SLOW FOOD

 

Motto                    Good, clean, and fair.

Formation             1986 in Bra, Piedmont, Italy

Headquarters        Bra, Italy

President               Carlo Petrini

 

 

Slow Food is a non-profit organization, founded in 1989 in Bra ( Piedmont - Italy), by Carlo Petrini.  to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions.

Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure everyone has access to good, clean and fair food.

Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem.

Founder and President Carlo Petrini, believes "everyone has the right to good, clean, and fair food."

Good  = high quality product with a flavorful taste

Clean = the naturalness in the way the product was produced and transported

Fair    = adequate pricing and treatment for both the consumers and producers.

 

Why the name Slow Food?
It’s a way of saying no to the rise of fast food and fast life. Slow Food means living an unhurried life, taking time to enjoy simple pleasures, starting at the table.

 

Why the snail symbol?
The snail was chosen because it moves slowly, calmly eating its way through life.

It is also a culinary specialty in the area around the town of Bra, where the Slow Food movement was born.

 Slow Food philosophy

Slow Food envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.

Its concept of food is defined by three principles: good, clean and fair.

 

  • GOOD: quality, flavorsome and healthy food
  • CLEAN: production that does not harm the environment
  • FAIR: accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for producers

 

 

SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

 

Slow Food was started by Carlo Petrini and a group of activists in the 1980s with the initial aim to defend regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life.

Promoted as an alternative to fast food (its forerunner organization, Agricola, tried to oppose to the opening of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome in 1986), industrial food production, and globalization, the movement strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem.

 

Today Slow Food represents a global movement involving thousands of projects and millions of people in over 160 countries.

Slow Food incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

·        developing an "Ark of Taste".

This is an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods designed to preserve at-risk foods that are sustainably produced, unique in taste, and part of a distinct ecoregion.

The Ark of Taste aims to promote the growing and eating of foods which are sustainable and preserve biodiversity in the human food chain.

Foods included in the list are intended to be "culturally or historically linked to a specific region, locality, ethnicity or traditional production practice” in addition to being rare.

Since the foundation of the Ark in 1996, 4866 products (October 2018) from over 149 countries have been included and growing daily. The list includes also a great many livestock breeds, as well as vegetable and fruit cultivars (among Ligurian products present in the Ark of taste we can name: Anchovies of Monterosso, Garlic of Vessalico, rose syrup, etc).

·        creating "Praesidia" grassroots organizations to promote slow foods to the public;

·        forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems;

·        preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation

·        organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)

Founder and President Carlo Petrini, believes "everyone has the right to good, clean, and fair food."

Good, meaning a high quality product with a flavorful taste

Clean meaning the naturalness in the way the product was produced and transported

Fair, meaning adequate pricing and treatment for both the consumers and producers.

Criticisms

Some of the criticisms aimed at the movement are socioeconomic. For example only the more affluent society can afford the time and expense of developing "taste", "knowledge", and "discernment". SlowFood's stated aim of preserving itself from the "contagion of the multitude" can be seen as elitist.

 

Why the name Slow Food?
It’s a way of saying no to the rise of fast food and fast life. Slow Food means living an unhurried life, taking time to enjoy simple pleasures, starting at the table.

 
Why the snail symbol?
The snail was chosen because it moves slowly, calmly eating its way through life. It also happens to be a culinary specialty in the area around the northern Italian town of Bra, where the Slow Food movement was born and where the headquarter of SF is located.

 

Why did Slow Food begin in Bra?
Bra is the hometown of Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini. Located in a region famous for its wines, white truffles, cheese and beef; it proved to be the perfect incubator for the Slow Food movement.

 

Global headquarters are located in Bra, near Turin, Italy. Numerous publications are put out by the organisation, in several languages around the world. Recent efforts at publicity include the world's largest food and wine fair, the Salone del Gusto in Turin, a biennial cheese fair in Bra called Cheese, the Genoan fish festival called SlowFish, and Turin's Terra Madre ("Mother Earth") world meeting of food communities.

 

In 2004, Slow Food opened a University of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo, in Piedmont, whose goal is to promote awareness of good food and nutrition