all the food that's fit to print The Education Issue - Slow Food

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Fishing Classes for Everyone — By David Szanto The snail | Spring 2008 12 UNISG and viral education It’s widely agreed that education is a good thing, particularly in the world of food, and that it leads to empowerment and positive change through greater understanding. But what is education, exactly? Is it putting stuff in your brain, or realizing behaviors that that stuff engenders? Is it formally defined, classroom-style teaching, or an ongoing and multidirectional social process? The University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG, co-founded by Slow Food in 2003) has developed a model that seems to make education very much part of an ongoing cycle. And judging from the roles alumni have started to adopt, it is about both brain stuff and behavior. North American graduates are increasingly trickling forth and becoming educators themselves—as writers, teachers, consultants, even salespeople. They pass their learning on and inspire others to do the same, creating what might best be called “viral education.” Just as contemporary marketers realize, virality can create geometric growth, which applies just as well to making change in Graduates are trickling forth and becoming educators themselves—as writers, teachers, consultants, and even salespeople the food system as it does to making consumers open their wallets. If, as the adage goes, teaching people to fish allows them to eat for a lifetime, imagine what teaching people to teach people to fish can do. In Italian, the word maleducato means not “uneducated,” but “rude” or “ill-mannered” (not unlike the colloquial meaning of “ignorant” in English). The notion that not knowing can lead to not behaving acceptably becomes particularly intriguing in food culture: We don’t know where our food comes from, so we make poor consumption choices. We don’t remember our food heritage, so we let industrial producers fill our minds with manufactured meaning. We don’t understand the food chain, so we opt for smaller price tags and slough off hidden costs to producers, the environment, and minimum wage earners. The UNISG learning experience creates a kind of paradigm shift about the food system as a whole. By studying anthropology and history at the same time as packaging design and biochemistry and then going into the field for hands-on study, future gastronomes become hard-wired for complexity. Food is no longer simple to them, which creates a need to communicate that message. Daniel Winans, a graduate of the master program in food culture and communications, is now at the University of New Hampshire, lecturing on International Food and Culture and helping to develop their new Eco-Gastronomy joint major. Other master alums, Canadian Don Genova and Italian Carlo Baggi, have been hired to teach courses in food culture and gastronomy—Don at British Columbia’s University of Victoria and Carlo in the culinary program at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta, Georgia. But viral education isn’t just happening in academic settings. At Murray’s Cheese in New York, Taylor Cocalis runs a program that trains thousands of consumers a year on the sensory qualities of cheeses, olive oils, honey, and beer (among other products). Along the way, instructors slide in a little geography here, a little food politics there. Across the Atlantic, in Wales, former farmer Tom Bean teaches local food traditions through theater programs with the Small World Theatre company, and in Italy’s Le Marche region, U.S. expat Dwight Stanford owns and operates an agriturismo where he teaches guests about local wine varietals and pecorino cheeses. Clearly it’s not only a food studies school in Italy that can inspire learners to teach, nor are these alumni the only six to be inspired. Everyone with a passion for sharing what they know and what they do is part of the trend—whether on listservs, in classrooms, or across a food shop counter. So although “viral education” may not be the loveliest expression, if you consider the potential impact, it paints a pretty nifty picture. Recall the classic Fabergé Organics shampoo commercials (“and she told two friends, and so on, and so on…”), and that’s an awful lot of heads filled up with more than just wheat-germ oil and honey.
Sustainable U. Higher ed heads for a future of better food It takes a long time to turn a big ship, but in the sea of land grant institutions the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture is steering with an ever-quickening pace towards sustainability. Back in 1995 a group of UK professors and private citizens, including Wendell Berry, formed Partners for Family Farms to support small diversified farms. Sail ahead to 2006 when Agriculture Dean Scott Smith and Associate Dean of Research Nancy Cox decided to send three representatives to Terra Madre: academics Mark Williams, associate professor of horticulture, and Bonnie Tanner, retired college administrator, both presented research papers at the event; I attended as a representative of the college’s newly created Food Systems Initiative. The three of us are charter members of Slow Food Bluegrass and passionately committed to local food. Williams championed the establishment of a degree program in Sustainable Agriculture and established a 12-acre certified organic research plot at UK’s Horticulture Research Farm near the Lexington campus. The curriculum includes scientific and philosophical Od tion hendigna feuguero dolorpero etuer sustrud doluptat wis acilit lum dolenisi components of sustainable agriculture as well as handson work growing organic vegetables for an on-campus CSA. In 2007 the students conducted research and harvested more than 230 varieties of produce, fruit, herbs and flowers and experienced all aspects of operating a CSA. The Food Systems Initiative was established to serve as a single point of entry to the College of Agriculture. Through its gateway, producers can tap into a wealth of knowledge from the college’s faculty, researchers, and specialists to support local food production, systems, and value-added products. It also serves as a network hub between the college and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, other colleges and universities, and nongovernmental sustainable agriculture groups and advocates. — By Bob Perry On campus, several College of Agriculture faculty members designed a pilot program that connected UK Food Service with a local vegetable producer and orchard to bring more locally grown food into their system. One result of this is the new all-local KY Proud menu option UK Food Service offers through their catering division. Perry also teaches the Quantity Food Production lab for Nutrition, Dietetics and Hospitality majors. His students operate the Lemon Tree Café and he has begun to incorporate local food into the meals and its importance into his lectures. Williams, Tanner, and Perry have also collaborated on several events with Bluegrass convivium leader Mark Williams, the Brown-Forman chef from Louisville who shares his name and his passion for sustainability with Professor Mark. Just before Terra Madre 2006 they held “Chefs Afield” on the UK Horticulture Research Farm where local Slow Food chefs prepared a meal for over 100 invited guests using produce harvested minutes before preparation. In March 2007 UK sponsored “Growing Kentucky,” a two-day conference focused on local, sustainable food. Speakers included Wendell Berry, Marion Nestle, and Slow Food USA Executive Director Erika Lesser. As Kentucky’s flagship university sails into the future, the crew from the College of Agriculture committed to good, clean, and fair food knows it will take more than just them to support a local sustainable food system. They are charting a course to establish a UK student convivium that will involve young people campuswide from all academic disciplines. After all, the students are what a university is ultimately about and empowering them with the knowledge to, in Wendell Berry’s words, “eat responsibly” is an important life lesson. The snail | spring 2008 13
Page 1: ISSUE SPRING 2008 all the food that
Page 5 and 6: Dear Members, I confess: I like whe
Page 7 and 8: ehavior, and their benefits in term
Page 9 and 10: ut young farmers, chefs, and other
Page 11 and 12: Teaching the Next Generation of Eat
Page 13: Candelario Vazquez grew up in a mig
Page 17 and 18: STORYTELLING Education at Slow Food
Page 19 and 20: CO-Producer The Incredible, Edible,
Page 21 and 22: BOOKS SLOW READS In Defense of Food
Page 23 and 24: Continued from page 7 eat. Advocati
Page 25 and 26: Ivy Chu Antonino Ciaccio & Virginia
Page 28: SLOW FOOD USA 20 Jay Street, No. 31

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