The movement isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Watching Chef Michael Howell lovingly plate his food for a room full of foodies, it’s easy to see how his passion has helped make the Nova Scotia slow food chapter, or as the slow food movement calls it, “the convivium,” one of the most vibrant in the country.

Howell is clearly passionate about local food, even going so far as to introduce a DLT (dulse, lettuce and tomato) sandwich to the lunch menu at his Wolfville restaurant, Tempest. Tonight is the first time leaders with the national slow food movement have met in Nova Scotia, and Howell and Chef Peter Jackson are highlighting a number of local ingredients, hoping attention from the movement will help preserve Atlantic Canadian ingredients. The menu includes Fundy dulse and oyster chowder, smoked St. John River sturgeon with spring slaw and lobster, Tancook cabbage with a selection of local sausages, applewood bacon and Lunenburg pudding. Dessert is billed as a rhubarb celebration and includes sorbet, mousse, leather and cobbler.
The room is packed with national slow food delegates and local convivium members but, perhaps surprisingly, well-heeled retirees and chefs do not dominate the crowd.  Globally, Howell says, the slow food movement has gained a reputation for elitism, but this room is diverse. Howell attributes that to the local group’s efforts to move Slow Food Nova Scotia away from being a club for wealthy foodies and more towards advocacy and awareness of the local food movement.

“Ultimately, what slow food is trying to do is to get you to think about what you are doing when you go to the grocery store; where that plump chicken breast comes from and where that box of Special K comes from,” Howell says.
In support of those aims, Howell and some active fellow slow food members have pushed the Nova Scotia group to spread its wings. He sets an example by joining seemingly every Nova Scotian organization promoting local food or setting food policy. On the Nova Scotia Tourism Partnership, Howell was an influential voice in supporting culinary tourism and he is also on the board of the newly formed Nova Scotia Food Policy Council.
Howell has also introduced slow food to new and sometimes unexpected members. This past spring Slow Food Nova Scotia became the first in the country to establish a youth convivium. Based at Acadia University, the group is facilitated by a faculty member but run completely by students. Despite the reputation university life has for too much draft and bad dorm food, the movement has been a popular one.
Nutrition student Neil Barss has headed up the organization of the Acadia group. Less than a year since the idea was first raised, the Acadian convivium already has 23 active members. Barss says the buzz is spreading on campus and he expects to see more members as the fall semester progresses. A self-confessed foodie, Barss says the opportunities for students, many living in dorms, to gather for a good meal are rare. Currently the group is planning farm and winery tours, potlucks and international cooking nights. With so many students living a fast food life, Barss sees a parallel growth for slow food. “I think as fast food grows and people’s lives get busier, the slow food movement will grow as well.” Barss views the movement as a way for people to start enjoying the social aspect of food again.

Faculty supervisor Tristica Caldwell says an emphasis on food as a part of healthy living is a lesson that’s being lost for too many people. As a nutrition professor, she jumped at the chance to promote these concepts, not only to her students but people in other faculties as well.  “If we look at things like high blood pressure and diabetes, these don’t come from people who really truly enjoy and cherish food. They come from people who have a disconnect between their body and what food provides them.

Caldwell says teaching kids about the value of not only supporting local farmers and food producers, but also the health and social benefits of creating and sharing a fine meal, benefits both the youth and larger society. “I think that’s going to bring a richer experience to their education,” she says.

Whether it is reaching students or policy makers, Chef Howell says the slow food movement is really about creating and sustaining a local food supply that is good for us, produced cleanly and that provides a fair wage for producers—and Nova Scotia producers appreciate the efforts.

Slow Food Nova Scotia regularly takes members on tours of local farms and production facilities from farms to mussel beds. Chef Howell says understanding the source of the food is an important part of becoming more aware of what we put in our bodies.

“If we actually see how it’s made and how it’s grown and the process by which food gets to us, we’re just that much more likely to be appreciative of it and respectful of the people that produce it.”

It doesn’t hurt that an afternoon out with the slow food convivium always includes a meal made with the finest and freshest ingredients.

It’s a potent mix. Good food and a positive message—it’s a method that is working to attract new members and encourage the activism Howell sees as the future of the slow food movement.

Howell says he sees a two-step change in people who decide to join the slow food movement. “Once they’ve had a couple of producer visits, there’s a sort of wonderful eye-opening expression that comes on people’s faces.” He says understanding more about their food changes a person’s whole approach to cooking. He says then many members get more involved in the international elements of the slow food movement and that’s when the activism begins.

Just seven years old in promoting safe, clean, local food, Slow Food Nova Scotia has come from five members to more than 130. “I have to say I speak with a pretty loud voice, pretty loud and pretty often,” says Howell. And he has no intention of slowing down.