A friend recently pointed me to the Slow Food website, and I was so surprised that I did not already know about this. I have known of the movement for years, but never realized that there was a formal organization. A quick look and I immediately felt that it was perfectly aligned with the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), and other similar movements. From the Slow Food About page…
“Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us.”
In addition, Slow Food puts a heavy emphasis on gastronomic science, and promotes the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG), which, as the name implies, is a ‘hard science’ approach to supporting the issues at hand. That University is an enormous beacon of hope, showing that we are capable of reestablishing the wisdom of our ancient traditions within our modern framework of knowledge. And perhaps most impressive, is that they bring a vast array of local Italian artisans into the educational fold. The artisans are the true gate keepers of such knowledge. (It should be noted that Italy, as a nation, is perhaps our greatest stronghold in the fight to preserve and promote the wisdom of the ancients.)
It cannot be emphasized enough how important a university like that is. I searched for years to find a university with a nutritional program that I could respect, and was always disappointed. Some hope in recent years has emerged with schools such as Hawthorn University providing fantastic graduate programs that are based on Weston A. Price teachings, or holistic nutrition that is in agreement with or synergistic with such works. I love their post graduate programs.
Prior to finding Hawthorn University (which I learned about through WAPF), I had no hope of working professionally in health or nutrition. The reason being that every other degree and certificate program that I looked into was based largely on incorrect science. Dietitians, Nutritionists, etc, did not represent what I wanted to be. And the host of certification boards and titles were of no use to me. None of them were concerned with holistic approaches and traditional food wisdom.
Finding Hawthorne gave me hope, and a new career path. Finding the University of Gastronomic Sciences gives me even more hope, as they provide undergraduate programs, which provides much more opportunity for learning, and captures students during their more formative years, before they have been mislead by other educational pursuits. We need more universities like this one to help shape the leaders of tomorrow.
The mainstream medical profession, as most people know it, practice it, and teach it, has absolutely nothing to do with health care. It is not Health Care, but rather ‘Disease Care.’ A sad but true statement, as most doctors have zero education in nutrition. Zero. Nothing. No idea. There are no requirements for a doctor to learn about nutrition. Quite ironic, as I would argue that in order to maintain and promote good health, you need to understand the food and environment that sustains the human body. Schools like Hawthorn and UNISG teach people how to provide health care.
I hope to see more and more of these schools and organizations, and I hope to see more collaboration. As of this writing I cannot see any links between Slow Food and WAPF, but it seems that they could help each other with some cross promotion.
