This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food USA
The critical turning point relates to the “Renewing America’s Food Traditions- RAFT” project, launched and led by Slow Food USA in 2003. This project aimed to preserve North-American food biodiversity by compiling a comprehensive catalog of America's indigenous food varieties at risk of extinction and selecting a sample of those varieties to be restored and revitalized.
Besides, the RAFT project involves an alliance of actors, such as sustainable agriculture experts and environmental and food advocates, dedicated to documenting, celebrating, and safeguarding North American living cultures and regional cuisines, while supporting traditional communities and local economies (Nabhan, Walker & Moreno, 2010 [1]).
The RAFT project is considered a critical turning pointing in the history of Slow Food USA for several reasons. First, it was a successful collaborative experience between Slow Food USA -formally started in 2000- and a number of NGOs and research centers. Through this project, Slow Food was able to raise external funds for its biodiversity projects, as well as engaged new associates and increased the acknowledgment of the movement.
The critical turning point was that we managed to form partnerships with these different groups and raise money to expand the work of the Ark of Taste in Noth America. It enables publications, it was big research on endangered food. It was something to look up what was missing in our country, the United States
Besides, as a result of this project, Slow Food USA broadened and nationalized its biodiversity programs and created new staff positions related to this project. The RAFT project resulted very attractive for a variety of actors because they "didn´t want to preserve foods as museum pieces or only conserve the genetic diversity of food supply. They want to get these foods back onto farms, back into the marketplace and back onto people’s tables" (Source: Ben Watson, former Slow Food USA’s biodiversity committee chairman[2]).
The idea to catalog heirloom varieties and track the success of the foods it was very attractive. The project included getting the seeds to growers who provided restaurants and farmers’ markets. The idea of growers participating in the project brings attention to the foods and to preserve the seeds. They learn about the varieties that grow best in their regions. It was a 6 year- partnership for which they got the funding
Finally, due to the positive results of this project, Slow Food USA and its allies were able to increase the wider public awareness on the extinction of cultivated foods, by reintroducing these varied species to larger audiences. The project helped to restore regional foodsheds and strengthened healthy local economies. For example, RAFT launched the “American Traditions Picnics” as the most pleasurable and effective way to engage people in biodiversity conservation, “connecting the stories, flavors, fragrances and textures of these foods to larger audiences”.
REFERENCES
[1] Nabhan, G. P., Walker, D., & Moreno, A. M. (2010). Biocultural and ecogastronomic restoration: The renewing America’s food traditions alliance. Ecological Restoration, 28(3), 266-279.
[2] Information retrieved from the Slow Food USA blog.
The RAFT project was co-produced by a consortium of conservation biologists, ecological conservationists, native food activists and chefs, who joined their forces in a 6-year collaborative project (the RAFT coalition was launched in 2004 and finished around 2010). The consortium was initially formed by Slow Food USA, the American Livestock Breed Conservancy, the Center for Sustainable Environments (Northen Arizona University) and Chefs Collaborative, the Cultural Conservancy and Native Seeds.
There were many actors involved in this project, many founders. I think that was the first big project in the timeline of Slow Food USA. And it was how I engaged in Slow Food. That when our chapter started, as well
The project was fiscally managed by Slow Food USA, with Gary Nabhan as group coordinator and editor of the shared publications. Nabhan is the founder and coordinator of the RAFT Alliance as well as a well-known Slow Food activist. The relevance of the figure of Gary Nabhan[1] has been stressed by the interviewee, who has defined him as "an excellent leader".
Other organizations were also involved in the project, such as the “Chefs Collaborative Network”, a national network of members of the food community “who promote sustainable cuisine by celebrating the joys of local, seasonal and artisanal cooking”. The RAFT project counted as well with the “American Livestock Breeds Conservancy”, the pioneer organization in the U.S. working to conserve historic breeds and genetic diversity in livestock.
In terms of funding, the economic support for the RAFT project came from a number of non-profit or philanthropic institutions, such as the Cedar Tree Foundation, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust or the Ceres Foundation.
According to Slow Food activists, one of the emerging motivations for community engagement in environmental issues is the increasing social awareness in recovering the traditional American food biodiversity. In the period that this critical turning point occurred, North American population experienced an arising curiosity and interest in biodiversity conservation.
Preserving North American food legacy was also connected to ethnic and indigenous communities´ interests. According to the respondent, Slow Food owns a unique holistic perspective regarding food issues, emphasizing the need for preserving food heritage, which resulted highly attractive for many people who approached to Slow Food to engage in RAFT project and related activities such as the Ark of Taste.
Notes:
[1] Gary Nabhan is an Arab-American writer, food and farming activist and conservationist whose work has long been rooted in the New Mexico and Arizona context. At the time of this project, Nabhan was a professor at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona -one of the entities involved in the RAFT project- who had previously coordinated several biodiversity projects and provided technical assistance to a number of communities interested in nature restoration on the Colorado Plateau and in the Sonoran Desert.
A number of events have been evoked in relation to this critical turning point. First, the interviewee mentions the previous Slow Food USA´s Ark of Taste projects. The “Heritage Turkey Project” was a collaborative venture between Slow Food USA and the American Livestock Breed Conservancy (ALBC) to identify heritage turkey varieties at risk of extinction and reintroduce them to Thanksgiving table. The enriching positive outcomes of the Heritage Turkey Project were the basis for the development of the RAFT project.
Another antecedent of this CTP relates to the previous work developed by professor Gary Nabhan and the Center for Sustainable Environments at the Northen Arizona University. Thus, Nabhan had conducted an initial work of data gathering and primary analysis for the documentation of RAFT project. Such database actually contained a “red list” with over 650 endangered varieties which served as the basis for the RAFT project (Nabhan et al, 2010).
Besides, the RAFT project is strongly connected to the biodiversity projects launched by the Slow Food International Network. A selection of endangered products was submitted by Slow Food USA as candidates to the Ark of Taste and the Presidia catalogs. This distinction is considered “a critical to the success of the RAFT project”.
During the time of this project and several years later, the consortium managed to edit a number of publications as well as an extended number of contributions in scientific journals, disseminative articles in newspapers and magazines. The “Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Bringing Cultural and Culinary Mainstays of the Past into the New Millennium” was the RAFT’s first major publication, edited by Gary Nabhan and Ashley Rood in 2004. It contained RAFT’s first Redlist of Endangered Foods, over 700 important traditional foods, including Native American foods as well as those which immigrants brought to North America from all over the world[1].
The coordinators of the project feel proud of having contributed to ecogastronomic and biocultural restoration or almost 50 North American food species. For example, the RAFT project fostered the recognition of Appalachia as the region in North America with the highest extant food diversity (Veteto et al, 2011).
REFERENCES
Nabhan, G. P., Walker, D., & Moreno, A. M. (2010). Biocultural and ecogastronomic restoration: The renewing America’s food traditions alliance. Ecological Restoration, 28(3), 266-279.
Nabhan, G. P., & Rood, A. (Eds.). (2004). Renewing America's food traditions (RAFT): bringing cultural and culinary mainstays of the past into the new millennium. Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.
[1] More relevant documents are still available on this webpage
The interviewee does not report any contestation regarding this critical turning point. Some reasons can explain member´s commitment to the project, like the reputation and strong leadership of the academic professor and Slow Food leader Gary Nabhan, one of the driving forces behind the formation of the consortium. Besides, most of the organizations involved in the RAFT were already active in food biodiversity conservation of America’s plants and livestock breeds heritage. This contributed to gain the confidence of Slow Food USA´s activists as well as funders and external institutions, which supported the project over six years.
In addition, the RAFT project aimed to engage the general public in food issues, which turned into an attractive way of engaging new associates within the Slow Food movement. The project endorsed an “eco-regional” innovative approach, carving the country into food nations which put the focus on the North-American heritage and indigenous legacy. Moreover, one of the purposes of RAFT, the celebration of the “American Food Traditions”, closely related to the original Slow Food hedonistic vision, which links the pleasure of tasting quality food with a sense of purpose that fits with slow food activist aspirations.
Being asked about the anticipation of this critical turning point, the interviewee affirms that RAFT permitted Slow Food USA gaining momentum, reputation and extent acknowledgment by the wide public. Second, Slow Food leaders were aware that this consortium would contribute to the expansion of the Slow Food movement across the United States of America, enlarging the organization in a number of local chapters and associates as the interviewee explained in the following:
Regarding the establishment of RAFT partnership I think that it was important, and if you ask many people will think that was important because they engage in the chapters in that way. And Fortunately, a lot of people became aware of heirloom food, heritage food, outside this field of slow food. I think the mission was the important part, no matter how many people think so. A lot of chapters and general public certainly enroll in Slow Food through this project
The RAFT project was launched in 2003 and the works finished in 2009-2010. Probably, the more recent associates do not share the opinion regarding the relevance of the Raft project in Slow Food USA history. However the interviewee insists that this project should be comprehended as a critical event for the movement, due to the outcomes of the project were strongly connected to the Art of Taste and Presidia biodiversity projects, which could be conducted by Slow Food USA thanks to the funds of RAFT project.
I don't know if everyone shares this opinion that this was a Critical Turning Point because I don't think that many people know how or why RAFT this came about. The Ark of Taste had a very high profile at that time among the membership. We had a lot of Slow Food´s publications, each member had a magazine and the Ark of Taste Committee had contributed to this articles. The point here is that the formation of RAFT enables Slow Food to get money to enhance the work of the Ark of Taste
RAFT was a research-based project which enhanced Slow Food´s competences through learning and sharing knowledge occurring among partners, while they contributed with their expertise to identify, restore and celebrate America’s biologically and culturally diversity. The respondent stress that this activity meant an enriching learning experience for practitioners: the collaborative approach of RAFT permitted Slow Food activists to collaborate with regional, local and indigenous groups of producers to safeguard and revitalize traditional foods.
Learnings come from the innovative methodology developed for the project. RAFT hosted several regional multi-cultural workshops which involved a variety of food activists -farmers, fishers, herders, chefs, food historicians, etc- in the work of evaluating the degree of risk of disappearance of each food variety. Such innovative multiactor mapping methodology was also one of the learning outcomes of the project, The Slow Food activists aimed to teach and extend such collaborative method in order to "communities could collective map and name their foodsheds on their own”[1] . Further, project managers designed and developed a comprehensive model for evaluation processes, developing criteria for measuring restoration for consumption impact as well as the impact of educative activities and the effectiveness of communication tools[2].
From her personal experience participating in the RAFT project, the interviewee extracts some insights related to the experience. First, she highlights the special personality and role developed by Naghan in this project. This charismatic leader was able to create a committed network of food activists around this project that goes beyond the Slow Food movement and still remains active in many localities.
I would say that one thing is leadership. Particular leaders have the personality, passion and organizational skills to create collaboration, to attract funding and grow an organization around that. And some leaders have done well. Gary Nabhan was successful in that way. He had won the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award for earlier work with southwestern indigenous foods and seed saving. With this prestige, he was able to bring people, organizations and funders together to further the mission of the Ark of Taste and Presidia
As Slow Food activists did, American society also draws some lessons from this CTP. The Wider public learned that these foods - and the communities that produce them and depend on them-, are constantly at risk of succumbing to the effects of the fast life: “which manifests itself through the industrialization and standardization of our food supply and degradation of the farmland”[3].
Besides, this project was also a point of entry on ongoing political issues, for example, those related to the status of native communities. The project also enhanced the acknowledgment on “current geopolitical boundaries and sovereign Nation status among North American native peoples”. The fascinating stories behind these foods have been collected in several publications which served both Slow Food activist and wider audience about seed saving, types of heirloom and biodiversity issues. Food activists highlighted the special interest that this project had within the chefs´ community, allowing them room for experimentation and creativity. Some of this lessons have been collected by the consortium coordinator in a number of publications like the mentioned: “Renewing America's Food Traditions” (Nabhan & Rood, 2008).
REFERENCES
[1] Source: http://www.garynabhan.com/raft/pdf/RAFT.long%20q&a.pdf
[2] Information retrieved by RAFT partner meeting minutes facilitated by the interviewee
[3] Source: Slow Food USA website about the RAFT project
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