Photos: Eat Real was Real Fun

The crowds were large – tens of thousands of people crowded into Jack London Square for the Eat Real Festival this past weekend.

…and the longest lines were for…. the paella.

People drank a LOT of beer..

..and ate trucks-full of dessert: This one sold out!

The festival was colorful..

..and restaurants that aren’t officially in business (as yet) opened their doors for the weekend.

The weather was warm and beautiful…

There was music..

…and more music.

Cheap food AND good food.

There were demonstrations and contests…

…with a bit of shopping.
Fashionable people in beautiful clothes enjoyed the day..

…and others waited for their coffee.

The festival drew some big stores – outside and inside the food hall..

….and lots of people to shop at the little ones.

9/3 Slow Food, So What?

Slow Food is the new Black. Or the new Green, or the new…whatever color signifies the coming of the newest new thing. I just know that the idea is all over the ‘net and all over the lips of all types of eco-conscious Bayliens. And while your response might not be as extreme as yours truly (Big Macs to the head all weekend, while standing in crowds of vegetarians) at the very least you probably want to know just how valid this whole movement is. Is Slow Food really something we should give a damn about? Is it the savior of small farms and the cure for malnutrition? Or should I just go back to those oh so tasty Big Macs?

Head over the UC Berkeley tonight for an in depth discussion with the organizers and participants from this past weekend’s Slow Food Nation. They’ll discuss the overall mission of the event, judge it’s successes and hope to answer questions including what the conference accomplished relative to the world food crisis-was it inclusive or exclusive? Did it sufficiently address mounting global food-related problems?

Participants include Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, activist, and Vice President of Slow Food International; Dr. Fred Kirschenmann, organic farmer and Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Dr. Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved and visiting scholar in the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley; Michael Pollan and author of In Defense of Food. Come get the real low down on all the slow food craze, then mull over it’s validity after the lecture, while you’re in line at Jack in the Box.-Kwan