Slow Food Needs Reality Check, Not Makeover
On July 23 there was an article in the New York Times written by Kim Severson entitled Slow Food Savors Its Big Moment. The article discusses the hopes and dreams that Slow Food USA has for its upcoming Slow Food Nation Conference to be held in San Francisco at the end of August 2008. Among others, one such hope is that the conference will signify the beginning of a makeover of Slow Food’s base and leadership to become a more diverse and inclusive cause and to address the perception that Slow Food is elitist and inaccessible to many people. I’m quoted in the article from a blog debate I had with a Slow Food leader several months ago over this issue.
While I think that Slow Food’s hope and desire to become more diverse and inclusive of people of color and people of lower socio-economic status is admirable, I’m not sure that trying to make Slow Food more diverse is the best strategy for supporting food justice movements and communities of color. There have been many similar efforts to bring diversity to groups that were previously led and composed by white people and very few of them have ever been successful. These past efforts have failed for a variety of reasons, the main one being a lack of understanding that such change is, in fact, not about “diversity” at all, but rather about something much more important: power.
Too many white led groups address their lack of diversity by pursuing the narrow approach of trying to bring people of color into the fold, usually through a token board or staff position, without changing the structural power relations and leadership constructs that are in place – which ultimately undermine the ability to sustain diversity. This is because the problem of “diversity” is usually defined as one of race instead one of power and that, while some diverse people may be brought into an organizational setting, the brokers, sources and constructs of power remain unchanged.
Peter Senge, a renowned organizational change practitioner, talks about how people tend to put old frameworks on new realities and that, by doing this, nothing really changes at all. A metaphor for this is: “If you wrap an orange peel around a lemon it might look like a orange, but it’s still an lemon.” Slow Food Nation is in danger of applying an old framework – the “let’s diversify” framework – to a new reality – that power constructs are shifting dramatically as people of color become a major political and economic force. Slow Food is assuming that it is needed by people of color, which serves to perpetuate its sense of importance. But, if fact, the new reality is that Slow Food needs people of color a lot more than people of color need Slow Food.
Slow Food should delve to a deeper level beyond just skin color to address the profound power relations that exist within the organization and its base. Part of this process would entail Slow Food stepping out of the center of its self-described movement to join a broader movement and form coalitions in which Slow Food acts as an ally to people of color led organizations. In this context Slow Food could maintain its current configuration and popular base and, rather than putting its attention and energy to trying diversify itself, focus on leveraging its political and social influence to open doors and generate resources that other groups do not have access to.
The article in the New York Times affirms that Slow Food is currently distracted by its own self-important belief that it should be a big tent for lots of people, rather than simply being an equal member of a much bigger movement or coalition in which the movement itself is the big tent. Unless Slow Food shifts its thinking and stops applying its old framework onto a new reality its efforts to broaden and diversify aren’t likely to be successful. The Slow Food Nation Conference may, as the article proposes, signify a makeover of the organization. Or it may signify that Slow Food is out of touch with reality. We’ll soon see.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Any conference held in S.F. with the intentions of undermining elitism and being accessible is bogus because that space is the epitome of people in power toting the “green” hype flag while being in the centerfolds of the same kind of power that undermines Otherness that the movements seeks to integrate.
If slow cities wants to integrate “diversity” why don’t they try to have it in a place like Detroit that has a lot more “minority” run community gardens then SF.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Brahm
Thanks for this article. I agree with you.
And an fyi, which I hope Konstantin will see also,
https://www.growingfoodandjustice.org/
Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI)
First Annual Gathering
September 18-21, 2008
August 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
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August 27th, 2008 at 11:26 am
“…to address the perception that Slow Food is elitist and inaccessible to many people.”
Since when is a $65 Tasting Booth “accessible”?
Thanks for speaking out and for becoming a presenter.
I make school gardens in East Oakland and the families are rapidly producing lots of their own slow food.
Agreed! Their organization COULD be assisting these grassroots efforts.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Well said Brahm. The dynamics definately need to change within the entire environmental and sustainability realm. I think you hit the nail on its head about the power issue. You can’t have a successful movement without inclusivity and a sharing of power. I also think Konstantin makes a very good point about the problems of holding environmental events in SF. While places like Detroit are a good idea, let’s see if we can get them to just cross over to the other side of the Bay first.
BTW, congratulations on the growth of People’s Grocery with your retail store.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
If Slow Food wanted to remove the stereotype of elitism for this event, they could have done the following:
1) Make the “Changemakers Day” workshops open to whoever wants to attend and learn. If that means bigger venues, maybe having those workshops around the entire Bay Area instead of just S.F. If you want to broaden a movement, the last thing you want to do is invite who you think is worthy of attending.
2) Make all the events free except for maybe the tours and dinners.
3) Have keynote speakers that are not just older, white men.
4) Focus on California and American food traditions, not imported European food traditions. Why is there not a Traditional Mexican Food taste pavillion or one that focuses on the food of coastal California tribes?
Excellent post Brahm. I completely agree that people of color do not need the organization of Slow Food. They have their own amazing food traditions that should be revered and recognized and passed down to future generations.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks, Brahm: I am working on my own post about why I will not be attending Slow Food Nation, and I am going to link to your piece and quote you. So clear and so succinct.
Thank you again,
Tana Butler
September 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Thanks for this commentary. I have been walking around irritated for the last few days, trying to find the right words to convey what has been upsetting me about the Slow Food Nation event. The work of Collective Roots is based in East Palo Alto where people don’t have a lot of patience for gourmet food experts telling them to slow down to eat. Rent control is under attack here, we have the highest density households in the Bay Area, the highest unemployment in San Mateo County, and no major grocery store has been located here for decades. We just started a farmers’ market, but face the challenge that wealthy communities have driven up prices at farmers’ markets so high that farmers selling their produce directly to consumers is no longer a bargain–rather, one must pay a premium for fresh food from the farm. How can we slow down when we are running as fast as we can to survive? There are two McDonalds a mile apart in EPA, but if you need to visit a grocery store, you need to travel 5 miles outside of the community. Honestly, I don’t think we will get much healthy or affordable food and justice until we start the “Real Food Nation” or “Affordable Food Nation”. I applaud your critique here, but don’t have much hope in food justice trickling down from the Slow Food Nation movement…it will need to come up from the grass roots. I believe we can start by bringing together some of the food justice groups in Bay Area. We are past due for this next phase of the movement.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
As a leader of the Slow Food Seattle chapter, I attended the Food Justice panel at Changemakers Day last Friday and wanted to let you know that I appreciated your remarks. I left SFO with many questions regarding our organization’s limitations and our grand mission- locally and nation-wide.
Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system. We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. We seek to inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.
That’s a tall order. How do we –as a slow food nation– make an impact - be true to our mission without silencing others in the process? I have a lot to learn, and I am sure many more questions will emerge in the process. Thanks again for your perspective and look forward to future posts.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Lucy, I think the answer to your question is more Questions for Slow Food to answer for itself. Those include:
1. What practices and structures are in place that make your work inaccessible?
2. Who is at the table when decisions are made and how much power do they have to affect decisions?
The answer to your question is in the post - be an ally to groups who are run by and serve underrepresented communities. This means using your voices and resources to support their work. One real example of this is the folks at the Restaurant Opportunities Coalition in New York spoke during Changemakers Day, but it wasn’t highlighted anywhere. You should have to dig deep to find workshops with people who are doing social justice work. It should be front and center. yes, the $65 price tag for the pavilions screams exclusionary and the decision to put that price tag should have been made with underrepresented people not just in the room but with the power to say “Hell no” and have that stick.
Here’s the thing, if you want to be a society for people who can afford $100 artisanal cheese, that’s fine. You’re doing a lot to support producers and traditional foodways. But if you are talking about making dramatic change, then the change starts with your own organization.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:25 pm
[…] He also vowed that Slow Food USA would work to avoid doing something it has been accused of doing in the past: suck the air out the sustainable-food movement by hoarding resources and media attention at the expense of social-justice activists. […]