Page 2479 - Week 06 - Thursday, 24 June 2010
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her hero, Benji Marshall, was read to Dainere at the launch. It included—and I am going from memory—this message, “You may think I’m your hero, but in reality you are mine.” I know that that meant a lot to Dainere and I think it reflected very well on Benji Marshall.
There were also very nice messages from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd—now the former Prime Minister, of course—and indeed some of the Masterchef team as well. David Furner was also at the launch, and I did mention to him that I had watched with interest as the West Tigers had come back to beat the Raiders at that game where Dainere was on the sideline, and even David acknowledged that, if there was one game they were going to lose, maybe that was not the worst one to lose.
My thoughts remain with Dainere and her family, and I encourage anyone who has the chance to visit her blog and get a copy of what is a truly inspirational book. This is a very special young lady and I ask the Assembly to remember, as we work in public life, the lesson she has taught us all about courage, humanity and compassion.
Slow food movement
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (5.27): I would like to speak to the house about the slow food movement and in particular about the slow food soup kitchen which I was very happy to be part of on Saturday. The Solstice—Slow Food Kitchen was held at the EPIC farmers market and it was a great event. There were lots and lots of people there coming and having cups of really, really beautiful soup.
Maybe I should start by explaining what the slow food movement is. Slow food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic, member-supported organisation that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food conditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it is created and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Slow food tends to be local food, and that was one of the reasons it was at the EPIC market.
For those of you who are unfortunate enough not to be weekly patrons of the EPIC farmers market and may not know it as well as I do, the EPIC market is based on local producers; everyone who is selling there has to be the producer of the food or their family the producer of the food, so it is inherently local food. Local food is great because it is fresher; it was only picked the day before or the morning before, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions are involved in getting it there. You will find, in fact, that quite a lot of the people patronising the EPIC market come on their bikes, so there are even fewer greenhouse gas emissions involved in purchasing the food.
The other great thing about slow food is that it is food which is actually cooked from scratch, or largely from scratch; it is not something that has been in a freezer for a few million years and then comes out and is microwaved to death. Slow food tastes nicer and is better for you—and generally less energy is used to produce it.
So there was a soup kitchen there at the EPIC market and we started off with five different varieties of soup. By the end we had sold out, but before we sold out we made a whole big pot more of soup on the day. So it was a very positive and cheerful day. People are asked to give a donation towards the soup.
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