Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- It might be time for fast food to hit the breaks, that's what one group thinks. Slow Food USA is in Columbia and is trying to put what's fresh on your plate.

"This is not just colored cellulose. This sweet potato has a lot of flavor; it has unique characteristics that no other sweet potato has," local farmer Ben DuBard says. 

The potato will never be a fast food french fry. Instead, it has its own following in Slow Food USA.

"The way we think about it is sort of a movement of local farmers collaborating with local chefs," Five Leaves Farm owner DuBard says. 

He believes in fresh food, a staple of the slow movement.

"I want to grow good clean and fair food. I also want to restore the environment and the soil that I work with, and I want the farm to produce clean water and clean air. Those are pretty lofty goals and in addition to that I want to make money doing it," DuBard explains. 

So, he works with Terra in West Columbia to get his potatoes onto your plate. More than half of Chef Mike Davis's menu comes from local farms.

"We can kind of work with the season and work with what he's got coming up at the time right now and the best part about it is you know it's going to be fresh," Davis says.  

The sweet spuds are central to tonight's dish.

"Grilled South Carolina wahoo with local sweet potato golden delicious apple, blue crab and sweet potato coulis," he explains.  

Cerelle Centeno is seeing the fruits of her labor. She brought Slow Food to Columbia two years ago.

"Slow food is really meant to be the opposite of fast food," Centeno explains. "It's really a health issue." 

She says it's here just in time to skip the fast food fries.

"What do you want the health of your children to be 20, 30 years from now? It's all a matter of eating right from the start," Centeno says.

For more information about the Slow Food movement, visit:  http://slowfoodcolumbia.blogspot.com/