Heritage Rabbit

The Slow Food movement is in large part a state of mind, but it's also a leader in the effort to protect particular American food traditions best summarized by the maxim "We must eat them to save them."

Heritage Foods USA was founded in 2001 as an arm of Slow Food USA; as its mission statement declares, it exists "to promote genetic diversity, small family farms, and a fully traceable food supply."

Each of the 50 farms that make up Heritage Foods is committed to the preservation of the rare breeds of livestock on offer. But they can do only so much - and that's where you, and the eating, come in.

Eric and Callene Rapp of Rare Hare Barns in Leon, Kansas, raise this rare-breed American rabbit, whose meat is delicately flavored and exceptionally tender.