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  • Governors’ Summit videos

    Just FYI, the sessions at the Governors’ Climate Summit Kate and I are attending are all being recorded and are available online. One thing I’ve learned so far: No matter how important carbon measurement and tracking and inventories are, they cannot be rendered interesting on a panel. Kudos for the effort, though!

  • Where Slow Food Nation rejected bottled water, Terra Madre embraced it

    Turin, Italy — At Slow Food Nation in San Francisco back in August, drinking bottled water was simply not done. At several points, the event’s organizers had installed dispensers that proudly poured filtered city water. Socially, clutching a plastic water bottle was tantamount to digging into a greasy McDonald’s bag for a handful of fries. […]

  • Via video, Italian official announces Slow Food will have a G8 audience

    Turin, Italy — Perhaps the most surreal — and newsworthy — moment of Terra Madre came during the closing ceremony last Sunday, with some 7,000 to 8,000 people packed into an Olympic stadium. As with other large-scale gatherings during Terra Madre, the speeches were translated into eight languages on the fly, into little headsets. That’s […]

  • Impressions from Terra Madre in Turin, Italy

        After days of feasts — intellectual, social, and culinary — my mind is too scrambled to put together a more structured column. Instead, here are some impressions and observations from Terra Madre while they are still fresh, written on a train ride between Turin and Florence. There is more to report; look for […]

  • Former veep to speak at Power Vote webcast tonight

    Power Vote 2008 is hosting a live webcast tonight featuring former Vice President Al Gore. He’ll be talking about his Repower America campaign, the economic and climate crises, and the need for voters to go to the polls on this issue this year. You can RSVP to watch the event over on the Alliance for […]

  • On the glory of Terra Madre’s street-food section

    Turin, Italy — The critique of "fast food" needs to be nuanced. Pre-fab burgers from corn-fed cows, cooked to the cardboard stage by deskilled, exploited workers and washed down with corn-syrupy Coke: surely a calamity on many fronts. But other modes of fast food are possible, even necessary. In most of the world’s cities — […]

  • Day two from the foodie blowout in Turin, Italy

    Turin, Italy — Yesterday I left off at the Presidia section of the Salone del Gusto, having met up with my friend the fermentation scholar and teacher Sandor Katz, and his friend the food scholar Jeffrey Roberts, author of The Atlas of American Artisinal Cheese. By that point, I was overwhelmed by the variety on […]

  • Day one at the foodie blowout in Italy

    Turin, Italy — On the one hand, I’m exhausted and jetlagged after a day of meeting people, listening to speeches, walking the streets of Turin, and noshing on lots of cured meat, cheese, olives, and other pungent goodies. On the other hand, I’m sipping a glass of Barolo — a celebrated red wine named after […]

  • We’re headed out on the town — join us

    We’re in Chicago touring green roofs and green biz ventures, but tonight we want to share all our adventures with you — live and in person — at a Chicago pub near our hotel. Meet us at O’Callaghan’s — 29 W. Hubbard St. between Dearborn St. and State St. We’ll head over there around 9 […]