Ark of Taste — Saving Our Local Food Heritage, One Food at a Time with Slow Food Jennifer Casey, [email protected] Barb Heinen, [email protected]

Ark of Taste — Saving Our Local Food Heritage, One Food at a Time with Slow Food Jennifer Casey, Jcasey@Slowfoodwise.Org Barb Heinen, Bheinen@Slowfoodwise.Org

ARK OF TASTE — SAVING OUR LOCAL FOOD HERITAGE, ONE FOOD AT A TIME WITH SLOW FOOD JENNIFER CASEY, [email protected] BARB HEINEN, [email protected]

Overview….

 Food biodiversity

 Local food heritage

 Slow Food’s Ark of Taste (AOT)

 How to get involved in the AOT to protect and restore our local food heritage—e.g., to seek out, enjoy, grow, cook with, and to identify and submit products to be boarded onto the AOT

Food Biodiversity

 Food biodiversity = variation of life forms within the food system.  Essential for good nutrition  Essential global food security Food Biodiversity

Today over 95% of traditionally eaten plant and animal foods have disappeared in the USA—75% lost globally. 300,000 extinct vegetable varieties alone…in the last century. -FAO

LOST

REMAIN 60% FOODS World’s Food— Wheat, Rice, Corn Food Biodiversity

 Why losses?  Industrialized food system (monocrops)  Land use changes  Pollution  Climate change  Overharvesting (fishing)

Food Biodiversity

“Biodiversity underpins to food security, sustainable livelihoods, ecosystem resilience, coping strategies for climate change, adequate nutritional requirements, insurance for the future….” -Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, FAO http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/biodiversity_paia/PAR-FAO- book_lr.pdf

Slow Food….

…protects food biodiversity.

What is Slow Food?

 Slow Food is a way of eating and living. It is also….

 …a global, grassroots organization with over100,000 members in over 150 countries, which links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.

--www.slowfood.com History of Slow Food

Founder—Carlo Petrini

Slow Food Founded 1989

Slow Food USA in 2000

Vision

We envision a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet. -slowfood.com

Good, Clean and Fair

 GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;

 The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity.

 CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;

 Nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity.

 FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers.

 Food is a universal right. Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor. Source: slowfood.com & slowfoodusa.org

What does Slow Food do?

 Slow Food defends biodiversity in our food supply, promotes food and taste education and connects sustainable producers to co- producers through events and building networks.

Source: slowfood.com

Slow Food: Internationally

 Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity

 Ark of Taste & Presidia

 Terra Madre

 Salone del Gusto

 Slow Fish & Slow Cheese

 University of Gastronomic Sciences

 1000 Gardens in Africa

 Earth Markets

Slow Food USA Domestic Programs

 US Ark of Taste

 US Presidia

 American Raw Milk Cheese, Cape May Salt Oyster, Makah Ozette Potato, Navajo- Churro Sheep, Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple, Wild Rice - Anishinaabeg Manoomin

 Slow Food on Campus

 US Terra Madre Network

 Children and Food

 Regional Biodiversity

Slow Food WiSE: Local Programs

 Regional Biodiversity: Milwaukee Apple Project, Ark of Taste Grow Out, Beaver Dam Pepper Celebration

 Food & Taste Education: Farm Tours, Slow Soup, Slow Socials, Tabling, Cooking Classes, Community Cooks, School Gardens

 Networks: SE WI Farm Fresh Atlas, Milwaukee Food Council, Eat Local MKE

Ark of Taste-saving cherished foods, one product at a time

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/ark

Find Ark Products All Over the World!!!  More than 1000 Ark Of Taste

The Ark of Taste in the US is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.

“Eat it to Save it.” –Poppy Tooker http://www.slowfoodusa.org/files/files/ark-of- taste-nomination-form2.pdf

Ark of Taste

Local Examples (Upper Midwest) National Examples

 Beaver Dam Pepper (SFW  Amish Deer Tongue lettuce (SFW Grow Out) Grow Out)  Fish pepper  Amish Paste Tomato (SFW Grow Out)  Sheepnose pimiento (SFW Grow Out)  Sheboygan Tomato  Aunt Molly’s Husk Tomato (SFW  Red Wattle Pig (@ Bolzano’s, Grow Out) Bavette)  Hidatsa Shield Figure bean  Shagbark Hickory Nuts  Cape May Salt Oyster  Bourbon Red Turkey  Manoomin  Reef Net Salmon Fishing  American Plains Bison  Miriliton

 Shrub, American Rye

Ark Of Taste

 SFW Grow Out:  6-packs for home gardeners  Beaver Dam Pepper  Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry  Jimmey Nardellos Sweet Italian Frying Pepper  Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato  Amish Paste Tomato  Djena Lees Golden Girl Tomato  AOT Harvest Celebration/September  Local Farm Grow Outs>Supply Restaurants  Ark highlighted at SFW events

Ark Of Taste

Milwaukee Apple Good example of a local candidate for the Ark of Taste Led to MKE Apple Project Ark Of Taste

 Milwaukee Apple Project  Partnering with orchardists, chefs, conservationists, food activists and eaters alike to bring antique apples back to our tables  Community grow-outs  Promotion of local orchards carrying antique apples, and the chefs & producers featuring them  Building the Milwaukee Apple orchard - a permanent public interactive space for enjoying and learning about biodiversity.  Celebrating & education via tastings and MKE Apple Fest Ark of Taste

Carlo Petrini to Slow Food Network: “…Reinvigorate the catalog of all at-risk local products, varieties and native breeds until we reach 10,000 products.”

Because, even with > 1000 products on the Ark of Taste, plant species, breeds, traditional foods remain at risk—1 disappears every 3 hours. Ark of Taste

Q: How can you help? ______A1: Seek out and enjoy AOT foods! A2: Help us find local products to nominate to the Ark!

Ark of Taste

 Anyone can nominate!

 Start by talking to local farmers, chefs, gardeners, canners, wildcrafters, producers, food experts in our region…

 Ark selects a product, not individual producers

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste Ark of Taste

 Taste

 Product History

 Endangered, At Risk, or Underappreciated

 Sustainable Harvest or Production

 Available in Limited Quantities

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste Ark of Taste: Criteria

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste Ark of Taste

 Completed nomination form goes to Regional Midwest Ark Committee, Slow Food USA, and International Ark Commission. SFW will help!

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste :get involved

 Biodiversity Volunteer Opportunities:  Ark of Taste “detective”  MKE Apple Tree Corps  Ark Grow Out  Events—Ark of Taste Celebration, MKE Apple Fest

 SFWiSE Contact: [email protected]  SF Midwest Regional Contact: [email protected]  SFUSA Contact: [email protected]

For more about SFW and all of our leaders: www.slowfoodwise.org