Happy Thanksgiving!

This is one of my favorite holidays. Why? Because, Thanksgiving is about spending time with those who are closest to you, your family and friends. Sadly, Thanksgiving has become the one of the few times a year that Americans really do this anymore. We have lost the art of the family dinner and I for one am sad to see it go. ABC News did a - somewhat lacking - but basically informative
story last night about this. It covers the basics of the Slow Food Movement as well as the "new found" success of organic foods.

I think that many of the social issues troubling Americans today could be at least partially fixed if we were to embrace the basics of Slow Food. Families that cook and eat together tend to stay together. Parents who involve themselves in their children’s lives by simply having a conversation around the dinner table are more likely to raise “well adjusted” children. The people I grew up with who came from families that sat around a table each night tended to have the best family lives. My wife and I have already promised ourselves that when we have kids, the family dinner will be a requirement. This won’t be too tough as we already each dinner together every night.

The benefits of Slow Food, from a social perspective, are clear; but there is another piece. If all of us were to seek out and eat only fresh foods, that are grown locally and where ever possible organically grown, the health benefits would be huge! It is hard to measure how much damage we do to ourselves with the chemicals used on our food – but it should be clear to everyone that food grown without is got to be better for us.