student eat-in at delores

A student group I’m in called The Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology participated in the Slow Food Nation finale – a student eat-in. A mob of 300 or so young folks invaded Delores Park, listened to speakers on the state of the food system in the US, and ate literally tons of food that was for the most part prepared in home kitchens. The highlight of the day was, of course, the grubbin.’ Not a bite was disappointing.


Attempting peanut pesto prior to the event. Every kitchen surface was covered in food.


Transporting the goods. Thanks, BART!


Gratuitous food pic #1.


Oh yeah – I forgot to mention the several hundred-foot table that we’d be eating on.


Suckling pigs on a rotisserie. Exciting to some, a massacre to others.


Severine, Sandor Kraut and friends.


It was hard not to be happy with a belly full of veggies/roast piglet/suntea/etc.


Gratuitous food pic #2.


We were told to take a stalk of wheat home and plant the berries – a metaphor for the spread of hope and hard efforts to change the screwed up way food gets to our tables in this country.

This was a nice event, but some of us in SAFE are somewhat critical of the Slow Food movement. While it started out as a radical communist movement in Italy, in the US it has been catered mostly to those privileged enough to spend money on good ingredients. They’re trying to change that, though, and they have an exciting new president who looks like he’s got his eyes open. We’ll see.

I spent the longest days of this year working in an integrated pest management lab, packpacking and occasionally climbing around the sierras, and moving into a sweet new place with four rad girls. I can’t complain.


May came back from Japan. Yeah!


Matty and Jared are rad music-playing fiends who are about to make the East Bay even more awesome by moving up here.


I visited Patrick. We hiked for miles to an eagle’s eye view.


Friends by the fire after a long day.


Sometimes solo hikes are the best hikes.


Went climbing with some berkeley bros…


Granite makes the weirdest textures sometimes.


Anson led all the climbs cos he’s the most larn’d in the ways of leading.


Knots are as vital to climbers as they are to sailors.


What a perfect day.