Slow Food/Fast Food

Katie ShepherdIndiana University3 December 2007

What do you think of with the phrase Slow Food vs.

Fast Food?

The “Slow Food” Movement

• Slow Food International, founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini

• Supports:– Food that is prepared in an environmentally

friendly way– Food that supports our health– Fair compensation for the labor of food

producers

Slow Food vs. Fast Food

Slow• Locally grown, seasonal, organic• Avoiding wasting oil unnecessarily in the

transport and preparation of foodFast• Convenience items, excessive packaging• Using practices which aren’t environmentally

sustainable

Heirlooms vs. Hybrids

• Heirlooms are varieties of plants that are open-pollinated vs. hybrid varieties which produce only once

• Hybrid plants are hearty and disease resistant, but since they can’t reproduce, seeds need to be re-purchased year to year

• Heirlooms participate in natural selection to achieve plants with best characteristics

• Due to hybridization, we have fewer varieties of plants that are widely grown

Petroleum• 17% of nation’s energy use is spent on

agriculture. This includes:• Running farm equipment• Synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides• Transporting food (Buy Local, Eat Seasonal)• If every household consumed 1 meal per week

that was locally grown, we’d save 1 million barrels of oil weekly

Source: Hopp, S. (2007) Animal Vegetable Miracle,

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Steven%20Excerpt.html

Turkeys!!• 99% of turkeys consumed are the Broad Breasted White, a breed that has been

bred to be unable to fly, mate, or walk when mature

• Won’t live to be >1yoa because they are too obese for their legs to support them

• Sperm must be extracted from live male turkeys to artificially introduce in hens

Turkeys!!

Benefits of Free Range Meat:• Better Cleanliness– when animals aren’t cooped

together in a tight space, waste management and bacterial diseases aren’t as great of concern

• Better Health– confined animals are stressed and given antibiotics to defend against disease; however many bacteria become disease resistant

Economics & NutritionFAST: Stouffers Roasted chicken Breast w/ green beans Mashed Potatoes, and gravy

• 390 Calories• 13 g Fat• 3.5 g Sat. Fat• 21 g Protein• 1290 mg Sodium

$4.05 per serving

SLOW: Roasted Free Range chicken breast w/out skin green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy

• 420 Calories• 9 g Fat• 3 g Sat. Fat• 22 g Protein• 675 mg Sodium

$3.35 per serving

Slow Food way of thinking…

As dietetics students, we all think about “eating healthfully.” Let’s try to expand on that:

• Eat seasonally! (use farmers markets and avoid buying out of season foods that used a lot of energy to get to us)

• Consider learning more about where your food comes from and the methods and products that were used in creating it

For more information:

• Visit Slow Food International www.slowfood.com

• Some reading:Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

By: Barbara KingsolverSlow Food: The Case for Taste

By: Carlo Petrini