SCCC professor plans even to harvest ideas locally
Fast paced lifestyles might not allow people to think about what they are really eating and how food choices have a local and global affect.
Chef Rocco Verrigni, professor at Schenectady County Community College, participated in the five-day international food conference Terra Madre, which translates to mother earth, in Turin, Italy with over 6,000 attendees from 161 countries also attending the `slow food` event in late October. Some of the topics discussed included food polices, food safety, diversity, energy, sustainable education about the food system, the affect of genetically modified organisms and organic fair trade farming.
`It gathers, farmers chefs, students, academics, food activists and musicians to come together to really share their stories and try to solve some of the issues they have by being small artisan farms as opposed to huge corporate farmers,` said Verrigni.
The conference addressed Verrigni’s values, because he is co-founder and president of Slow Food Saratoga and the advisor to Slow Food SCCC. The Slow Food movement aims to have people make better food choice for themselves and the environment around them.
`What encapsules the whole slow food movement is people around the globe having access to good, clean, fair food,` said Verrigni.
The movement started in 1989 more as an anti-fast food movement, but has grown to include awareness about where food comes from and how locally grown selections are also beneficial for health and environmental reasons, he said.
`It is very natural, it is not new, it is something that is very old,` said Verrigni. `Even thought it is a new idea now, it is how our ancestors ate. It never dawned on anybody to eat a tomato in the northeast in the middle of January.`
While he doesn’t want to `go back in time,` he said the seasonality and localness of how our ancestors ate is the model we should be trying to go back to in our modern life. He simply feels anything beyond that isn’t normal.
He said the average American dinner travels 1,500 miles before it hits the dinner plate or fast food bag. With how far our food currently travels, he said our model is not sustainable in the long run.
Convenience and living too fast he said resulted in our current food dilemma, because when people are on the run their food choice can be unhealthier than if they stopped to prepare a meal. For anyone that says they have no time to prepare a meal, he responded that they should slow down. He said sharing meals with family members is important too.
`Appreciate the fact that the food you are going to be cooking and using it will lengthen your lifetime,` said Verrigni. `Look beyond right now. You don’t have to spend hours and hours to cook. I love it, but not everyone has that time. Be very aware of what you’re buying and actually take the time to sit down with your family and have a meal at least once a week.`
While sustainable local food growth was a theme of the conference there was also stress placed preserving the heritage and culture of food. In order to achieve this goal, the conference highlighted four groups of people that need to be cultivated and seriously listened to, which include indigenous people, women, farmers and senior citizens.
`You look at each one of those groups, they really hold much of our old food cultures, and if you don’t tape them and listen to them and record them they will be lost,` said Verrigni.
Right now, he said, these groups are under appreciated and under valued in our food culture, so they need to be risen to their level of importance.
To instill change in our food culture he said the youth are a vital element in the transformation. At the conference he could tell there was a strong food movement globally in today’s youth.
`One of the most exciting things about those conferences, another segment of the population that need to have this information is the youth and we are depending upon the youth to farm in a way the ideas of these people,` said Verrigni.
While SCCC students in the culinary arts program hear about the importance of the slow food movement from him, the public should also be getting a chance to experience and explore what Terra Madre has to offer.
`I’m only two weeks back from Italy and all these things are fresh,` he said.
He is planning to hold an event at the college in conjunction with the global celebration of Terra Madre Day, which he said is probably being celebrated at a thousand different gatherings. While there aren’t solid details on the event currently, he is planning for it to be on Dec. 13. At the event he hopes to have a mini experience of Terra Madre, which includes inviting local farmers and chefs from the area to participate in panel discussions, food tastings and other activities.
For more information on the event when the final details are released visit www.slowfoodsccc.blogspot.com.“