Slow Food USA, a national non-profit dedicated to creating a world where the food we eat is good for us, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet, has received a landmark $1.2 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. The three-year, capacity building grant will help Slow Food work to address inequities in the food system by raising awareness internally and externally, building relationships with diverse communities and establishing partnerships with organizations in this area of work. The grant will also fund the development of a public initiative that embraces the values of Slow Food and its history through celebrating, reclaiming and creating local food cultures.

This is the single largest grant Slow Food USA has ever received.

“This is a historic moment for Slow Food USA and it could not have come at a better time as we build momentum for the next few years,” said Katherine Deumling, Board Chair of Slow Food USA. “There is great inequity in our food system, and we must all work to make it easier for everyone to access good, healthy food – through preserving our diverse foods and food traditions and through building bridges with communities negatively impacted by the industrial food system. We’re grateful for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s support and confidence in Slow Food as a key force for change.”

“Slow Food USA has a long and successful track record in the good food movement. This investment will help them to expand their reach so more people across the country benefit,” said Linda Jo Doctor, program officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “We're confident that Slow Food’s extensive network will help more children and families get the good food they need to thrive.”

Slow Food USA is part of a global, grassroots organization with supporters in over 150 countries who believe that food and farming should be sources of health and well-being for everyone. Through international and national advocacy, local projects and bringing people together through the common language of food, Slow Food members and supporters are making it easier to access real food. Slow Food was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Slow Food USA’s network includes 200,000 supporters and 225 chapters in nearly every state. For more information, visit www.slowfoodusa.org.

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I consider living on earth as being in a relationship, and, as in other relationships, often it is judged by your actions, not your words.  As an example, you may consider yourself in a loving married relationship, but if you forget your first anniversary, there may be some doubt about your presence.  So it is with your relationship with the earth.  There are levels of engagement that can be measured in action.  Are you in love with the earth or only dating?  Are you good friends with the earth, or only a passing acquaintance?  I assume at least that last level of engagement or you wouldn’t be reading this.

People act in all manner of strange ways in this world, but I’ve found a few test behaviors to check my relationship with earth.  For example,

If you buy gourmet beverages and refuse to recycle the can, you may be an acquaintance.

If you warm the sofa on a beautiful spring day, you’re either exhausted or an acquaintance.

If your lawn is still a perfectly irrigated, fertilized and mowed half acre of fescue, you’re probably an acquaintance.  If you just dug up a square in the back for a vegetable garden, you’re ready for a date.

If you think seed catalogs and Birds and Blooms are erotic reading, you may be dating.

If you think taking the grandchildren fishing and camping is better than Disneyland, you’re probably dating.  If you’ve already bought them their own equipment and they beg to go again, you’re in love.

If you have your backpack and fanny pack loaded with gear and ready for an outing, you’re in dating mode, and if you find your closet has multiples of hiking and birding vests, or the pockets are full of your volunteer badges, then you may be in love.  If they’re in use often, you are for sure in love.

If you wake up on a spring Sunday morning and find your butt and thigh muscles sore from gardening, you just had a date.  If you look down at your sandaled feet in church and realize you missed the mud between your toes in the shower, you may be in love.

And then of course, if you find yourself growing so much produce that you have to share it, find yourself in the middle of a community garden, a scout group or a tour group, you may be out-of-control in love.  Don’t you love the people who are so crazy about fishing or boating, butterfly hunts, roses or spelunking that they can’t stop talking about it!

Well, you get my drift, and the great thing about being in love is the feeling of excitement and fullness that you get from nothing else.  You feel you just have to share it and write it and live it each day.  Darn if it doesn’t feel ever so much like passion. 

The very best thing about being in love with the earth is that you can be so anywhere you are at any time.  You don’t have to own a farm or a mountain cabin.  God was good enough to put earth right in front of us every morning.  I hope you’re loving it today.  I know I am.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving, I was thinking the other day about locating heritage turkey breeders in my area to source a high-quality bird for the family dinner table.

Corresponding with Slow Food USA via Twitter and email, those folks made me privy to an exciting new technology not all that unlike the heritage breed locator on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s website that I used a couple weeks back to find a replacement Hamburg hen for the backyard.

Slow Food USA has put together the Slow Food Thanksgiving Guide, complete with a heritage breed locator, 72 recipes in various courses that you should feel good about feeding your family, and general tips and tricks to having a “Slow Food Thanksgiving”.

Looking for farms that fit the Slow Food mission with dedication to raising appropriate breeds of animals the right way, Slow Food USA turned to the ALBC, Heritage Turkey Foundation and Local Harvest, among other organizations, to come up with a list of farms that ship nationally and do things the right way.

Visit a farmers’ market, source a turkey, check out the Slow Food USA Thanksgiving Guide, and cook a meal that would make small farmers everywhere proud. Also, take a moment to check out these websites and resources, and direct your attention and respect to these organizations fighting the good fight.

As for myself, I’ll have the privilege of slaughtering my own heritage bird Saturday for next Thursday’s feast. There is much to be thankful for this holiday season.

Follow Caleb on Twitter at @calebdregan. 

Midget White tom image: courtesy American Livestock Breeds Conservancy