Laurie Carlson is a supporter of the slow food movement.

It's a concept that was started in Italy by a man who believed fast food restaurants were threatening his country's culinary traditions.

"Slow food is rather the polar opposite of fast food in every regard. It has to do with sustainability. It has to do with bio diversity",' she says.

Here in Hawaii, Carlson points to poi as a good example of a slow food.

One that not only has tradition tied to it, but also requires an effort on the part of its consumer.

But the concept of slow foods goes beyond a type of food.

Paul Reppun is a taro farmer who says he was fortunate enough to grow up living a slow food lifestyle.

"There's seven kids in my family and every night my mother would cook and every night we would all sit down to eat dinner together. And after dinner we would have a big argument. And that was how we grew up, you know. But for us that was slow food. It didn't matter what kind of food but my mother put a lot of love into it," says Paul Reppun, Farmer.

Another problem with non-slow foods - how they get here.

"Well, one of the worse things about the food we eat nowadays is the number of food miles it travels. it averages thousands of miles that most food travels and that's not sustainable. It's not sustainable in terms of fossil fuels. it's um sort of like the tourist industry, ya know, if the fuel prices go to high then the tourists stop coming, same with the food and that is not just true of hawaii as an island but it's true of every place," says Reppun.

Carlson says it doesn't take much to start living a slow food lifestyle... And every little bit counts.

"Even if it just a little token thing, ya know, if you grow a little bit in your backyard, it says something to you about…the concept of sovereignty. You become an independent free person if you can grow you own food."

You can taste some down home cooking and support slow food. It's fundraising dinner "little kitchens" is at the Hawai'i State Art Museum. Click HERE for tickets.