The Slow Food movement in America suffers from the same drawback that much of the “eco” or “green” movement in general suffers from: the focus is far more defined by what you can buy than what you can do.

And therein lies the rub — the whole concept of “Slow” seems to have been lost within the locally grown, organic haystack. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support buying locally grown and produced foods, and buying organic, when it is practical. But what do those have to do with “slow”?  

As I understand it, the “Slow” in the slow food movement should be about getting us out of the fast food rut and get us cooking and entertaining at home again. It’s centered on the idea that meals are not just for face stuffing, but are events for catching up with family and friends. Meals aren’t something we do before or after going to the movies or a game or sitting in front of the TV; meals are the entertainment.

The focus on locally-grown and organic foods is a spin-off from the idea that we should be cooking our meals from scratch, using fresh ingredients.  It has become the focus of the movement, at least here in the US, when I would argue it is merely one of the tools to slowing down, and not a necessary one.

For families struggling to make ends meet, it might not make sense to buy organic or locally grown items. It certainly does not make sense to burn gas driving around to three or four different markets to maintain your status as a localvore (locovore?).  Imagine in Sacramento, visiting the farmer’s market under the freeway near Southside Park, driving to Whole Foods out in the ‘burbs, then driving to your local Safeway, in order to get what you need for dinner (for me, that is a 20+ mile round trip).  Why be driving when you could be cooking? In one trip to the closest supermarket, you should still be able to buy enough fresh produce, meat, eggs, dairy, and dry goods to cook affordable, healthy meals at home. You should still be able to gather with friends and family without breaking the bank. You might even be able to buy a few organic items.

In true Bobo, or perhaps San Franciscan, fashion, the “Slow Food Nation” event did include discussion of farmworkers’ rights (it isn’t enough to think about where and how your food is grown, but who is picking it) and the Slow Food leaders are sensitive to the yuppification of their movement. But it was a sideshow to what the AP writer described as “another wine and cheese party.”

Finally, while I respect mightily what Alice Waters is doing at Chez Panisse, there’s something a little bit wrong about a restauranteuse being such a central part of a movement focused on getting people to ditch the convenience of eating out.  Even at Chez Panisse, where a meal can last several hours and necessitate lots of conversation, someone else, to whom you never or barely speak, is doing the planning, preparation, and cooking of your meal. It may blast a hole in your wallet (a cannonball sized one), but eating at Chez Panisse is still a convenience, of a sort.

I’m a big fan of the concept of “Slow Food,” but I think its cooptation by the “yuppie” crowds looking for more instructions on what to buy to feel good cheapens what should be a simple and clear message: cook more, with friends, buy healthy foods, and don’t go too far to get what you need.

1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut Butter
4. Ketchup
5. Apples

Milk is easy. Just about every supermarket carries at least one organic milk brand.  At Nugget you can get Horizon or Crystal. At Safeway you can get Horizon or their store-brand organic. It is a little more expensive but if you keep your eye open, there are occassionally sales. As for taste, I haven’t really noticed a difference.  Mainly I notice a taste difference if I buy the gallon plastic jugs versus the half-gallon paper cartons.

I haven’t tried potatoes yet, but it makes sense. They’re a root and like carrots, spinach, or celery (all of which actually taste different if organic) you buy them covered with dirt. If they aren’t organic, who knows what’s in the dirt?

Peanut Butter. So far, organic peanut butter has been a disappointment. I already pay a premium for Adams and to have to pay even more for peanut butter that tastes off, funky, *not good* makes little sense to me. Adams organic was the best of a bad bunch, but I haven’t tried anywhere near all of the brands available. I will endeavor to try again.

Ketchup. We don’t eat very much ketchup. We’ve got half a bottle of Heintz that is probaby left over from last year’s July 4th party.  We also have a bottle of organic agave ketchup that hasn’t even been opened yet.  For us, since we use it so infrequently, it just makes sense to spend a little more for the organic.

Apples. I’ve been eating pesticide-riddled apples for years, and other than this growth on my stomach…oh, sources tell me its a “beer” gut, not an “apple” gut…I’ve got no ill effects. But since I would rather not suddenly find myself staring at a hospital ceiling, I will buy only organic apples from now on. Although frankly, about 80 percent of the apples I’ve purchased in the last year have been organic.  I grab the first apples I see and where I shop, they’re organic.

If you’re strapped for cash, I doubt any of these options makes much sense because in each case you pay a sometimes substantial premium for the organic version. Still, in the grand scheme of things, over the course of a year my wild-ass estimate is that buying only the organic versions of the above, assuming I wasn’t buying any organics already, would be about an extra $300 a year, and that’s mostly because we eat about a pound of apples and a gallon and a half of milk a week (small child, you know).  I could easily save that much just by changing some eating habits. Since I’m already buying organic apples and milk, it’s really about $100 a year.

But I would argue that this list isn’t the best way to start going organic. Most of the time, I tell people if you buy just one organic item in the produce aisle, make it celery. Organic celery will remind you why it is considered an “aromatic” vegetable. It is more pungent and has a stronger flavor. If you use celery in your soups, for example, you will almost certainly tell the difference between the organic and the non-organic.

Second, I recommend spinach. Organic spinach doesn’t have the nice, uniform, big leaves, (unless you buy the pre-packaged crap in the plastic cases) and it’s usually more dirty, but again, better flavor. Spinach is also a leaf. That’s a lot of surface area to catch and soak up pesticides if you aren’t buying organic.

But no matter what you decide to buy, vote with your dollars. Stores feel compelled to stock organics because there’s demand, and if there’s enough demand, there will be competition, and at the risk of sounding like a raging conservative, competition is good for the consumer.

• Shallow: Recycling.
• Deep: Using less crap.
• Shallow: Buying a hybrid.
• Deep: Giving up your car.

I bring this up because of an article I read today on Yahoo! (via CNN Money): “One Way to Handle Gas Prices: Move” The article describes a school teacher who gave up her quaint farmhouse 62 miles from work and rented a place in town.  Granted, the move was motivated by economic, rather than ecological, factors, but it had the added bonus of reducing her “carbon footprint” (to use the cliche of the day) in a somewhat deep manner: she redefined what she needed to live the life she wanted.

If gas were still a buck fity a gallon she never would have made that choice.

I don’t know how big a trend this is — and the article does mention that the people making these choices tend to be renters because its easier to break a lease than sell a home.  Still, if I were in the housing market right now (wait, I am), I’d pay a premium for a home that enabled my wife and I to minimize our commuting and ideally, ensure at least one of us wouldn’t need to drive to work. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Gas prices may even drive people to buy some of the over-priced, underselling properties in the greater-downtown area. I still think they’ll need to lower their prices, but it could happen.

Maybe gas prices will renew interest in super high-density living in Sacramento. And maybe this time they’ll plan to build to a scale more suited to the area.

Drive less

Here comes the discussion we don’t like to read as much.

Carpool
25. Well, if two people are riding in a car, the gas used per person is immediately cut into half. If 4 people are sharing a ride, their individual gas bill becomes only one third. Since they can now use carpool lanes, they won’t have to spend as much time in traffic (idle engines use gas too) and get an even better gas mileage, plus they get home sooner. Its not always feasible though.

Combine Trips
26. Try to combine trips. If you live outside of town, try to go into town only once and get everything you need done.

These options are still too far down on the list, but the fact that they make a list at all, and on a travel site no less, melts the polar ice caps of my heart.

Although a clothesline is ideal, you may live in a space with limited outdoor access or you may be a renter with landlords who might look askance at hanging a line. Our solution? Buy a couple of free-standing drying racks at Ikea. It will take a little longer to dry your clothes because there isn’t as much air circulation. However, while the weather is hot enough to cook eggs, your clothes will dry in just a few hours–even those you’ve folded over on themselves. I put the clothes in this picture out at around 2pm, as the Mercury was approaching 100 degrees. By 5pm they were dry.

Two racks and an octopus (neat invention) will hold a full load of laundry.

Also, if you live in a development where your homeowner covenant or, [insert deity here] forbid, your local government, prohibits clotheslines, this might be a better solution as the racks will be below the fence-line.

We should figure out a way to hang a line (our landlords are pretty laid back), but I’ll admit to being lazy.

And it has no MPG rating because it doesn’t need one.

The car is a little three-wheeled deal covered with various people’s ideas of what it means to be eco-urban. “Kids on bikes” was one (big letters, passenger side).

I only stayed long enough to grab an eco-urban fortune cookie: “Keep it humble. If we’re in this together, we should be able to admit mistakes.” I’d have tried to introduce myself but I couldn’t remember what the LJUrban crew looks like and introverts like me don’t think to ask the people pouring the wine or handing out the chocolates until we’re half way home.

I can’t wait to see this thing driving around midtown.

The true heroes of any movement are not the Al Gores with their PowerPoint presentations or those working to change the behavior of others. The true heroes are those who have so much vision they have changed themselves.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it.
–Wendell Berry (Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front)

10. Aspire to carlessness

Not everyone is going to be able to do it, at least not cold carkey. It will probably entail a shift in thinking and some time, but living carfree might be more within reach than you think. Living closer to work and school is a big part of it. Walking, biking, public transport, car sharing, car borrowing, and teleconferencing are a strong arsenal of tools to help reduce the need for a car. Give it some thought.

For most of us, carlessness is a dream, but choosing to do things without a car doesn’t have to be. I have effectively lived without a car for several months at a time, in one case I had a dead battery and no one ever bothered to complain about my beat up pickup parked in front of their house. In another, my mechanic had my car for a series of two to four week periods. It can be done.

According to the article, by the end of the century:

• There could be up to 100 days of 95 plus degree weather in Sacramento, if industrial and vehicle emissions continue unabated
• 90 percent of the Sierra snow pack could melt
• There could be six times as many heat related deaths in major urban centers
• Power demand could go up 20 percent, but hydo power sources would drop
• There would be significant impact for dairy production and wine production
• And much more

The figures were taken from a new report by the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Action Team. The study is chock full of facts and figures on the environment. It also has an extensive description of measures the state is currently taking, as well as measures the state can take, to reduce climate change emissions.

Global warming is here. The question is not whether but when, how, and how much. The CalEPA study even goes so far as to say, flat out:

It is now evident that even if actions could be taken to immediately curtail climate change emissions, the potency of emissions that have already built up, their long atmospheric lifetimes, and the inertia of the Earth’s climate system could produce as much as 1.1 degree F (0.6 degree C) of additional warming. As a result, some impacts from climate change are now unavoidable.

It isn’t just our leaders who have to change, we do. We have to understand that this so-called “way of life” that lets us consume energy like it’s going out of style, drive Hummers (I’m looking at you, Governor), and enjoy a life filled with plastics, is probably coming to an end. We can either stick our collective heads in the sand (Mr. President), assume it’s someone else’s problem (Mr. Hummer driver), or take responsibility.