Slow Food Nation Day 1: It's On! | Civil Eats

Slow Food Nation Day 1: It’s On!

Today kicked off Slow Food Nation’s 4-day extravaganza of good, clean and fair food. We have ahead of us many hours of tasting, talking, learning, proposing new policies, and planning systems changes. It was a magnificent day and Civic Center plaza was absolutely electrified with the first batch of visitors who’ve come from far and wide to the bright and sunny (if a little hot) weather of late summer San Francisco. Fortunately the trees that line the garden offer plenty of shade.

The Victory Garden is bountiful and around it dozens of booths have been set up to sell produce, cheese, bread, artisanal specialty items, and an array of prepared foods from doughy tlacoyos made by Primavera to sizzling hot dogs from Let’s Be Frank.

The on-site cooking stations, where chefs are hard at work, are shaded by a beautiful orange canopy designed by the brilliant creative team at Albertson Design, who also came up with the Farm=Liberty design you see on the orange welcome pavilion (a salvaged cargo container!) by Jensen Architects, above.

We’ll bring the news to you.

Get the weekly Civil Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox.

On the Soapbox, a continuous parade of inspired speakers stood up and raised their voices on all sorts of issues (more on that later), while on the other side of the Victory Garden, an interactive compost station taught passersby about how to create “black gold” for growing good food.

We’ll have posts, videos, and photos going up on Slow Food Nation’s homepage all weekend. Check out our latest two short videos, featuring Daniel Bowman Simon of the White House Organic Farm Project, calling for an edible garden on the President’s lawn; and Thomas Odermatt, owner of Roli Roti, who tells us how to roast the perfect chicken.

Tomorrow: to the Taste Pavilions! Stay tuned.

Today’s food system is complex.

Invest in nonprofit journalism that tells the whole story.

Sarah Rich is an editor at Dwell magazine, where she specializes in sustainable design and architecture. She was the managing editor of the Slow Food Nation blog leading up to the inaugural 2008 event in San Francisco. She was also the managing editor and co-author of the book Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006). Sarah lives in the Mission district of San Francisco where fog is scarce and tacos are not. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

More from

General

Featured

Popular

This Farm Bill Really Matters. We Explain Why.

a trio of illustrations showing a black farmer, corn growing in front of the US Capitol Building, and a white woman with a baby paying for groceries with a SNAP-enabled card

Supreme Court Case Could Reshape Indigenous Water Rights in the Southwest

A close-up view of center-pivot irrigation watering corn on NAPI farmland. (Photo courtesy of NAPI)

All Eyes on California as Fast-Food Worker Rights Land on the 2024 Ballot

Fast-food workers and activists protest McDonald's labor practices outside a McDonald's restaurant on March 18, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Alaska’s Climate-Driven Fisheries Collapse Is Devastating Indigenous Communities

An Alaskan king crab trap and fishing vessel.