Clifton Community Partnership

Five Questions article:
Five Questions: Julie Shaffer, Founder, Slow Food Atlanta, Emory's Sustainable Foods Educator
December 18, 2009
Source: Community Partnership Update/January 2010

1. What is Slow Food?

Slow Food (www.slowfoodatlanta.org, www.slowfoodusa.org) is a non-profit that promotes food that is good, clean and fair -- food that tastes good, is produced in an Earth-friendly manner and with fair compensation for the people who produce it. The group serves to reconnect people with food traditions, preserve rare heirloom plants and heritage livestock, and decrease the impact on the environment based on food choices.

2. How did you get involved with Slow Food?

I've been involved with food for many years as a cook, entertainer and through a former catering business. But in 1999, during a trip to Italy I heard about Slow Food. When I got home I inquired about the local chapter and was told that there wasn't one. So I started it in Atlanta and when I stepped down from the board this year, there were 720 members.

3. What impact does the group have?

Slow Food's main goal is to educate and raise awareness. Over the past several decades a disconnect has grown between the people who produce our food and the people who eat the food. We help connect those people -- chefs with consumers, educators, food producers and farmers.

4. How did your background as an educator and food fan bring you to Emory?

Prior to coming to Emory in the role of sustainable food educator, I taught art in public schools for 30 years, 22 years alone at Redan High School near Stone Mountain. Over the years I saw a decline in the quality of food that was served in public schools. Menus were dictated by the bottom line and based largely on subsidized foods from the federal government. Food selection in schools is a complex social problem, but there is a hidden cost to cheap food in the health costs that we all pay later. At Emory I work to educate the entire Emory community -- faculty, staff, students, kitchen staff, parents and alumni about sustainable food issues. We've started a successful farmers market on campus, kitchen demonstrations in residence halls and even a Slow Food chapter at Emory!

5. What's your next big project?

Early in 2010 Emory will announce that it is introducing a very rare breed of beef to its dining facilities. The breed of cattle lives in Georgia and dates back to the 1500s. It's a follow-up to our Thanksgiving feast of 1,600 pounds of rare-breed turkey served on campus. Emory's purchase of these rare heritage livestock breeds helps create a viable market so that producers will continue to cultivate the breeds. Otherwise they die out. You need to eat these breeds to save them, and we need to preserve biodiversity for future generations.