Heritage Foods and Slow Food
I don't know if you're aware of Heritage Foods USA and The Slow Food movement. In a very small nutshell, both of these organizations are trying to preserve the food and cooking methods of our youth, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.Heritage food focuses primarily on the breeds of animals that our ancestors ate. While Slow Food focuses primarily on the cooking techniques and recipes of our past.
You remember those foods; meat, poultry and fish without all the antibiotics and genetic manipulation that we have now. Do you remeber when pork actually tasted like something? These guys do and they are worth your support.
Heritage Foods USA is High On The New Q and Small Family Farms
New York, NY, March 2007 – Heritage Foods USA and Slow Food Atlanta are high on the hog about their NEW Q, the First Annual BBQ to celebrate local chefs, heritage breeds, sustainable farms and to raise money for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
This event will pit together local chefs who make the best BBQ in town on May 5th from 1-5pm at Studioplex, 659 Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30312. Limited tickets are available in advance for $25 per person. To RSVP visit www.Xorbia.com/tickets/thenewQ or call 800-364-0644.
Participating chefs include: Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene, Shaun Doty of Shaun’s, Delia Champion of Flying Biscuit, Todd Mussman and Ryan Tuner of Muss & Turner, Michael Tuohy of Woodfire Grill, Ron Eyester of Food 101, Gerry Klaskala of Aria, Carmen Capello of Global Culinary, Cathy Conway of Avalon Catering, Robert Gerstenecker of Park 75, David Sturgis of Farm 255, Hugh Acheson of Five & Ten, Joe Truex and Mihoko Obunai of Repast and David Larkworthy of 5 Seasons Brewing.
Participating farms include Tamworth Farm in Dublin, GA, Newman Farm in Myrtle, MO, Lazy Farm in Glasco, KS, Riverview Farm in Granger, GA, Sequatchie Cove Farm in Sequatchie, TN, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA, and Caw Caw Creek in Columbia, SC. Each chef will work with a local farm to come up with a delicious new take on BBQ. Beer from SweetWater Brewing will also be served.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank is making a difference in the lives of underprivileged Georgians by distributing over 2 million pounds of food and other donated grocery items to the public monthly. The New Q fundraiser will help the Food Bank continue its fight against hunger.
The New Q is part of a series of new initiatives by Heritage Foods USA to bring awareness to the plight of small family farms raising sustainable proteins in the United States.Labels: atlanta, barbecue, barbeque, bbq, heritage food, slow food
posted by WhiteTrashBBQ @ 4:37 AM
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2 Comments:
Hi WTBBQ,
I've seen more and more about the Heritage USA stuff lately, but I didn’t realize they were part of Slow Food USA. It looks interesting..I'll have to read up on it more.
While I appreciate what these organizations are trying to do, I, personally, don't necessarily agree with the premise. There is nothing inherently wrong with production practices today. The "consumer" asked for leaner pork, so the industry gave them leaner pork. Yes, some flavor was sacrificed. Now, the consumer wants more flavor, so the industry is trying to accommodate that as well.
As far as antibiotics, no one can tell the difference between meat from animals given antibiotics and meat from animals that haven’t. It’s impossible. The use of subtheraputic levels of antibiotics has probable been overdone, but it has not affected quality at all. In fact is has improved it because sick animals tend to have reduced meat quality. At any rate it’s on the way out due to political pressure because of the antibiotic resistant bugs running around. That’s a whole other discussion, but I’d wager that the medical industry has promoted the proliferation of these bugs as much (or more) by over-prescribing antibiotics.
Genetic manipulation? People have been genetically manipulating domestic animals since the beginning of time with selective breeding. That’s how the “heritage” breeds came about….from domesticating wild pigs, chickens, etc. then breeding for particular traits. As our knowledge base has expanded we’ve been able to speed up that selection in the last 50 years, that’s all. There are no “genetically modified” (like the corn and soybean varieties) animals on the market at this time. Having said that, I would not have any qualms about eating a “GMO” animal…even a cloned one. It’s just DNA. It can’t do anything to you.
Anyway, I’ve just reread my comment and it sounds a little defensive. Sorry…it’s not meant to be. The small farmer is a rarity in our society today, and I agree that is a shame. I support the small farmer when I can (I know several). To be competitive without having to charge exorbitant prices for their product, they either have to use today’s genetic lines or carve out a niche market like Heritage USA. I hope they do well, but at 15 bucks a pound for pork loin I don’t think I’ll be ordering any.
Nice blog, BTW!!
Hogwild
Yessir, read the previous comment, raise southern veal, so would like to re-direct some mis-directed thinking. Not all of the comments were out of line and in fact were correct in that the consumer to a degree has asked for some different products not all. First, most people would still like to get dry aged beef.(I grew up on it back in the early 40's) Tyson and the rest won't do it costs too much. Enter Ruth Christ's at about$50 per lb. Would the consumer still like to have it, yes, but would they pay the tab, probably not. Now to sickness and anti-biotics. My animals don't get sick, so don't need them. But when you ship cows, to strange places, mingle them with other strange cows, sickness rears it's ugly head. Best way to try and handle it is with massive vaccinations of all kinds (my animals are not vaccinated, no need, they don't get shipped) and then follow that up with some level of antibiotics in the feed. If not in the feed they have a "sick pen" where the ones that are sick are isolated and given massive doses of antibiotics to cure them. Yes they can be cured then put back in the general population, continue to be fed an unnatural diet (not to different from twinkies, big macs and all the sodas you could drink) then harvested and sold to you and I (well it used to be you and I now it is just you and the other commentator)Well I had my say, here's to John Wayne and the days when then were good guys and bad guys and EVERYONE new the difference. Their are local farmers out there, not trying to charge anyone an arm and a leg, just trying to do what's right and make a dollar doing it. Take care,
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