By Nancy Christy and Neil Heinen
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

In the movement to create a greener world with a sustainable future, one of the most enduring lessons we're learning is the importance of collaboration. Within communities and between nations, individuals, cooperatives, businesses and governments, we're recognizing that environmental protection, and resource conservation and preservation, require a system of collaborative strategies and actions.

Despite the fervent beliefs of some, the natural world will not rid itself of manmade toxins and debris, nor prevent them. Collaboration will. Collaboration is also at the heart of the sustainable agriculture and slow food movements, where the goals of a good, clean and fair food system are dependent on grower, chef and consumer. Madison has a tradition of such collaborations, anchored in the renowned Farmers' Market, local source-minded chefs and discriminating consumers. That tradition will be on display on September 15 at the Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT) picnic.

RAFT is itself a collaborative effort of seven of the most prominent food, agriculture, education and conservation organizations in the U.S., including the Chef's Collaborative and Slow Food USA. Harvest, The Old Fashioned, and L'Etoile restaurants--members of both organizations--are playing host to the Madison picnic.

Slow Food refers to RAFT as "the country's first eco-gastronomic conservation project," and says the goal is to document, restore and celebrate the diversity of America's edible plants, animals and food traditions. Madison organizers, including Harvest and Old Fashioned owner Tami Lax and Slow Food Madison co-chair Susan Streich Boldt, want to educate the public about the importance of biodiversity and the variety of foods that are essentially endangered.

Lax is coordinating and sourcing the picnic's products, and one of the challenges is knowing what will be available. Among the expected menu items are Ossibow Island hog, Navajo-Churro sheep and American bison, all from RAFT producers. "We're pleased and honored to work with these producers on this event featuring RAFT products," says picnic promoter Boldt.

Slow Food USA asked that the picnic be held in conjunction with another major food event, so organizers partnered with the Research Education Action and Policy Food Group (REAP), which will hold its Food For Thought festival that weekend.

But there is another component to the weekend, and that's the return of the Slow Food Ark of Taste Committee. These nine Slow Food members from around the country are responsible for deciding which products get included in the list of heritage foods Slow Food has identified for special preservation efforts. U.S. Ark Committee co-chair Lax hosted the meeting last year and the members were so impressed they asked to return. The group will review the forty to sixty products under consideration. To mark the occasion, Lax arranged for the picnic to be held on the steps of the Capitol.

To help tell the Wisconsin RAFT story, picnic organizers plan to have a map of the state ready, with the locations of all the RAFT producers. It's a story of the growing importance of a sustainable agriculture system, locally supported food economies, environmental protection and the critical need for biodiversity. Above all, it's a story of the collaboration needed to make it all work. To make any of it work.

Buy tickets for the RAFT picnic ($40--$50 range) at reservations@slowfoodwisconsin.org, or call 219-8846. See slowfoodwisconsin.org for more info.

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