Sunday, December 23

Renewing America's Food Traditions

I was a foodie long before I was a gardener. Perhaps my Italian-Croatian heritage, a personal passion for food and being surrounded by great cooks and homegrown produce my whole life made it inevitable. At my 40th birthday party, my sister Patty presented me with a long-lost and forgotten recipe that I developed and penned (actually penciled) at the very innocent age of seven. The spelling was a bit off, but how can you go wrong with instant chocolate and vanilla pudding mixes, vermouth (told you I was a foodie -- fortunately I never developed a tendency toward excessive consumption) and fruit cocktail.

My interest in food got sidelined from time to time. The family business of produce and grain farming with my father and floral design with my mother took precedence, but I eventually completed the culinary arts program at Joliet Junior College and worked as executive/working chef for The Heartland Health Spa in Gilman during my 20s. After years behind a stove, I chose to return to my gardening and agricultural roots. My belief in the importance of a local food system motivated me to become one of the founding members of the popular downtown Kankakee Farmers' Market in the summer of 1998. Shortly after, my love for simple, wonderful flavors and gardening married beautifully when I discovered the organizations Slow Food and Chefs Collaborative.

Slow Food USA's mission of "a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability and social justice..." together with Chefs Collaborative's mission to work "with chefs and the greater food community to celebrate local foods and foster a more sustainable food supply... embrace seasonality, preserve diversity and traditional practices, and support local economies" embodied all of my food and farming beliefs. In the fall of 2005, I received a letter describing the cooperative effort of Slow Food USA, Chefs Collaborative, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, The Cultural Conservancy, Native Seed/SEARCH and Seed Savers Exchange seeking to put the seeds and plants of some of North America's endangered foods into the hands of growers around the country. This project is called Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT).

RAFT was founded by Dr. Gary Nabhan, a writer, lecturer and acclaimed conservation scientist. Dr. Nabhan also founded Native Seeds/SEARCH -- an organization credited with conserving and renovating native plant agriculture in the Americas. In addition, he is a senior research associate with the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. Slow Food USA is the primary organizer of the project.

The Slow Food movement began in Italy in 1986 when founder Carlo Petrini urged consumers to recognize that the industrialization of food was standardizing taste and leading to the annihilation of thousands of food varieties and flavors. The beauty of Slow Food is that it provides a welcome home for the food lover, the health seeker and the environmentalist.

The six other partnering organizations each have a different role in the project: Chefs Collaborative encourages member chefs to work with farmers who are growing or raising RAFT foods and is developing and collecting RAFT recipes. Native Seed/SEARCH and Seed Savers Exchange provide seeds and plant stock. The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) has been focusing on documenting the stories of native food producers and food stewards -- Native American individuals who are actively working to maintain, protect, renew and revitalize indigenous foods and food traditions. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) provides networking and educational assistance to farmers raising traditional ("heritage") breeds that were, until recently, on the very brink of extinction. The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University has done the primary data analysis, documentation and facilitation for the campaign.

Together these organizations are working to fulfill the six initiatives of RAFT:

Document America's Endangered Foods
RAFT partners working in four regions -- the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the Gulf South, and the Rocky Mountains -- bring together 16-20 leading local farmers, chefs, ethnographers, agricultural historians, ethnobiologists, ranchers, nurserymen and conservation activists. The regional publications that result from these meetings do not stop with a mere listing of threatened foods. They tell readers their stories, their threats, and where seeds, nursery stock, or seafood and livestock hatchlings can be purchased to aid in their recovery.

Recovering Breed Genetics
Modern food production favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds selected for maximum output in a controlled environment. As a result, many regionally adapted livestock breeds have lost popularity and are threatened with extinction. These traditional breeds are an essential part of the USA's agricultural inheritance. The need for livestock conservation is urgent. The RAFT project has enabled the ALBC to document endangered breeds with the most commercial potential and begin working with their producers.

Hosting a Native Foods "Ark of Taste" Summit
RAFT and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) assembled a small cross-section of leaders in the U.S. native foods movement. Retreat participants included farmers, ranchers, gatherers, historians, chefs and community activists who came together to share strategies used by native communities to safeguard native seeds and foster sustainable production of native foods on tribal lands. Discussions also focused on marketing and sourcing native foods within native communities and the challenges and benefits of working with non-native as well as native retailers, chefs, activists, eaters and non-profits. To complement the retreat, RAFT and IAIA hosted a public Native Foods Celebration, which highlighted diverse native foods and cooking demonstrations.

Sponsoring Sustainable Food Production Workshops with Farmers
The RAFT project brings food producers together to review and establish production standards for select RAFT foods. Protocols developed during these RAFT workshops are then introduced to mixed audiences of producers, retailers, and consumers during successive clinics designed for feedback and development of implementation strategies.

Organizing an Endangered Food Grow Out
Building on the successes of seed banks such as Seed Savers Exchange and Native Seed/SEARCH, which have prevented the extinction of thousands of heirloom fruit and vegetable varieties, the RAFT project piloted a national endangered food restoration project. Seeds of more than 20 endangered foods were sent to over 500 specialty growers around the U.S. In turn, farmers will provide RAFT partners with data on growing habits.

Hosting Endangered Foods Picnics
Beginning in August 2007, local Slow Food groups (called Convivia) and Chefs Collaborative members in five cities partnered to produce an "American Heritage Picnic" featuring endangered American fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry identified by the RAFT partnership and grown by local farmers. These picnics introduced Slow Food and Chefs Collaborative members to each other and to foods in need of recovery. By celebrating existing local foods and food traditions, these picnics contribute to the building of food communities that will ultimately sustain each region's agricultural biodiversity.

In the spring of 2006, I received my first shipment of seeds and plants, which included an overwhelming amount of pole beans. I grew them on sweet corn to support the vines. In 2007, I received another dozen or so different varieties to grow, making the harvest available to chefs and the general public and saving seeds to ensure their survival for generations to come. Now, with such a number and diversity of varieties, the challenge I face is growing and preserving their genetic identity from year to year. Through the Tony & Rose Panozzo Center for Food and Agriculture, I hope to partner with other local growers and enthusiasts to help renew and preserve America's food traditions.

After completing culinary arts training at Joliet Junior College and working as executive chef at the Heartland Health Spa in Gilman, Alex Panozzo returned to his roots on the family vegetable farm in Limestone. He is active with the Kankakee Farmers' Market, the local agri-tourism industry and the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Program.