Monthly Slow News Summary: October 2011

On Slow Food:

• Mark Bittman is brilliant as usual in his NYT column Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?
• Slow Food USA's $5 Challenge is still rolling - check out their blog for the summary of September 17th's event, and the announcement of events at The White House (Nov 29th) and on World Food Day (Oct 16th), then follow the links to find lots of inspirational ways to make healthy meals from inexpensive local ingredients.
• Bis-phenol A in canned foods is back in the science news, and the news isn't good.
• A new study from Ohio State University suggests that a city such as Cleveland could meet all of its food needs through urban agriculture on currently vacant lots.
• The Nation has published a series of articles on the food movement by Frances Ford Lappe, Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Michael Pollan, and Eric Schlosser - fascinating stuff. (You will need to sign up in order to read some of them.) I especially enjoyed Schlosser's point that it's not just about food, it's about social justice and putting a check on corporate power.
• The slow food movement has become so powerful that a number of Big Ag players have formed the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance in an effort to help shape the conversation.
• Slow Mama's Zoe Saint-Paul offered great advice on how to bring the farmer's market to your neighborhood. 

via Cracked: "That loaf and the chopping block have an equal wood content."

• Even Cracked think processed foods are a bad idea: The Six Most Horrifying Lies The Food Industry Is Feeding You. (Wait, there are more than six?)

On Slow Travel:

• The Bankok Post reports that Thailand's tourist authority is basing its newest campaign on the principles of slow travel, with the aim of promoting tourism in the northern provinces of the country.
• The writers behind hidden europe and the Slow Travel Manifesto recommended we try the narrow-gauge steam trains through the Harz Mountains of Germany.
• You simply must visit Irene Turner's blog and page through her sumptuous descriptions of her recent travels in Switzerland and France's Loire Valley.
• GreenFutures examine how slow travel could make religious pilgrimages both more planet-friendly and more fulfilling and introduces the Green Pilgrim Cities network.

On Slow Fashion:

• Here's a neat project that can use your votes daily for the next couple of weeks: Resizing Fashion's Footprint Canada.
• Fashionizing.com have announced that the new luxury is a curated wardrobe, and they'll be publishing a guide to help you choose quality over quantity.
• The ideas behind slow fashion also got an airing in The Utne Reader and The Atlantic.
• Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that increases in the cost of cotton (due largely to weather-related crop failures) and labour and shipping costs have resulted in dramatically increased clothing costs, and muses that this means the end of fast fashion.
• Slow Fashion Forward shared some information on how natural indigo dyeing works. (Really? The plant is fermented? That is so cool!)
• Happy blogiversary, SlowFashioned! At the link they have a roundup of their best & brightest moments of the past year.
• Ecouterre pointed out a neat online tool that calculates your wardrobe's environmental footprint.

On Slow Living:

• The Nation's Ben Adler examines the pros and cons of The Rise of Urban Cycling.
• The amazing concept behind Slow Money got some more press in the San Franscisco Chronicle and on Rodale.
• Zen Habits published an interesting post on slowing down your day by 'starting slow'.
• SlowBurbs' Pamela Price wrote about the bittersweet experience of letting go of stuff when it's emotionally loaded.
• Create The Good Life! introduce us to the permaculture concept of edge, and explain how to apply it to thinking about our time. 
• Deanna Duke posted a brilliant list of her top urban homesteading tools at Crunchy Chicken. I'd argue most of these are great slow living tools, too.
• Slow Mama's Ann Waterman posted a meditative piece on dinnertime rituals. LOVE the idea of using a bell instead of bellowing, "Soup's ON!"

via Simple Organic

• Emily McClements had a great piece on Simple Organic on finding ways to overcome information overload and seek out inspiration and encouragement on your green journey. I'd add going to local green events and meeting new people to her list - I always leave Green Drinks Edmonton feeling recharged and inspired.

On Slow Design:

• I love the idea behind this London shop.
• Slow Mama's Leah Moss discusses how choosing natural materials over synthetics will Help Your Home to Age Gracefully.
• Gloria Battista-Collins reminds us what Slow Home is *really* all about in her essay, Remember The Meat Ball. 
• The Slow Tech exhibit of experimental designs at London Design Festival is recapped on Protein.

via l-mh.com

• Also shown at London Design Festival was Lies-Marie Hoffmann's "Homage To The Elm Trees" (found via Inhabitat). What a stunning example of slow design! The butterfly joints make me weak-kneed - and wouldn't you love to see something similar made from the boulevard trees your city has lost to disease?