Slow Food Southeast Missouri off to fast start in Cape

A group of local growers wants to bring Southeast Missouri back to its roots, literally.

Slow Food Southeast Missouri, or Slow Food SEMO, launched on Earth Day last month with a mission to educate the region on clean, fair and sustainable foods. Part of that mission involves bringing back food from the past that's been forgotten, according to Lance Green, one of Slow Food SEMO's five board members.

"We want to preserve the past and bring out some of Southeast Missouri's local flavors," Green said.

Slow Food SEMO is part of a global, grassroots organization called Slow Food International. It was founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures, according to Slow Food International's website. Volunteers run Slow Food SEMO, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit.

One way the group aims to preserve local flavors is by collecting heirloom seeds of plants native to the region. At the Cape Riverfront Market Garden in downtown Cape Girardeau, they'll grow plants from these seeds.

This year, the garden will feature heirloom millionaire tomatoes and corn.

"Over the years, we've seen a great reduction in food variety as most seeds are controlled by larger businesses," Green said. "When we lose the DNA of heirloom seeds, we lose resilience in our food system, which is not good when things like climate change or viruses strike that could wipe out an entire strain."

Local food is on display Tuesday at Spanish Street Farmacy in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

Slow food in a fast world

"Slow food," is food produced naturally without any chemicals or additives, according to Ed Crowley. Crowley is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University and works on the board of Slow Food SEMO.

As a farm-to-table heritage cattle farmer, Crowley has researched Southeast Missouri's food economy, and found an increased interest in slow food.

"The farm food economy is really evolving here," Crowley said, "People are starting to want to understand where the food they eat is coming from, what chemicals were used or whether it was grown organically."

Clean, locally-sourced food is the driving force behind Spanish Street Farmacy, a family-owned restaurant and market at 34 Spanish St. in downtown Cape Girardeau. Green co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Sharla.

The restaurant is looking to return to better days, Green said, when food came from farms and not labs. Spanish Street Farmacy serves food sourced solely from local growers who use chemical-free and organic growing methods.

Slow Food SEMO members want to widen the connection local farmers have to consumers. Green said the group would eventually like to see 10% of local restaurants source their produce from nearby growers.

Heirloom herbs for sale are displayed Tuesday outside at Spanish Street Farmacy in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

Taking action

The organization is in its early stages of developing, Green said. Yet, some initiatives the group have planned are moving quickly.

Slow Food SEMO will begin to host classes on local food history and seed saving later this year. At the Cape Riverfront Market on Saturday, they unveiled a garden with planted heirloom corn and a compost shed.

One project beginning this week is the organization's Downtown Cape Compost Initiative led by cyclist and gardener Aaron Arnzen.

Volunteer bicyclists will pick up participating downtown dwellers' compost once a week for $20 a month. The compost will then be used for the Riverfront Garden.

"Forty percent of most of our county landfill is food," Arnzen said. "If we can eliminate some of that, even as a tiny part of Southeast Missouri, it'd make a really big impact."

The compost initiative is only available to downtown Cape Girardeau residents who live near the garden. Arnzen said the group aims to expand as more people volunteer and get involved.

The future of food

Crowley expects interest in slow food to rise exponentially in the next five to 10 years.

"We're always going to have commodity agriculture," Crowley said. "But I think a big portion of the population will soon be willing to pay a little more, or at least equal to what they do now, for food that they know where it's been produced and grown from."

For now, Slow Food SEMO will work to educate the region on slow food, and work with local farmers to better Southeast Missouri.

For more information on Slow Food SEMO, or to sign up for the Downtown Compost Initiative, go to www.slowfoodsemo.org.