Slow Food gets the recipe just right with its eco-conscious initiatives

29 March 2017 - 16:00 By Andrea Burgener
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World Disco Soup Day on April 29 is a global Slow Food initiative that aims to promote awareness about food waste. The idea is to turn leftover ingredients that would otherwise go to waste into tasty soups and give them away for free.
World Disco Soup Day on April 29 is a global Slow Food initiative that aims to promote awareness about food waste. The idea is to turn leftover ingredients that would otherwise go to waste into tasty soups and give them away for free.
Image: iStock

Slow Food Johannesburg's initiatives always manage to combine worthiness with deliciousness, writes Andrea Burgener

The real reasons to support local or indigenous food produce are often lost in the morass of catch phrases, trend-following and slick marketing.

Do we really know why we're choosing a certain local product over an imported one?

There are many locally grown foods, for example, which may have higher carbon emissions than an imported equivalent, if the local version is industrially farmed using pesticides and fossil fuel-based fertiliser and the imported is true small-scale organic or is grown where high rainfall means far less irrigation is needed.

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Joburgers might choose a local product over its imported "equivalent", not realising that the first comes from Cape Town, and the latter from Botswana or Swaziland, so the "local" has travelled much further than the imported.

There are extremely good - even vital - reasons for supporting local produce, but the issue is more complex than we imagine.

Slow Food is one organisation that's always understood this complexity, and that an issue like "local" counts for little if issues such as sustainable farming methods, education and taking pleasure in good food aren't part of the deal.

Carlo Petrini started the movement in Italy in the late 1980s, following a demonstration against the opening of a McDonald's near Rome's Spanish steps.

The Johannesburg chapter of Slow Food has been around since 2001, and regularly holds events showcasing local, seasonal, naturally farmed food with the emphasis on protecting biodiversity.

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This Saturday just past, Slow Food Johannesburg held the Serengeti Eat-in, featuring Nguni beef. High-profile Gauteng chefs used different parts of an Nguni cow supplied by award-winning farmer Victoria Dzowa from Magaliesburg.

Here's an example of supporting local for very compelling reasons. Not only does the Nguni have huge cultural value, but the really big thing food-wise (apart from its deliciousness), is how much better suited it is to our environment than European breeds brought in later.

The Nguni people and their livestock have been in southern Africa since between 590 and 700AD, when they migrated from north, central and east Africa. Having endured periodic droughts, the survivors are tough and a truly sustainable food source.

The Nguni day (which included a huge food and drinks market) was a fundraiser for Slow Food's Farmer's School 10,000 food gardens project. Slow Food Johannesburg's initiatives always manage to combine worthiness with deliciousness, and deserve support.

If you'd like to join forces, go to slowfood.co.za and make a donation, become a member, or both. While there, read about how to be part of Slow Food's first Disco Soup Day on April 29, which raises awareness about food waste. Start your own Disco Soup event and share it on social media.

This article was originally published in The Times.

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