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Place Based Foods

Appalachia – From Rarity to Community Restoration and Market Recovery

 

This publication seeks to foster recognition of Appalachia as the region in North America with the highest extant food diversity, and to inspire further documentation, recovery and community use of these foods within the region. It is produced by the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) alliance, which brings together food, farming, conservation and culinary organizations and advocates to ensure that the diverse foods and traditions unique to North America remain alive and dynamic.

Download Appalachia – From Rarity to Community Restoration and Market Recovery – (PDF – 36 pages, 2.13 MB – Published in February 2011)

 

 

 

Food Producers and their Place-Based Foods at Risk in the Gulf Coast

 

This booklet contains essays by some of the Gulf Coast’s most respected and cherished players in the food movement, like Crescent City Farmers’ market co-founder Richard McCarthy, author Sara Roahen, musician Louis Michot, chef and folklorist Poppy Tooker, and author and RAFT founder Gary Paul Nabhan. The essays appear with scientific documentation regarding Louisiana’s imperiled food culture. The booklet was many years in the making but was rushed to publication in response to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Download Food Producers and their Place-Based Foods At Risk in the Gulf – (PDF – 16 pages, 2.8MB – Published August 2010)

 

 

 

Savoring and Saving the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods

Edited by Gary Paul Nabhan

The book profiles more than ninety heritage foods most at risk, detailing their folk histories, their causes of endangerment, the efforts to recover them, and offering historic recipes with which to savor them once they’ve been recovered. The book’s appendix lists over 1,000 unique livestock, vegetables, fruits, fish and game at risk in North America. To order the book, visit Amazon..

 

 

 

Forgotten Fruits Manual & Manifesto – Apples

Compiled and edited by Gary Paul Nabhan; introduction by Ben Watson

As part of RAFT’s 2010 “Forgotten Fruits” initiative, this brochure details the history, decline, nursery practices and local restoration efforts designed to bring back the most endangered heirloom apples to orchards, backyards, farmer’s markets, restaurants, and home kitchens across the country.

Download Forgotten Fruits Manual & Manifesto – Apples – (PDF – 32 pages, 2.5MB – Published March 2010)

 

 

 

Place-Based Foods at Risk in the Great Lakes

 

This booklet includes a working list of rare place-based foods with unique traditions in Great Lakes landscapes, waterways and cultures, as well as essays from Great Lakes residents who are working to protect and revive these foods. We invite you to add, amend or “adopt” (champion) foods on this list—support those communities that remain their stewards and work to bring these foods back to our tables. Send all list additions and edits to raftalliance@slowfoodusa.org.

Download Place-based Foods at Risk in the Great Lakes

 

 

 

Place-Based Foods at Risk in New England

 

This list highlights the rare place-based foods that have unique traditions in Greater New England landscapes, seascapes and cultures. The publication notes which foods are threatened, endangered or functionally extinct, and invites New Englanders to help expand and revise the list, and work to bring these foods back to our tables.

Download Place-based Foods at Risk in New England and the Maritime Provinces – (PDF 4 pages, 480K)

 

 

 

Place-based Foods at Risk in California

 

This booklet includes a working list of the the rare place-based foods of California and essays from Californians who are working to protect and revive these foods and supporte their food communities. What foods now grown or gathered in California’s soils and waters are among those most important to West Coast food history, most vital to California’s sustainability, and currently be at risk of disappearing from our tables?

Download Placed-based Foods at Risk in California – (PDF 16 pages, 3MB)

 

 

 

Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions

 

Salmon Nation’s (Pacific Northwest’s) coastal rainforests, muskegs, mudflat clam beds, Palouse prairies, and river canyons look and feel unlike any other in the world. You can sense the distinctiveness of this eco-region wherever you travel within it—from Alaska, the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, and northern California. But Salmon Nation also tastes unlike any other place—from its huckleberries and Oregon grapes to its Dungeness crab and alder-smoked salmon….” To learn about the endangered heritage foods of Salmon Nation and about how to participate in their recovery, purchase this book from Ecotrust.

 

 

 

Renewing the Native Food Traditions of Bison Nation

 

This annotated list highlights certain food traditions of Bison Nation (the Great Plains) that could be restored concomitant with the restoration of free-ranging bison to large tracts of the short-grass plains and tall-grass prairies. The RAFT consortium offers this preliminary list to encourage more collaboration among conservation biologists, restoration ecologists, the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, wild foragers, hunters, chefs, nutrition educators and local food system activists.

Download Renewing the Native Food Traditions of Bison Nation – (PDF 8 pages, 770K)

 

 

 

Seafood Traditions at Risk in North America

 

From potlatches and clambakes, to sea shanties and tales told in ice fishing huts, America’s cultural heritage has been built not merely on its fertile soils and mineral-rich mountains, but on its waters as well. That is where some of America’s finest artisans have practiced their traditions of weaving nets and basket traps, carving totem-style halibut hooks, harpoons, floats and lures, constructing stone traps, decoys and crab pots, or shaping canoes, kayaks, dories and pangas.

Download Seafood Traditions at Risk in North America  and Download Guide to Seafood of the Seri Indians