We may think of 'gastronomy' as high priced, over-marketed food and wine, but in many cases what we consider gastronomy today has its roots in the peasant cultures of past times. It does indeed represent different products, plates and traditions, but just as importantly is the approach to appreciation that embodies it, which prioritizes quality over quantity, complimenting sensorial pleasure with a curiosity of the product, where it comes from and who made it. Eco-gastronomy is a 21st century extension of that appreciation, with an eye on sustainability, social justice and environmental well-being.
Carlo Petrini, the Italian founder of the Slow Food movement and pioneer of eco-gastronomy sums up the concept in three fundamental categories; food/drink that is 'good, clean and fair'.* Carlo Petrini, "Food and Freedom: How the Slow Food Movement is Changing the World Through Gastronomy", New York, NY, 2015; p. 35.
With these three criteria, Petrini asks us to enjoy heightened sensorial qualities but also to develop a deeper understanding of the nutritive, cultural, socio/economic, and environmental impacts of our consumption choices. What I like to call 'the five dimensions of taste', with the goal of prioritizing the choices with the best outcomes.
This perspective is a general push away from conventionally farmed, industrially produced, ultra-processed, plastic-wrapped and internationally shipped commodities, while inspiring us towards an appreciation of seasonal, local, organic(biodynamic), minimally processed artisan-made gastronomy. This includes choices that offer a diversity of smells and flavors that capture the complex expressions of different places and producers. At the same time, preserving agro-ecosystems, clean air, watersheds, soils and promoting small businesses, rural communities, cultures and biodiversity.
This site is dedicated to telling the stories of these people and places. It is another piece of the puzzle towards building a veritable eco-gastronomic culture, which is the ultimate form of sustainability. Building a culture, with its traditions, norms and values that transcend laws and trends, ensures a natural diffusion from one generation to another.
Check out the 'Field Notes' blog to learn more. And if you are an artisan producer, family farmer, organic, biodynamic or natural wine, cider maker etc...tell us your story. Please contact me.
Visiting Professor of Mediterranean Studies and Eco-gastronomy for IAU, Aix-en-Provence, France, I see a healthy food chain as a cornucopia to solving many of our global environmental crises and social/economic injustices.
A blog, with stories on sustainable food origins/cultural insights, traditions, producers, ecological relationships to commentary on wine and food pairing. If you are a producer, please contact me to share your story here.
Tasting seminars, lectures / conferences, and more...Allow me to be your ambassador along your eco-gastronomic journey.
Curate and lead wine tastings, wine and food pairings events, going beyond sensorial aspects into the multiple dimensions of taste.... Hourly or half-day custom designed events.
Lectures on eco-gastronomy, wine / food themes, environment, climate change, biodiversity loss etc...
Organize and lead multi-day food / wine tours both domestic and internationally.
Food chain sustainability for individuals and businesses, viticulture..
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There's a long list of writers, practitioners and philosophers, who have influenced me the most: Aldo Leopold, Paul Shepard, Barry Lopez, Jack Turner, Terry Tempest Williams, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, E.O. Wilson, James Lovelock, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rajat Parr, Rudolf Steiner, Michael Pollan, Dan Barber, Wendell Berry, Albert Howard, Nicolas Joly, Gary Snyder...to name just a few...
I bring them up first to explain my transformation from a US Marine, international security expert to an eco-gastronome, which for all intents and purposes is a very natural progression and continuation. After four years of active duty service in the Marines Corps, I decided to take my GI Bill and study International Affairs, at the American University of Paris, France. I focused on international security, which made sense given my Marine background.
Eventually, I finished a Master's degree at the esteemed French university, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Aix-en-Provence. The focus of the program was on Military History, Security and Defense. I decided to stick around and began lecturing at the Institute for American Universities in Aix, while consulting for French firms seeking to do business with the American military.
At the time, I was teaching Mediterranean Security and International Relations, with a focus on international security. As more and more scientific UN reports were released and data became available, it became evident to me that one of the most striking international security issues, we would be facing in the 21st century, centered around two simultaneously occurring and inextricably linked environmental crises: Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss. It was increasingly clear that our global system of agriculture was one of the leading causes to these crises.
Around 2010, I proposed to develop a program on Global Environmental Politics to teach young Americans about the need for action on these two global crises, and introduce them to the international efforts already taking place. At the same time, I sought to get my hands dirty, literally, and get some operational farming experience. I'm a hands-on learner, always have been, and I highly value multiple perspectives both theoretical and practical. For me the only way to truly understand our farming systems was to become a farmer.
Settling on wine growing, which appealed to me on multiple levels, from a hands-on farming aspect, like canopy, weed and pest management giving me an in-depth perspective of what farmers face on a day to day basis. To the attention given to soil and biodiversity conservation and the deep conceptions of terroir and the culture of gastronomy that surrounds it. I was hooked.
Fast-forward ten years, I have successfully farmed numerous vineyards, assisted in wine making under three different labels and developed an entire university curriculum around eco-gastronomy, wine and food pairing. Having lived 14 years in the south of France, I am fluent in the language, culture and traditions of gastronomy. I believe the approach we take towards it, deep sensorial pleasure, prioritizing quality over quantity, a profound interest and knowledge development of the people and places who produce it, are one pathway to helping solve the global environmental crises and social/economic injustices we face today.
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