PICTURE this: Sunday. Spring. On a coffee plantation near Maringa, Brazil’s ‘city of the future’ straddling the Tropic of Capricorn west of Sao Paulo, members of a new Slow Food convivium prepare for Food with latitude. Near Jujuy in the northern Argentine, in the old colonial town of Concepción in neighbouring Paraguay, west across the Andes to the foothill village of Banquedano and on to the sprawling coastal fishing and mining capital of Chile, Antofagasta, South American convivia are in the vanguard of the world’s longest continuous lunch. In the next twenty hours, through three hundred and ten degrees of longitude, convivia in member-countries of the 23º Slow confederation will draw the world’s attention to their indigenous heritage, ecological diversity – and the challenges and opportunities which confront them – in a celebration of sustainability, food and community. As lunch in Antofagasta comes to end, five hours to the west Pitcairn Islanders with their tiny population of just 50 people will tuck into freshly-caught fish. As the sun arcs across the tropic, lunch will also begin in Avarua on Rarotonga in the southern Cook Islands, in Niue, in Tonga’s Nuku’alofa, in Fiji’s Suva and on the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia. A few hours later, at noon in Rockhampton, Australia, at Longreach in the outback, and at noon near Alice Springs at the very heart of the world’s smallest continent, communities will begin lunch when their neighbours to the east are finishing theirs. As the sun sets at Minilya station homestead in Western Australia’s vast Upper Gascoyne, with the last drinks being poured, the Slow Food convivium in Vangaindrano in southern Madagascar will start enjoying traditional vary and laoka. An hour later in the Mozambique township of Mabalane, and at Soekmekaar in South Africa’s Limpopo, at Kurametsi in Botswana, and at Tsumi in Namibia, Slow Food will signal to the world the diversity and opportunity of Food with latitude.
Slow Food Australia will welcome your help in organising Food with latitude – the world’s longest lunch. If you live in an Australian community bisected by 23º south – the Tropic of Capricorn – let us know now if you’re prepared to take part in this extraordinary event. Food with latitude will bring together on a single day communities in 18 countries – from Brazil in the east to Namibia in the west – to celebrate local, seasonal and indigenous food and draw the world’s attention to the southern hemisphere’s diverse food traditions, ecology and cultures. Food with latitude will follow the sun across the arc of 23º south through 310 degrees of longitude. Volunteer your skills.