Is a New Food Policy on Obama’s List?

An excellent article on the New York Times discussing the possibilities for changing the way America eats:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/dining/24food.html?pagewanted=all

Slow Food Jewish Food & Music 2008 Video

Video of the wonderful Slow Food Jewish Food & Music 2008 is finally online here :

Snail Pace

Number 21 of the Slow Food newsletter for New Zealand and Australia, Snail Pace, arrived in the post today. Lots of interest to read, I'm sure, but with thin type that has close line spacing and pages of white letters on a faded orange background I'm going to have find someone with better eyes to read it to me — any offers?

Also noticeable is that not one of the dozen or so articles discusses what's happening in New Zealand. This is a serious omission.

Your thoughts, convivium members?

Transition Towns in Wellington

The international Transition Towns movement is gaining momentum in New Zealand.

Here in the Wellington region we already have active groups in groups in Brooklyn, Hataitai, Johnsonville, Karori, Lower Hutt, Ngaio, Upper Hutt, Wadestown, Aro Valley and Wellington South.

The Transition Towns movement shares with Slow Food an overarching concern for local communities and their environments - and many in the movement are placing importance on traditional food production methods.

The most recent issue of Slow Food's Snail's Pace focuses on urban agriculture, and contains an article about permablitzes. Permaculture principles heavily inform the Transition Towns movement - and so you'll currently find many Transition Towns groups - including those in Wellington - at different stages of planning or carrying out permablitzes.

To find out more about Transition Towns in Wellington and its upcoming events, see the New Zealand Transition Towns website.

Fructivism!

British activist George Monbiot again ... this time on growing your own fruit and the ills of modern varieties designed for supermarkets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/02/food.foodanddrink

Jewish Festival tickets all sold now, sorry!

Buy your tickets for The Festival of Jewish Food and Music by emailing events@aotearoaslowfood.org with the subject Jewish Food and Music Festival Tickets advising how many tickets you would like and your postal address. We will then reply confirming availability with bank details for online deposit.
More details here.

'Cooking with Simply Good Food'

Here are the details for the Simply Good Food CSA's next Farm Day:

'Cooking with Simply Good Food'
Saturday 23 August @ 11am-5pm

Start and Finish at the Featherston Railway Station.

Come and learn some tricks of the trade from Simply Good Food chefs Kelby and Roddy.

RSVP to info@simplygoodfood.co.nz

For more info about the CSA, see their website.