Local and Slow Food

See also: Farmers' Markets and Vegetarian Choices.

The premise of the local food (locavore) movement is that eating supermarket food that is shipped in from 3,000 miles away is wasting energy resources, bankrupting local farmers, enriching large corporations and resulting in food where flavor is being replaced by chemicals and hormones.

The Slow Food movement, begun in Italy in the 1980s, seeks to preserve traditional foods, recipes, and cooking methods, which generally take some time, as opposed to "Fast Food". The pleasure of long meals is also emphasized.

Selected Books

Goodall, Jane, 1934-
Harvest for Hope: a Guide to Mindful Eating
Goodall, famous for her studies of primates, turns her attention to the food (and supermarket) chain.
TX631.G66 2005

Kingsolver, Barbara
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from Tucson, Arizona to rural Virginia and vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Amusing and informative with a website for downloading recipes. It is also available for downloading as an eBook.
S521.5.A67 K56 2007

Lappé, Anna and Bryant Terry
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
The authors suggest that people commit more time to cooking and eating and use local resources like co-ops and farmers markets.
TX369.L37 2005

Lappé, Frances Moore and Anna Lappé
Hope's Edge: the Next Diet for a Small Planet
The Lappés address the problems of globalization and industrialization of agriculture, advocating a plant-based diet.
TX392.L28 2002

Nabhan, Gary Paul
Coming Home to Eat: the Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Nabhan, an ethnobotanist, explores Native American plant foods and cuisine in his home state of Arizona.
TX631.N33 2002

Petrini, Carlo
Slow Food: the Case for Taste
Written by the movement's founder, this small volume describes the history and goals of the slow food movement, which seeks to preserve traditional foods, recipes, and cooking methods.
TX631.P474 2003

Petrini, Carlo
Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture for Eating and Living
Tells how the powerful international coalition against "fast" food came about from its roots in Italy in the 1980s.
TX631.P473813 2006

Planck, Nina
Real Food: What to Eat and Why
Real Food reveals why traditional foods are not only delicious - everyone knows that butter tastes better - but are actually good for you, making the nutritional case for egg, cream, butter, grass-fed beef, roast chicken with the skin, lard, cocoa butter, and more. Check out http://www.realfood.info/ as well.
TX360.U6 P63 2006

Pollan, Michael
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." In other words, eat unprocessed, unadulterated foods and not manufactured food-like substances.
RA784.P643 2008

Pollan, Michael
The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals
This award winning ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of consumers to protect their health and the environment.
GT2850.P65 2006

Stein, Stu
The Sustainable Kitchen: Passionate Cooking Inspired by Farms, Forests and Oceans
Written by owners of the Peerless Restaurant in Oregon's Rogue Valley, this book is designed for people who want to make food choices that promote the economic, environmental and social health of their communities. The Sustainable Kitchen offers fine cuisine made from the best seasonal ingredients grown locally in the Pacific Northwest.
TX741.S745 2004x

Weinstein, Jay
The Ethical Gourmet
A handbook for finding and cooking environmentally friendly and ethically produced foods that are delicious.
TX741.W43 2006

Web Sites

• eat local challenge
  EatLocalChallenge.com is a group blog written by authors who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced in their local foodshed.
• Food Routes
  Where does YOUR food come from?
• Local Harvest
  The freshest, healthiest, most flavorful organic food is what's grown closest to you.

• Slow Food
  The Slow Food movement, started in Europe, is characterized by local rootedness and decentralization of production. The emphasis is on traditional artesanal ways of food production.
• Sustainable Table
  Sustainable Table is a consumer campaign developed by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) to educate the consumer about the Sustainable Food movement.

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Pittsburgh Region

• Farmers' Market Alliance of Western Pennsylvania
  Resources for the farmer and the consumer
  More Farmers' Markets...
• Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA)
  • BuyLocalPA.org
    A directory of Pennsylvania family farms, farmers' markets Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSA's), u-pick farms, restaurants, grocers, caterers and bakers, bed & breakfasts, and other businesses that sell locally grown farm products.
• Pittsburgh Magazine: Where to Buy Local
  The May 2007 feature was "Get Fresh, Buy Local". Here are some farms and stores where you can do just that.
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The modern food message is eat local
  In this August 02, 2007, article, Marlene Parrish, after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, Fast Food Nation, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, challenges herself (and you) to "eat locally grown and locally produced food." She gives you the resources to do so.
  • Marlene Parrish's Eat Local Blog
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Cravings: Buying local brings just-picked produce to your table
  In this article from June 29, 2006, Amy McConnell Schaarsmith talks about the local food scene in Pittsburgh and the farmers who provide it.
• Slow Food Pittsburgh
  This is the local chapter of the world movement to slow down and eat locally and carefully produced food. Check out the local events.