on the University of Utah campus' Sill Center at 5 p.m.

"Find out how and why this Caribbean island nation, struggling from economic collapse and the US blockade, represents one of the best models for sustainable food system development in the world. From bio-intensive, urban gardens to rural cooperative farming programs, Cuba’s wealth of ingenuity, creativity and ecological literacy offers inspiration to anyone involved in local community building, food and nutrition education, and sustainable, equitable food system development." Wasatch Gardens blog

Join them after the talk for a local food potluck at the University of Utah's Sill Center Edible Campus Garden, where you can meet the presenters and other like-minded individuals and talk sustainability and food. Bring a dish to share. NOTE: No alcoholic beverages are permitted at this event due to campus regulations.

This is a free event that is open to the public, but RSVP is encouraged. The talk and potluck will be held at the University of Utah's Sill Center Main Conference Room starting at 5 p.m. Additional sponsors include the University of Utah's Edible Campus Gardens and Wasatch Community Gardens.

This caught my eye on the Slow Food USA Twitter feed:

Awesome Food now accepting applications for $1,000 microgrants

July 20th, 2011

Awesome Food, a chapter of the worldwide Awesome Foundation, officially launched on Wednesday, July 20 and is now accepting grant applications from around the world to further food awesomeness in the universe. Visit awesomefood.net to learn more and apply at awesomefood.net/apply. The first round for application deadline is end-of-day, Friday, August 5th.

Each month, Awesome Food will give one applicant $1,000 to help pull off an awesome idea involving food. The ideas must relate to food in some form, and the definition will be more inclusive than exclusive. Examples could include educating the public about DIY-farming, creating an ad-hoc eatery in a subway car, or recording videos of immigrants’ recipes.

Visit the Awesome Food website for information about how to apply.