Renewing America’s Food Traditions:
Bringing Diversity Back to the Farm and Table
With Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, Dr. Curt Meine, and Ben Watson
Co-Sponsored by Slow Food-Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum, Slow Food-UW
Location: UW-Arboretum, Madison
Date: Friday, March 20th at 7 pm
When the snow lies thick and blankets Wisconsin in white, it is time for farmers and orchardists to begin planning for autumn harvest. Apples and other fruit trees remind us of the tastes and colors of harvest time, and a diverse orchard reflects the brilliant colors, flavors, and smells of a region. At one time, Wisconsin orchard growers were raising hundreds of apple varieties, with names like Wolf River, Black Twig and Prairie Spy. This number has dwindled to fewer than 20 commonly available varieties, greatly diminishing genetic diversity and cultural memories. Fortunately, a core group of dedicated orchard-keepers and land conservationists are keeping the broader diversity of Wisconsin fruits alive.
Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, founder of the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) initiative and editor of a book by the same name, and Dr. Curt Meine, Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and Director for Conservation Biology and History with the Center for Humans and Nature, will give a public presentation on ecological diversity at the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum on Friday, March 20th at 7 pm.
RAFT is dedicated to preserving and restoring biodiversity, and developing a public understanding of place-based foods. The effort was founded in 2004 by seven organizations, including the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Chefs Collaborative, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Seed Savers Exchange and Slow Food USA. RAFT is managed by Slow Food USA, a membership organization that seeks to create a dramatic and lasting change in the food system by promoting food that is good, clean and fair.
Nabhan has been leading RAFT’s initiative to identify rare place-based foods with the help of farmers, fishermen, foragers, herders, chefs, food historians and folklorists.
It’s not just the dwindling ecological diversity that concerns Nabhan and his fellow farmers, conservationists, chefs and food historians. It’s cultural diversity, too.
“This is not about taking the rarest animal and eating it,” says Nabhan. “We’re reminding people of the deep historical connections–that some of these foods that are endangered once fed hundreds of thousands of people. We want that to be a motivating force for eaters to be more selective of their choices.”
RAFT uses an eater-based approach to reintroduce the stories and flavors of America’s traditional foods to larger audiences, so people are once again growing and consuming them sustainably. Endangered, place-based foods identified by RAFT — grown/raised by more farmers, served by more chefs, and sold by more retailers — are nominated to the Ark of Taste, Slow Food USA’s catalogue of endangered foods. Madison Chef and food advocate Tami Lax of Harvest Restaurant is a founding member of the committee overseeing the Ark of Taste. Heirloom apple expert, writer and editor, Ben Watson, currently chairs the Ark of Taste committee, and will present with Nabhan and Meine. Once foods are on the Ark of Taste, Slow Food members help bring them to a wider audience by featuring the foods at events, organizing grow-outs, and bringing farmers, chefs and retailers together.
Nabhan, Watson and other members of the RAFT Alliance will be in Madison in late March, meeting with local farmers, growers and orchardists to collect more rare and threatened food species. They will also host a workshop for farmers, orchardists and land conservationists on heirloom orchard identification and restoration techniques, and have a public reading at the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum on Friday, March 20th at 7 pm.
This public talk, entitled Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Bringing Diversity Back to the Farm and Table, will feature readings on linking ecological and cultural diversity, with featured speakers Dr. Curt Meine, Nabhan and Watson. They will discuss the value of the unique place-based heritage foods of North America, the causes of their loss from our food system, and highlight recent efforts to conserve them and restore their place in regional foodsheds. It will feature foods at risk in the Great Lakes foodshed and issue a call to action to communities to safeguard and celebrate them.
For more information about the event, visit Slow Food’s website at: http://www.slowfoodwisconsin.org/ or contact Heidi Busse at heidi_busse@yahoo.com
For more information about RAFT visit: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/raft/
For more information about Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste, visit: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste/
Presenter Bios
Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan
Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan is founder of the Renewing Americas Food Traditions initiative and editor of a book by the same name. Time magazine, Saveur magazine and Mother Earth News have recognized his pioneering work in the local foods movement and in efforts to save the unique seeds and breeds of North America. His work, now translated into five languages, has been honored with a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, a Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, and a Lifetime Acheivement Award from the Society for Ethnobiology. He lives in the stinkin hot desert of Arizona where he raises Churro sheep, heritage turkeys and heirloom crops.
Dr. Curt Meine
Dr. Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, historian, and writer. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin; Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation, also located in Baraboo; and Director for Conservation Biology and History with the Chicago-based Center for Humans and Nature. He is also Associate Adjunct Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
Meine received his B.A. in English and History from DePaul University in Chicago and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Land Resources from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the last twenty years, his conservation work has involved projects in Europe, Asia, and North America, with organizations including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Conservation Union, the World Wildlife Fund, and the American Museum of Natural History. Meine has served on the board of governors of the Society for Conservation Biology and on the editorial boards of the journals Conservation Biology and Environmental Ethics. He is also active in local conservation as a founder and member of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance in Sauk County, Wisconsin. Meine has authored several books, including Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (1988) and Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation (2004).
Ben Watson
Ben Watson is a food and farm activist who is currently Chair of Slow Food USA’s Ark and Presidia Committee, and who represents the US on the International Ark Commission of Slow Food’s Foundation for Biodiversity. As Senior Editor for Chelsea Green Publishing, he has developed and edited dozens of books dealing with sustainable farming and artisan foods and food culture, including “Renewing America’s Food Traditions.” Ben has written or co-written several books, including “Cider, Hard and Sweet” and “Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables.” He is a Lifetime Member of Seed Savers Exchange and the co-leader of the Monadnock Region chapter of Slow Food USA, where he works to conserve heritage apple varieties of New England through a regional nursery project. He lives in Francestown, New Hampshire.
