Slow Food, Italian style

An eat-local challenge participant, Jill Martus-Ninham, is among an Oneida delegation in Turin, Italy this week for Terra Madre, an international conference sponsored by Slow Food.

She said in an e-mail she’s still eating local, Italian food, that is.

“At this conference and in Italy it is a daily routine to eat local! There is no challenge since it is a way of life here. We are learning a lot, eating a lot and sharing a lot,” said Martus-Ninham, who is project director at Oneida’s Tsyunhehkwa center.

More than 5,000 small farmers and foodmakers from 130 countries are in Turin. About 500 Americans were invited as delegates and observers.

She attended a session on genetically-modified organisms learning how to protect heirloom native white corn from contamination and cross-pollination.

Slow Food seeks to deindustrialize food production by saving heirloom fruits, vegetables and animals, keeping small farmers in business, and returning farming to sound environmental ground. Slow Food has 80,000 members in 50 countries, including 12,000 in the United States.

Slow Food USA is planning a gathering of regional artisanal food producers in San Francisco in May 2008. (http://www.slowfoodusa.org)