In the fleeting shafts of summer sunlight, we trekked through Discovery Park to the Daybreak Star Center to attend Salmon Nation’s AMERICAN HERITAGE PICNIC today. Open to members of both Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food Seattle, we were obviously anticipating great food, but keynote and RAFT founder Gary Nabhan was the main course.

Gary Paul Nabhan, Ph.D., is a writer, lecturer and world-renown conservation scientist. He is Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, and has become a leading voice for conserving and renovating native plant agriculture in the Americas. Over three decades, he has worked with more than a dozen indigenous communities on cross-cultural initiatives to revive indigenous foods to prevent diabetes, to restore ancient agricultural landscapes and to honor traditional knowledge. Gary spoke of the need to support (by enjoyment) the threatened foods of “the Salmon Nation”, which constitutes the extensive water and food shed of the many Pacific Northwest Salmon species.

A food conservation rockstar in his own right, Nabhan shared the spotlight with luminary Seattle chefs such as James Beard Foundation award winners John Sundstrom from Lark, Thierry Rautureau from Rover’s, Tamara Murphy from Brasa, and Fernando Divina from Tendrils. The local vittles bill of fare was mouth-watering beyond belief and constituted such delicacies as Lummi Island Wild Salmon’s wild reefnet-caught salmon with heirloom tomato and roasted corn relish, mountain niche farm rotisserie leg of Navajo-Churro lamb stuffed with chard and olives, wild chanterelle and lobster mushrooms, Makah Ozette potatoes, local corn, peppers, and tomatoes, wild huckleberries, and locally made cheese from Mt. Townsend Creamery and wines from Willamette Valley Vineyards. Phew! A perfect case study of how the idea and precepts of sustainability can work through the notion of what we extol at egg as “enlightened self-interest”. Indeed, today, selling sustainability couldn’t seem easier.