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Renewing America's Food Traditions
Raft History, Philosophy, and Mission:
RAFT
is a coalition of seven of the most prominent non-profit food, agriculture,
conservation, and educational organizations dedicated to rescuing America’s
diverse foods and food traditions. These organizations include:
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy,
Center for Sustainable Environments
at Northern Arizona University,
Chefs Collaborative, Cultural
Conservancy, Native
Seed/SEARCH, Seed Savers Exchange,
and Slow Food USA. The coalition was
formalized between January and March of 2004 to support a synergy between these
partners and local, tribal, or regional groups of producers in their on-going
work of safeguarding and revitalizing authentically American foods.
Learn More...
OVERVIEW
Why Raft?
Initiatives
Overview
Have you ever eaten a meal rich with juices, flavors, and fragrances that
have taken centuries to develop? A delicate, dark red strawberry that was the
backbone of the U.S. berry industry, an oily fish that built trade routes in the
Northwest, a hot pepper that tells the story of Minorcan immigration to
Florida—these are the stories of North American traditions that lie hidden
within our foods. Yet many of these foods have been rapidly disappearing from
our tables. In the United States alone, 63% of native American crop varieties
have disappeared from cultivation since European arrival on this continent.
With these losses has come a decline in traditional ecological and culinary
knowledge, and declines in the food rituals that link communities to place and
cultural heritage. If these culinary delights persist only in our history books
we will have lost an important cultural legacy and future generations will be
deprived of the nutrition and exquisite flavors found in these heritage foods.
To document, restore, and celebrate the incredible diversity of America's edible
plants, animals, and food traditions, seven of the most prominent food,
agriculture, education and conservation organizations in the United States came
together under Slow Food USA to launch RAFT, the country's first eco-gastronomic
conservation project.
Uniting gastronomy’s emphasis on food quality and cultural traditions with
conservationists’ knowledge of agricultural biodiversity and their imperative to
preserve it, RAFT projects work with farmers, chefs, and consumers to develop
and promote conservation strategies, sustainable food production, public policy
initiatives, and market based incentives.
The founding partners of RAFT are: American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Center
for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Chefs
Collaborative, Cultural Conservancy, Native Seed/SEARCH, Seed Savers Exchange,
and Slow Food USA.
In 2005, The RAFT Project received three years of generous support from the
Cedar Tree Foundation in addition to start up support from Lillian Goldman
Charitable Trust and the CS Fund.
WHY
RAFT?
There is an urgent need to maintain
the incredible diversity of America’s edible plants, animals, and their food
traditions because of the important ecological, gastronomical, cultural, and
health benefits of biodiversity.
Ecological Benefits:
plant and animal diversity sustains healthy ecological relationships;
sustainable agricultural practices, which support plant and animal diversity,
encourage resistance to pest and disease—ensuring food security.
Gastronomic Benefits:
inherent in a diversity of foods is a variety of aromas, textures, and flavors
that increase pleasure.
Cultural Benefits:
preservation of traditional knowledge and sustainable production.
Health & Nutrition Benefits:
resistance to disease including diabetes and heart disease.
Initiatives
In order to preserve America's
endangered foods, we must return them to our fields, fishing grounds, and
tables. With three years of generous funding from the Cedar Tree Foundation and
start up support from Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and the CS Fund, the RAFT
project will:
1.) Document
America’s Endangered Foods
Unlike other countries and continents, North America has never had a
comprehensive list of its unique plants and animals—the foodstuffs that underlie
our cultural and culinary traditions. One of the earliest successes of the RAFT
project was the publication of a small book listing 1,200 US foods, both wild
and domesticated, that are endangered in the continental U.S. along with stories
of the ten most endangered foods and ten which communities have recently
rescued. RAFT partners have continued this ethnobotanical documentation in four
regions – the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the Gulf South, and the Rocky
Mountains. Each of these workshops brings together 16-20 leading local farmers,
chefs, ethnographers, agricultural historians, ethnobiologists, ranchers,
nurserymen and conservation activists. The regional publications that result
from these meetings do not stop with a mere listing of threatened foods; they
tells readers their stories, their threats, and where seeds, nursery stock, or
seafood and livestock hatchlings can be purchased to aid in their recovery. To
download RAFT’s publications, visit the
RAFT Publications
page.
These highly acclaimed publications
and events have poised The RAFT Project to propose one of the most ambitious
food projects in American history—the first book to ever comprehensively address
the current state of the culinary treasures unique to the North American
continent. The book is scheduled for release in Spring 2008.
As a partner in the RAFT project,
The Cultural
Conservancy (TCC) has been focusing on documenting the stories of Native
food producers and food stewards – Native American individuals who are actively
working to maintain, protect, renew and revitalize indigenous foods and food
traditions. Over the next year, TCC will produce a master CD of audio
recordings. These recordings will be used for education and inspiration within
Native American communities, to raise awareness about native foods with other
food and environmental communities, and to build strategic alliances and
initiatives to improve the health and accessibility of native foods to Native
American communities.
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2.)Recovering Breed Genetics
Modern food production now favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds
selected for maximum output in a controlled environment. As a result, many
delicious, regionally adapted livestock breeds have lost popularity and are
threatened with extinction. These traditional breeds are an essential part of
the USA’s agricultural inheritance. The need for livestock conservation is
urgent. The RAFT project has enabled the
American Livestock Breeds
Conservancy (ALBC) to document endangered breeds with the most commercial
potential and begin working with their producers, specifically poultry breeders.
With the average American consuming eighty-two pounds of chicken per year,
demand for inexpensive broilers has pushed tastier and healthier heritage breeds
off store shelves. After extensive research, the RAFT project has identified the
Buckeye Chicken as a breed that can be reintroduced to successful commercial
production. Kept alive primarily by hobbyists, ALBC has worked with poultry
breeders to restore the Buckeye’s genetics and increase their numbers for
distribution. Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food are partnering with ALBC to
ensure breeds are selected with thought to taste quality and consumer
preferences. The Collaborative is also developing and promoting recipes for
other endangered breeds like Pineywoods beef and Mulefoot pork.
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3.) Hosting a Native Foods "Ark of Taste" Summit
Originally, the RAFT project planned to organize a meeting in conjunction
with a larger native foods conference in order to bring together Native American
organizations and communities to identify native foods for nomination and
boarding onto the Slow Food Ark of Taste catalog. After over a year of planning
this gathering’s focus changed and expanded. On May 21 in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
RAFT and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) convened a small
cross-section of leaders in the US native foods movement. Retreat participants
included farmers, ranchers, gatherers, historians, chefs and community activists
who came together to share strategies used by Native communities to safeguard
native seeds and foster sustainable production of native foods on tribal lands.
Discussions also focused on marketing
and sourcing native foods within Native communities and the challenges and
benefits of working with non-Native as well as Native retails, chefs, activists,
eaters and non-profits. To complement the retreat, RAFT and IAIA hosted a public
Native Foods Celebration on May 20, which highlighted diverse native foods and
cooking demonstrations. Visit the
RAFT News and Events
page to read more about the event.
At the event RAFT debuted the
Directory of Native
American Food Producers, Chefs, Caterers and Supporting NGOs. The goal of
this collaboratively developed directory is to ensure that the original Native
American stewards of these traditional foods are the first to benefit from the
interest in conserving these foods. Some Native American food producers have a
surplus beyond their own family and community needs. They are listed in this
directory and we hope it is a useful tool to market their products to a wider
community.
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4.) Sponsoring Sustainable Food Production Workshops with
Farmers
The RAFT project brings food producers together to review and establish
production standards for select RAFT foods. Protocols developed during these
RAFT workshops are then introduced to mixed audiences of producers, retailers,
and consumers during successive clinics designed for feedback and development of
implementation strategies. To date, RAFT has supported producers of Raw Milk
Cheese, Navajo-Churro sheep and Buckeye Chicken.
For information on the Raw Milk
Cheese project, contact Cerise Mayo
For information on the Navajo-Churro
Sheep project, contact Gay Chanler
For information on the Buckeye
Chicken project, contact Don Schrider
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5.) Organizing an Endangered Food Grow Out
Building on the successes of seed banks such as
Seed Savers Exchange and
Native Seeds / SEARCH,
who have prevented the extinction of thousandsof heirloom fruit and vegetable
varieties, the RAFT project piloted a national endangered food restoration
project. Seeds of over twenty endangered foods that have been boarded onto Slow
Food’s Ark of Taste were sent to over 500 specialty growers around the U.S. In
turn, farmers will provide RAFT partners with data on growing habits. To check
out the 2007 seed offerings,
click here.
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6.) Hosting
Endangered Foods Picnics in Five U.S. Cities
Beginning August 2007, Slow Food Convivia and
Chefs
Collaborative members in five cities will partner to produce an “American
Heritage Picnic” featuring endangered American fruits, vegetables, meat and
poultry identified by the RAFT partnership, boarded onto the Slow Food Ark of
Taste and grown by local farmers. These picnics will introduce Slow Food and
Chefs Collaborative members to each other and to these foods in need of
recovery. Together, they will celebrate existing local foods and food
traditions. Most importantly, the picnics will contribute to the building of
food communities that will ultimately sustain each region’s agricultural
biodiversity. For picnic dates and locations, visit the
RAFT News and Events
page.
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