| Slow Food | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Good, clean, and fair. |
| Formation | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Bra, Italy |
| Membership | 100,000 |
| President | Carlo Petrini |
| Website | slowfood.com |
Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. 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. It was the first established part of the broader Slow movement. The movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 150 countries. [1] Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products.
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Slow Food began in Italy with the founding of its forerunner organization, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome.[2] In 1989, the founding Manifesto of the international Slow Food movement was signed in Paris, France by delegates from 15 countries.[3] This was done not so much a protest against the restaurant chain as a protest against big international business interests.
The Slow Food organization spawned by the movement has expanded to include over 100,000 members with chapters in over 150 countries. [4] All totaled, 800 local convivia chapters exist. 360 convivia in Italy — to which the name condotta (singular) / condotte (plural) applies — are composed of 35,000 members, along with 450 other regional chapters around the world. The organizational structure is decentralized: each convivium has a leader who is responsible for promoting local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through regional events such as Taste Workshops, wine tastings, and farmers' markets.
Offices have been opened in Switzerland (1995), Germany (1998), New York City (2000), France (2003), Japan (2005), and most recently in the United Kingdom and Chile. The head offices are located in Bra, near the famous city of Turin, northern Italy. Numerous publications are put out by the organization, in several languages. In the US, the Snail is the quarterly of choice, while Slow Food puts out literature in several other European nations. 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[5] at Pollenzo, in Piedmont, and Colorno, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Carlo Petrini and Massimo Montanari are the leading figures in the creation of the University, whose goal is to promote awareness of good food and nutrition.
The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:
Founder and President Carlo Petrini, believes "everyone has the right to good, clean and fair food." [6] Good, meaning a high quality product with a flavorful taste, clean meaning the naturalness in the way the product was produced and transported and fair, meaning adequate pricing and treatment for both the consumers and producers.
From time to time, Slow Food intervenes directly in market transactions; for example, Slow Food was able to preserve four varieties of native American turkey by ordering 4,000 of their eggs and commissioning their raising and slaughtering and delivery to market.
It is difficult to gauge the extent of the success of the Slow Food movement, considering that the organization itself is still very young. The current grassroots nature of Slow Food is such that few people in Europe and the United States are aware of it.
Slow Food has had little effect on society as a whole. An example of this is the fact that tourists visit Slow Food restaurants more than locals. In an effort to spread the ideals of anti-fast food, Slow Food has targeted the youth of the nations in primary and secondary schools. Volunteers help build structural frameworks for school gardens and put on workshops to introduce the new generation to the art of farming.
As of 2011[update], Slow Food USA has a membership of roughly 25,000 and more than 250,000 supporters. [7] Notable members include Alice Waters, Eric Schlosser, and Michael Pollan. Slow Food USA is the second largest slow food association. The movement has spread throughout the United States with the aid of college organizations. Notably, Swarthmore College, and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Atlanta. The student run Good Food Project have been at the forefront of the Slow Food movement in Philadelphia, which is headed by Swarthmore German Professor Hansjakob Werlen.[8]
Slow Food USA currently has 225 chapters. [7] These are locally based organizations that hold events and education outreach programs that benefit their communities while carrying out the message of the slow food and advancing the local environmental movement.
In 2008, Slow Food USA hosted its largest gathering to date when 50,000 people attended the inaugural Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Founded by Alice Waters, it was the largest celebration of American food (other than the annual American holiday of Thanksgiving) in history.[9]
The Slow Food movement has been gaining a large amount of attention and support over the past 25 years. This support is in the involvement of countries, cities and individuals spreading the importance and making a deep impact. Beyond the chapters established within the cities in the United States there are a number of Universities that are becoming recognized by Slow Food USA. The first to make a difference was the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2007. From then there have been 46 Slow Food chapters established on campuses of higher education.[10]
Slow Food-University of Wisconsin is one of the largest and most successful Slow Food Campus Chapters with five projects that are dedicated to the movement's efforts. A Family Dinner Night takes place every Monday as a set meal for only $5.00. There is a weekly Cafe where the students share good, clean, fair food with the whole UW Madison campus and surrounding area. Farm to University is a section of Slow Food UW that is working hard to bring more local foods to campus establishments. Student interns work with Robert Pierce and Growing Power in Milwaukee to offer a weekly CSA style 'Market Basket'[11], an affordable way for students to have fresh produce as well as supporting a larger movement. Finally, students via the South Madison project are working hard to educate our society through their work with children.
Slow Food UK's head office is based in Covent Garden London (previously based in the small town of Ludlow, Shropshire.[12]) Slow Food has regional groups all over the UK, that are run by Slow Food members.
In 2009 it was estimated there were 3,300 paid-up members of Slow Food UK.[12]
The Australian slow food movement aims to increase community awareness of the value from farm to market of good, clean, local food.[13] A campaign is being mounted to have included in Slow Food International's Ark of Taste (nationally nominated threatened produce and food products) the following Australian foods: Kangaroo Island's Ligurian bee honey, the Queensland-native bunya nut, bull-boar sausage from Victoria and Tasmanian Leatherwood honey.[14]