Slow Food O'ahu News

Number 2015-02
Mailed February 2, 2015

Table of Contents

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting + Talk "Update on Hawai'i Organic Agriculture" - February 15 - (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Celebrate Chinese New Year - February 22 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Slow Food Celebrates 25 Years - An Article

Urban Foraging Adventure: A Report from the Field - An Audio Story

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting and Potluck
+ Talk "Update on Hawai'i Organic Agriculture"
Sunday, February 15, 2015 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

3989 Diamond Head Road

What better way to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of the slow food movement (see article below) than to come to the Annual Meeting of Slow Food O'ahu? Our Annual Meeting and Potluck Lunch is set for February 15, 2015.

Please mark your calendars. Please note that we have changed the date (previously announced as February 1, 2015) due to a conflict with the SuperBowl. Our location is now in the Diamond Head area.

In addition to the business portion of the meeting, we will have a presentation on the state of organic farming and agriculture in Hawai'i. Our featured speaker at the meeting will be Dr. Ted Radovich, Associate Specialist at the Sustainable and Organic Farming Systems Laboratory of the CTAHR Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The laboratory focuses on the ecology, yield and quality of food crops, with a special emphasis on the links between pre-harvest management practices and crop quality.Dr. Radovich specializes in ecology, yield and quality of food crops. His research program is focused on understanding how crop yield and quality can be optimized in agricultural systems that reduce reliance on conventional chemical inputs and increase use of ecological farming practices.

Our Board has been working diligently during the year and would like to develop the capacity of the organization by expanding the membership and creating working committees that are able to focus on events, advocacy, our Snail of Approval program with restaurants, etc. We have started by formalizing bylaws that we plan to present to the members at the Annual Meeting. If you are interested in previewing the bylaws, you may find a copy here.

Among the important changes is to expand the size of our Board, while also creating a smaller Executive Committee. We hope that a larger Board will allow more folks to participate in a select activity via a committee such as planning events, contacting restaurants for our Snail of Approval, coordinating advocacy efforts with other organizations, writing the newsletter, promoting Terra Madre and other related Slow Food USA events, updating information that we have on the web site, etc. without necessarily having to worry about the administrative aspects of the Board.

In the business portion of the meeting, we will be approving the bylaws. Once the bylaws are approved, we will also be voting to elect our Board members.

Of course, no Slow Food O'ahu Annual meeting would be complete without a potluck. After our business meeting and presentation by Dr. Radovich, we will share in the great local food that defines a Slow Food O'ahu event. Please bring your dish to share. As with all Slow Food events, please bring your own eating utensils and cutlery and BYOB.

The location of this year's Annual meeting is 3989 Diamond Head Road, near the intersection of 22nd Ave and Diamond Head Road in Kahala. We will be using meeting space of The Arc in Hawaii. Parking is plentiful. It's easy to Google maps and find. The Annual Meeting is free but please register so that we have an accurate count of attendees. Please sign up at bit.ly/sfoevents.

Celebrate Chinese New Years - Slow Food Chinatown Tour and Lunch
February 22, 2015 from 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Slow Food O'ahu has created a walking tour that will help the visitor learn about the traditions and foods of the many ethnic groups that have made Chinatown home. February's tour will be particularly special as we celebrate Chinese New Years.

The history, cultures, and ethnic foods of this vibrant community are the focus of the tour. In keeping with the international Slow Food movement value of appreciation for cultural diversity, we have created the tour with these principles in mind: recognizing food as a language that expresses cultural diversity preserving the myriad traditions of the table cultivating and reinvigorating a sense of community and place. We will visit temples and historic sites.

This is, of course, a FOOD tour, held in the context of a vibrant cultural context in the most celebrated holiday of the year in Chinese culture. You will explore open markets where local residents purchase fresh produce, seafood, and traditional foods. Visit ethnic bakeries, a noodle factory, and specialty shops. Sample various typical foods and tropical fruit. At the end of the tour, you will share food over lunch at a restaurant in Chinatown.

The cost is $50 for members; $60 for non-members. Please sign up at bit.ly/sfoevents. All Slow Food O'ahu events are listed.

Slow Food Celebrates 25 Years

This year marks a milestone for the "slow food movement" as it celebrates its 25 years anniversary. An article in Edible Hawaiian Islands marks a conversation at a recent meeting of Alice Waters and Carlo Petrini. An excerpt from writer Tove Danovich is below (photo of Alice Waters and Carlo Petrini):

"Though in the last decade we've witnessed local eating become

trendy and urban farming a viable business model, the situation in the United States at the time of Slow Food's founding was a bit of a culinary wasteland. There's a good chance your neighborhood farmers' market didn't exist. Agricultural biodiversity had nothing to do with heirloom or traditional foods; it was the choice between red, green and yellow apples. It took the combination of many voices to get us to today's culinary landscape, and Alice Waters and Carlo Petrini were among the first to lead us there. Petrini planted the seeds of what would become the international Slow Food movement when he protested a McDonald's opening on the Spanish Steps in Rome. For Waters, it was taste and a trip to France that led her to a lifetime of championing fresh, local foods...And largely thanks to Petrini and Waters' leadership, change has happened, is happening, and will continue to move forward for another 25 years and beyond."

For a copy of the article, go to http://ediblehi.com/celebrating-25-years-slow-food/
For a recording of the interview, go to heritageradio.org.

Mahalo to Dania N. Katz, Publisher, Edible Hawaiian Islands, for providing us with information on this article.

Urban Foraging: On the Hunt in Honolulu - A Report from the Field

Mahalo to Nat Blett

er for leading a fabulous urban foraging adventure for Slow Food O'ahu in urban Honolulu for 30 enthusiasts in January. How much more "local" can one be by foraging for food in your own backyard? A movement to make better use of food resources already growing in our cities is taking root in the islands. It's called urban foraging. The goal is to bring more wild foods back into our diet. Hawaii Pubic Radio's (HPR) Molly Solomon joined the hunt and has this report from the streets of Honolulu.

Listen to Molly's 3+ minute audio of our Slow Food adventure on the HPR website, along with a few photos of the exciting day... http://hpr2.org/post/urban-foraging-hunt-honolulu

Slow Food Leadership

Slow Food O'ahu Officers: Mae Isonaga and Rike Weiss, Co-leaders; David Bangert, Treasurer; Francine Wai, Newsletter Editor; Nina Bermudez, Membership and E-mail correspondent; Tom Sheeran, Slow Food Chinatown Tour Coordinator.

Slow Food Regional Governor: Laurie Carlson

Facebook manager: Brilana Silva

Slow Food Membership

Membership to Slow Food USA (and our Slow Food O'ahu convivium) is only $25 with the base membership. To join, go to the http://donate.slowfoodusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Member_Benefits

Quick Links

Slow Food O'ahu Convivium website

Slow Food Hawai'i Convivium website

Slow Food Maui Convivium website

Slow Food USA website

Slow Food International website

Contact reservations.sfoahu@yahoo.com for information on our events.
Contact slowfoodoahu@yahoo.com for general information

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