| The Smithsonian’s
Folklife Festival celebrates sustainable agriculture this year
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| Posted June 16, 2005:
The Rodale Institute®, which brings you NewFarm.org, has been
invited to participate in the Food Culture USA portion of the Folklife
Festival, which runs from June 23 to June 27 and June 30 to July 4,
2005 in Washington, D.C. Food Culture USA, say its creators, “celebrates
the extraordinary story of the American food revolution of the last
30 years. The program focuses on three of its driving forces: the
immigration that has introduced new foods and tastes to American cooking,
the grassroots movement for sustainable agriculture and its connection
with traditional methods of growing, and the role that chefs and cooks
as tradition-bearers have played in encouraging appreciation for the
great variety of American foodways.” “The growing interest in food has introduced a number of movements in the United States,” said co-curator Stephen Kidd of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. “These include a boom in organic products and produce; the ascendancy of the soybean; the benefits of free-range meat and sustainable farming; and the interest in experiencing food at alternative markets rather than shopping at conventional grocery stores.” The Festival explores and celebrates all of these changes. The Rodale Institute employees will be staffing a tent throughout the event devoted to explaining the connection between healthy soil and healthy food to interested visitors. (The total draw for the event is over 1 million folks—one of the largest celebrations in the nation.) If you come, please drop by and chat. We’ll also be participating in informal “Around the Table” chats with other food and farming experts throughout the celebration, including:
Best of all, the Food Culture USA portion of the Festival is going to be Sustainable Ag Central for the two weeks of the event—an incredible convocation of organic, sustainable and traditional farmers from around the country and the globe, as well as dozens of chefs who source food locally. Among those who will be showing and telling (just a small sampling):
Food Culture USA events run daily from 11 am to 5:30 pm. You’ll find the farmers, food activists and chefs in tents and pavilions on the National Mall almost directly in front of the classic old castle building that is the Smithsonian headquarters. For more details about Food Culture USA, go to www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2005/Food/index.html. You’ll find a link at the bottom of the page to a PDF document that provides a detailed schedule of all events. Below are some details of our own scheduled appearances:
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