While CNN may have been distracted by some political events taking place in Denver and Minneapolis, all eyes in the locavore world were on San Francisco this past weekend, where Slow Food Nation attempted to show the world what eating real food means. Slow Food International was founded in Italy as a protest to the country’s first McDonald’s. It has become a controversial organization for numerous reasons, and while there is not much disagreement with its mission, many criticize the techniques and lack of political activism. I believe Slow Food events are important to highlight and celebrate the best of what’s locally available, but there is so, so much more to be done to make good food more readily available. I know those topics were addressed at the convention and I’m looking forward to reading more about them from bloggers who attended. My favorite “Slow Food” post of the weekend was this inspiring account by Sam of Becks & Posh of a day spent living the philosophy, not just listening to it.

For more about Slow Food Nation:

• A Mighty Appetite has a quick primer on the Slow Food organization
• Alice Q. Foodie has a great overview of the Slow Food mission and philosophy - plus daily recaps of Slow Food Nation. She touches on the affordability issue as well, saying:

Slow Food’s current stated goal is now “clean, fair food for all” - affordable is sometimes thrown in there, though that can be a bit of a landmine, because Slow Food is ALSO about fair payment to food producers for their artisanal goods. That, as we all know - can require one to part with a “fair” amount of money, and I don’t mean that in the social justice sense.

Participating in the One Local Summer challenge this summer let us focus on incorporating “slow” foods into our family’s daily meals, and we’ll continue to do so throughout the fall and winter even though the challenge has come to an end.

whole foods frozen salmon, originally uploaded by foodietots.

No sooner had I selected salmon as my March ingredient, than I began to read the scary news of the threatened Chinook salmon run in California. Sure enough, last week came the official notice that salmon season is closed for the year. Apparently oblivious to the irony, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the situation – never mind that while there is plenty of blame to go around, it is indisputable that the states’ diversion of water to farm land and Southern California is a significant factor. Last year for the toddler’s west coast birthday party, on the Oregon coast, we had grilled fish tacos with Coho salmon caught fresh that morning. Best and freshest fish I’ve ever tasted – also endangered and facing fishing limits this year.

Over at SurelyYouNest, MamaBird shares her dilemma over ordering fish when dining out. I usually order salmon, which is my favorite but also easily identified as wild. For a more thorough guide to which types of fish are safe to eat, now that even Alaskan salmon is going to be available in limited quantities and much more costly, see this handy guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (We got the pocket-reference in our DVD of Happy Feet – which I thought was a clever tie-in.) You can even bookmark the mobile site on your PDA to access it while you shop!

(And please, please don’t be tempted to eat farmed salmon! Off my soap-box now…)

Up next, first market report of the season, and the April ingredient, beans!