“Why?” you ask? Well, the Blogger platform is more user-friendly than WordPress, all its features are FREE and Blog-diva, Nicolette Miller-Ka has more experience using Blogger and finds it much easier to use.

If you have any questions, comments or ideas for the blog, please email us at info@slowfoodpiedmont.org!

~Nicolette Miller-Ka

for a dinner prepared by local chef Starr Johnson and the SUPPLEMENT team.

Space is limited so please RSVP early. RSVP to http://supplementws.eventbrite.com

We are using a new system for RSVP so please follow the eventbrite.com link and follow the easy online instructions.

If you have questions please email us at supplementws@gmail.com

http://supplementws.eventbrite.com

SUPPLEMENT #8

Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served at 7pm.

Food will be served at 7:30 pm.

Menu

*Cassoulet with local rabbit, duck confit, local fingerling potatoes, and white beans.

Roasted brussel sprouts and mashed turnips

Salad Nicoise

Local cheeses and bread from The Camino Bakery

Tarte Tatin from The Camino Bakery

*Vegetarian option will be available. Please let us know when you rsvp.

The goal of SUPPLEMENT is to promote high quality and great-tasting local and sustainable foods, craft and artisnal beverages, and communal dining.

We hope that you will join us for one of our food events and don’t forget to tell your friends about us.

Please visit our website for more information:

http://supplementws.blogspot.com

~Nicolette Miller-Ka

“…research has provided him a unique understanding of the history, development, and contemporary practices of U.S. Agriculture and its relationship to the health of the citizens of The United States….”

“It is our belief that this scholarly approach coupled with his unique ability to synergize and coherently communicate to a wide audience makes Mr. Pollan the best choice for Secretary of Agriculture in an administration whose stated goals include affordable health and healthcare for the citizens of this nation and wholesale change from the practices of the Bush administration.”

Click HERE to see/sign petition in its entirely.

For more on Michael Pollen:

MichaelPollen.Com

Pollen on the Brian Lehrer Show, November 17, 2008

NYT article, “Farmer In-Chief”

~Nicolette Miller-Ka

“I’m sick of masturbatory gourmets, people who smell a glass of bordeaux for half an hour and speak divinely, as if they are priests, ‘Oh, it has the wonderful smell of horse sweat.’ No more cooking shows, please; no more stirring pots on television.”

His comment embodies an important evolution in the focus of Slow Food. While the movement started virtuously as a response to the ills of fast food, in the States it’s been criticized as a sort of elitist supper club for people with the means to indulge in leisurely dinners laced with esoteric musings.

While many Slow Foodies are aware of the environmental, political and social consequences of food production, in many convivia these topics have served more as dinner conversation than rallying cry. But more recently there has begun a focused effort to make social, political and environmental activism part of the Slow Food agenda.

Don’t worry. There is room in the realm of Slow Food for all groups: the gourmands, the producers, the artisans, the activists, the passivists, and everyone in between. America is on the cusp of change. We’ve been given the tools and ammunition to rock our unstable foundations and incumbent views. In recent months, we have seen the world as we know it change before our eyes.

New Slow Food president, Josh Viertel said,

“The problems in our food system disproportionately hurt poor people and people of color. These are the people who are less able to access the benefits of Slow Food. I’m going to change this organization so that it’s not just about pleasure. We are going to become a social justice organization. I want to live in a world where the food is good for the people who eat it, the environment and the people who grow it.”

Personally, I equate the recent turn of events as important as the breaking down of the Berlin wall, Fidel Castro’s resignation, the Stock Market tumble (1929 & 2008), and declaration of war on foreign lands. We’ve just seen history made in more ways than one in the recent presidential election. This change on the political front is indicative of the change that is in our hearts, minds, and souls. We may feel removed from the goings on in Washington, but we are all too familiar with the goings on in our homes, communities, and local atmospheres-at-large.

This question was posed to President-elect Barack Obama: What policy initiatives would you propose to strengthen local food systems?

He replied, “I am very familiar with the great work of community supported farms. These types of farms can provide an important source of fresh fruits and vegetables to inner city communities that do not have easy access to grocery stores that sell organic foods. Moreover, farms that sell directly to consumers cut out all of the middlemen and get full retail price for their food, which increases the financial viability of small family farms.

“As president, I would implement USDA policies that promote local and regional food systems, including assisting states to develop programs aimed at community supported farms. I also support a national farm-to-school program and am pleased that the Farm Bill provides more than $1 billion to expand healthy snacks in our schools.”

See? Change is coming.

Si se puede.

Oui nous pouvons.

Si possiamo.

Ne putem da.

Yes we can.

And we are…

~Nicolette Miller-Ka

We will supply the location, tables, tablecloths, chairs, plates, hockey rink, glasses, eating implements, and napkins. You bring the food and drinks.

Cost: $0

How: RSVP to supplementws@gmail.com
You will receive an email with directions to the dinner once we have received your RSVP.

Join us on All Hallows Day 2008 for food, drink, revelry, political discourse, and general mirth. We’re putting the luck back into potluck!
Hurry! There is only room for 43 people.

Why should you eat local food? Click here.

“Local” is traditionally within a 150-mile radius of your home. It can be simplified even further to mean your county, state, or region. As we’ve seen in recent days, there are disputes and differences over this arbitrary word.

Nevertheless, sign up at the Eat Local Challenge Web site or keep tabs at home about your local food consumption.

Need help on how to find local food?

Slow Food Piedmont Triad Local Food Guide

National directory of local farms, CSAs, and farmer’s markets

Eat Well Guide
~Nicolette Miller-Ka

Forget Obama and McCain – Wendell Berry for President!

~Laurie O’Neill

World Food Day 2008

World Food Day takes place on October 16, this year. The theme is World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

World Food Day provides an occasion to once again highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world. Most of them live in rural areas where their main source of income is the agricultural sector. Global warming and the biofuel boom are now threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come.–/www.fao.org

For more information, click here.

To check out how to get involved globally, click here.

To participate in a food blogging event highlighting World Food Day’s mission, click here.

~Nicolette Miller-Ka

“In blue-collar neighborhoods, grassroots volunteers… are growing increasingly concerned by the price of food and transportation. Once a household has paid the utility bills and rent… there’s less left for groceries. The easiest item to cut out is fresh fruit and vegetables – at the expense of good nutrition.

For Braswell, there is a vital connection that grows up between the land, the volunteer harvesters and the families who get the fresh produce – human contact that satisfies a deeper kind of hunger.

“So many times we struggle so much to keep our own heads above water that we don’t have time to help somebody else,” Braswell says. “It’s like, ‘You’re on your own.’ “

To read more, click here.

~Nicolette Miller-Ka