I recently vacationed in Slovenia—a country that’s starting to make an annual appearance on my passport. If you are a lover of local gastronomy, of slow food (both high-brow and rustic peasant fare), and of unusually excellent biodynamic wines, I urge you to visit this tiny former Yugoslav republic. Not only is the food fresh and various (it changes not only from region to region, but from valley to valley), the landscape—snow-topped mountains, unspoiled Alpine lakes, and electric turquoise rivers—is gasp-inducing.

As I sit here in my Brooklyn kitchen, meditating on memorable Slovenian meals and my forays to several Slovenian farms, I realize that there is much we in the U.S. can learn from this country’s agricultural and environmental practices.

Here are a few items off the top of my head.

1.    Open tourist farms. Since declaring independence in 1991 and after joining the EU in 2004, Slovenia has protected its network of small, family-run farms, rather than let them close in the face of competition. To supplement their income, hundreds of farmers rent rooms out to travelers—and the Slovenian Tourist Board avidly promotes these kmetije to potential travelers around the world. Staying on a kmetija, as I’ve written elsewhere, is popular with Europeans and increasingly with adventurous Americans as well. Here in the U.S., where college grads are interning on farms in unprecedented numbers, clutching their dog-eared copies of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and our President is serious about agricultural reform and food safety. Isn’t this the perfect moment to promote agritourism here in the U.S.?

2.    Ban neonicotinoids. Stay a few days in the Slovenian countryside, and you will see that honey is an integral part of the culture (not to mention the economy). The country’s beekeeping tradition goes back to the 1760’s, when an apiarist named Anton Janša (from Carinthia, which is now part of Slovenia) was hired by Austrian Empress Maria Theresa to lecture and advise on beekeeping in Vienna. Today, Janša, who bred the gentle Carniolan grey bee and designed the multi-hued beehives (with folksy panel paintings) that you see along country lanes and major highways to this day, is considered one of the fathers of modern beekeeping. (In Slovenia, the Museum of Apiculture in Radovljica is even named after him. I have yet to go there…next time.)

As you’ve probably heard, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has mysteriously decimated honeybee populations worlwide. Most scientists believe that neonicotinoids, a fairly recently introduced class of pesticides that are used at alarmingly high rates in the U.S., are at least partially to blame. Only four countries worldwide have banned neonicotinoids out-right—Slovenia is one of them.

3. Feed cows grass. C’mon already! Grass-fed cows are healthier (read: no e. coli), and produce more milk and less methane than corn-fed cows, and their milk and meat is richer in healthy fats such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). To top it all off, they have sweeter breath than their corn-fed cousins. Why are American farmers so resistant to change? Because industrial farms would not be able to exist in a world where cows graze on pasture, as they are meant to. In Slovenia, farmers look at you quizzically when you ask them what they feed their cows. The answer is the same as the one their fathers and forefathers would’ve given: grass (and in the winter, hay).

4. Protect local foods. Every country with a half-way decent gastronomic heritage does it and Slovenia does it, too: protect local foodstuffs and market them accordingly. Tolmin cheese, made in the mountains above Kobarid is registered as a “designation of origin” product by the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. So is Karst pršut and Piran sea salt. America may have to answer for modern-day abominations such as McDonalds but we have a traditional food culture, too. Why not initiate protected status for our aged Vermont cheddar?  For home-made apple pie? For BBQ pig?

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