Fast food has become so engrained in American food culture, its meaning has almost disappeared. We don't think about what makes the food fast, and what it was before it was sped up; French fries don't come from potatoes — they come from McDonald's. And when was the last time most of us actually made our own hamburgers?

Despite fast food's pervasiveness, there are some people out there who are working against everything fast food stands for, and their name clearly spells out their opposition: Slow Food. If the point of fast food is to create a disconnected product that can be mindlessly eaten, the Slow Food movement's purpose is to make us slow down and recognize every step that food must take before it comes to us, making informed eaters out of a fast food generation.

The Slow Food movement started in Italy in 1986 with Arcigola, the forerunner to Slow Food. Now the movement has spread to more than 100 countries, with local chapters or convivia.

The mission of Slow Food is broad and encompasses everything from defending biodiversity of food, by saving traditional breeds of animals and types of vegetables and grains that are becoming more rare, to simply trying to expose people to unique foods they may not have even know existed.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a large Slow Food community, with six convivia in Western Washington and three east of the mountains, as well as six in Oregon, including the country's oldest in Portland.

Although Washingtonians are generally very food-savvy people, Roger Downey, member of the Seattle Slow Food convivia board, says that there is still a lot left that we can do.

"Pugetonians are way ahead of the national average in food sophistication, but still way behind the average Italian housewife or Spanish tapas aficionado," Downey said. "We can help change that by concentrating on underappreciated local products."

Given the rich marine life in the Pacific Northwest, seafood is a big issue for Seattle Slow Food. With increasing technology allowing for easier transportation as well as an increased demand for seafood, the industry is turning seafood into an increasingly "fast" food.

Although seafood is very popular in the region, there's a good chance that the bivalves you slurp down at your favorite oyster bar aren't from the Northwest at all.

"Seafood sophisticates by the thousand slurp down oysters hereabouts, but not one in a hundred know that only one of the varieties on the menu is native to the region: a completely different species, in fact," Downey said. "All the rest, though locally grown, hail from abroad — are, in fact, invasive species, though tasty still."

Seafood isn't the only concern of Slow Food Seattle though. The organization has also worked to preserve the Ozette potato, a Peruvian variety introduced to the Makah people by Spanish traders in 1791. Although the Spaniards left, the potato remained a staple of the Makah, and Slow Food has worked to keep this tradition alive. The potato is now grown at several local farms and featured on the menus of many Seattle restaurants.

Slow Food Seattle also hosts events to teach people more about the food and drink they consume, diving into everything from coffee to gin. The Slow Food organization even started its own university, the University of Gastronomic Science, based in Italy, which aims to bring a higher level of education to the food world.

But with college students today being so fast food-oriented, is the movement something that people both young and old can embrace? After all, it's easy to be a supporter of fair trade products and sustainable seafood, but to subsist on these more expensive products isn't easy for the money-strapped college student.

"We desperately want better contact with student-age people, but we're right off the scopes of most: Sitting around a table chowing down is not active and political enough, while spending years lobbying a bill to preserve local farmland is way too political in the bad sense for someone with finals looming up every three months," Downey said.

Although spending years lobbying for farmland may not be appealing to college students, there are other ways to be a part of the movement, even if it is nothing more than seeking out local potatoes at the University District Farmer's Market or local Olympia oysters at your favorite seafood place.