New Year Promises

I was considering what to write to kick off 2011 and thought I should revisit why I joined Slow Food a few years back.

There was a Slow Food conference set up by Alasdair Crosby at Haute Vallee School. I was intrigued by the range of information offered there and decided to Google everything I'd made notes about. That led me to Michael Pollan.

If you ever need a single source of inspiration to realise the situation we find ourselves in when it comes to understanding food then Michael Pollan is your man. He is currently compiling a new book of homespun wisdom provided by readers to a New York Times article.

His book "In Defence of Food" provided me with the simple idea of "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much." His twenty rules are sound examples of good advice. One of the best was"don't eat food your grandmother wouldn't recognise."

His investigations in to our eating habits and the science behind the food constructed for us really opened my eyes to what lies we are being pedalled and how much junk food surrounds the needs we have created. The choices of what we eat and how we cook it are ours.

Jersey has some of the best produce in the world promoted by some of the best chefs. Cultivate in the fields or found in the cold waters surrounding us. Reducing the distance from field to plate provides not just the freshest and nutritionally sound food available food but ensures we keep local producers employed. So by applying the common sense principle of buying local we realise the ambitions of both Slow Food and Fair Trade in one simple act.

Our small but growing band of Jersey Slow Food enthusiasts are trying to spread the message of "Good, clean and fair" and get as many people interested in promoting and eating good food. Cooking and eating are implicitly on our agenda for this year and we hope to see you at as many events as you can get along to.

We are also open to any suggestions for the kind of events you would like to see as this convivium is driven by its members. We would love to hear from you.

As for my New Year resolutions - eat as little processed food and adopt the simple idea of "eating less and moving more"... Happy New Year.

Michael Pollan's Food Rules

For those seeking sound advice about buying and eating food you need look no further than that listed below. Michael Pollan has been a keen advocate of the virtues extolled by Slow Food but his own advice adds so much more. His shortened version is - Eat Food, Mostly Vegetables, Not Too Much.



12 Short Food Rules, From Michael Pollan:

1. Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid foods containing ingredients you can’t pronounce.
3. Don’t eat anything that wouldn’t eventually rot.
4. Avoid food products that carry health claims.
5. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
6. Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmer’s market.
7. Pay more, eat less.
8. Eat a wide diversity of species.
9. Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10. Cook and, if you can, grow some of your own food.
11. Eat meals and eat them only at tables.
12. Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

At the recent Conference in London Carlo Petrini founder of Slow Food suggested we should reunite our selves with the notion of eating with both"Love and Pleasure." I couldn't agree more.

Rod.