Just reading about the "slow movement" puts a cog in the gears of my brain. My eyelids drop and I read a little slower. Slow Food. Even the sound of the word has an amazingly calming effect--and there is a reason for that. The word "slow" begins with a soft "s" followed by a rolling "l," then comes the interesting vowel pairing of the "ow." This pairing sounds different in a word like "vowel" than in a word like "slow" or "row." This is a linguistic combination that forces the brain to stop and think about it. Having the ability to slow someone down just by reading a logo gives a movement like this a pretty serious advantage.

Slow Food is an excellent example of a successful grassroots movement. Whatever fault you may find with the organization, it does a lot of good with very little opportunity for harm, and for those involved I believe that it is actually an extensive learning process. Even if, as critics say, members of the organization are little more than food snobs, they are certainly learning something and spreading it to all parts of the world. After all, how do you start a trend? With the cool kids.

The next step would be to teach these cool kids how to be political left-wing vigilantes, so to speak. If we can sneak in just one bleeding liberal to start political organization, how effective could we be? According to a recent NYT article, Slow Food has a $39 million budget, and the group has a decentralized organizational structure--perfect for hitting multiple political centers at the same time.

But let's not get too far ahead, why even become a member of Slow Food? If these are people with money to spare, why not just head over to Del Frisco's? It's become some poor, passionate, addicted friend dragged you there. And the passion is contagious. 

The leadership of Slow Food America is organizing what they hope will be the "Woodstock" of food in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. And wasn't 1969 the last time we saw a major uprising  in this country? Now we are a little older, a little wiser, and much more in control.

Where the protesters of the late 1960s failed to turn America into an egalitarian utopia, dismissed as troublemakers and unsatisfied yuppies, the enthusiasts (still yuppies) of Slow Food have the ability to demand change (albeit economical and social rather than political) with their wallets.

In Orlando, I am seeing a parallel movement to Slow Food, made for those more down to earth and a little more like the 1960s generation. These people have already made the connection between sustainable, local agriculture and economic drive, and they are working with what they have.

Julie Norris and Emily Ruff are two headstrong activists who I would love to see break the barrier into the Slow Food movement, carrying with them their business sense and focused goals. Norris owns an organic, vegan cafe in Downtown Orlando, and Ruff runs the Florida School of Holistic Living next door. 

Norris understands the bottom line is the most important thing about running a business and argues that sustainable, local agriculture is the cheapest way to get great-tasting produce. By carefully keeping track of the organic produce she uses in her cafe, she can place orders with local farmers so they know there will be a demand for what they grow.

Ruff is a better fit for the Slow Food model, concerned mostly with the holistic advantage of carefully prepared meals and organic foods. She also understands economics, and wants to bring fresh food to the opposite side of the Slow Food spectrum--the Holistic School's co-op will soon be accepting food stamps.

With the activism and drive shown by Norris and Ruff, combined with the passion and finances of the Slow Food movement, this could become the most successful grassroots movement in history. What I am envisioning is a movement designed by someone like Norris,sponsored and organized by Slow Food leadership that would reach all 85,000 current members of Slow Food, and there is no reason why citizens could not change the way we view agriculture and sustainability.