Slow Food Nation Opening - World Food Crisis
Even at 9 a.m. in the morning, a buzz filled the air even before the first official Slow Food Nation event kicked off in San Francisco’s War Memorial Palace. One of the food rock stars Michael Pollan moderated the discussion topic: The World Food Crisis with panelists Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini, and Corby Kummer. Things got popping quickly with spirited remarks about the worldwide food shortage including one poke about biofuels by Patel, “It’s preposterous that we should grow food to set it on fire” , as well as a comment about the famine in Haiti where local rice farmers have no chance to compete against subsidized U.S. rice imports. Haitians rioted against rice labeled “gift of the USA.” Some gift, huh?
We loved the passionate Shiva as she spoke out about the spin toward getting GMOs into the world food chain. She noted that there has always been famine but now she sees this “pseudo crisis” as a movement to bring GMOs into the fold. She noted the difference between food and commodities. We agree with Shiva in her thinking the diversity of food that we help balance the playing field.
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Patel startled the crowd and us when mentioning these new “zombie seeds” that Monsanto now produces, that remain dead until farmers spray a Monsanto product that allows them to grow.
Pollan kept the discussion lively with social and political. Many people don’t realize that this food crisis remains deeply gendered as 60% of the people going hungry are women. The energy generated by Shiva got us and the crowd fired up by mentioning that the hygiene measures like banning street food are just agri-biz trying to kill local food. In our eyes she’s a rebel. Even after she said that, “We need to be the Rosa Parks of food.” Damn straight. We can’t begin to convey the energy generated in the discussion but we and everyone in the audience left fired up. Now we’re headed to our favorite taco cart for some slow food.
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