Pleasure is emphemeral, but political issues linger for a long time. It has been the Slow Food festival here in Melbourne for the past week and I have been to a number of political sessions. They brought Percy Schmeiser out from Canada to talk about his ongoing court battle with Monsanto, we heard from Helena Norberg-Hodge on food issues in the developing world and the problem of food miles, and we heard from Greg Critser on the politics of obesity in the US.

They are also running a series of documentaries, most of which are politically oriented. I saw The Future of Food one night, which discusses the issues of GE crops and there have been many other interesting movies.

The politics and ethics of food and the availability of decent food for all is very important and I commend the Slow Foodies for taking these issues on board and providing forums to discuss them.