Food Culture: Discover the Slow Food Lifestyle

Slow Food is an eco-gastronomic movement which encourages both sides to reclaim the pleasures of the table with friends, family. Eating becomes a moment of sharing and discovery. All are invited to reconnect with traditions, or to explore new culinary cultures and have an environmental concern.

In response to the frenzy and speed that gripped the culture of post-industrial societies and the concept of fast food which standardizes tastes, the Slow Food movement arose in protest of this. It helps people to rediscover the joys of eating and understand the importance of caring where their food comes from, who makes it and how it’s made.

A little history

In 1986, the chain restaurant McDonald was on the point of setting up a branch on the splendid Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), a historic site in Rome. Faced with what they consider to be an unacceptable encroachment of the junk food in the land of Italy, columnist gourmet Carlo Petrini and colleagues at the company Gourmet Italian Arcigola lay the foundations of the Slow Food movement. With humor and intelligence, they convince a host of artists and Italian intellectuals to join their project. After all, Italy is the birthplace of the great European cuisine.
Carlo Petrini developped the concept of Slow Food initially as a joke, but the idea made its way so well that in 1989, Slow Food became an international nonprofit organization. The launch took place at the Opera Comique in Paris, with the adoption of the Slow Food manifesto for the taste and biodiversity, presented by Carlo Petrini.

Benefits of Slow Food

Awaken the public taste to food quality, explain the origin of foods and the socio-historical circumstances of their production, to discover the producers here and abroad, these are some of the goals of the Slow Food movement.

Proponents of this movement want to ensure that there will always be a place for artisanal foods. They believe that the food heritage of mankind and the environment are endangered by the food industry, which provides all products quickly to satisfy our appetite.

They believe that the solution to the problems of under-nutrition in South and malnutrition in the North is through a better understanding of the diversity of food crops and a sense of sharing.

To achieve these goals, the creators of Slow Food felt the need slow the pace: take the time to carefully choose their food, to know, to cook properly and to enjoy in good company. Hence the symbol of the slowness, the snail, which also refers to the prudence and wisdom of the philosopher, as well as the solemnity and restraint of the wise and benevolent host.

In addition to conducting friendly activities on education of taste, the discovery of forgotten local flavors or in danger of extinction, Slow Food promotes the recovery, in terms of food, traditional skills that slide into oblivion under pressure from a rampant productivism.

An international movement

Today, the movement has about 82000 members in fifty countries. Italy, with its 35000 members, is still the epicenter of the phenomenon. The headquarter of the Slow Food International lies at the heart of Italian Piedmont, in the city of Bra.

A decentralized movement

Members are divided into local units, each constituting a convivium in Italy or elsewhere in the world. There are approximately 1000. The word "convivium" means "living together" and is the source of word "convivial". It is reminiscent of the ritual meal that brings together people around the table.

University of Gastronomic Sciences

Slow Food founded Bra University of Gastronomic Sciences in January 2003, an institution of higher learning recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education and by the European Union. This center for training and research aims to renew the methods of agriculture, protect biodiversity and maintain a link between gastronomy and the science of agriculture. They do not teach cooking itself, but rather the theoretical and practical aspects of food through the sociology, anthropology, economics, ecology, eco-agriculture, politics, and so on.

Taste Show

In addition, Slow Food holds public events to publicize the good cooking and good food, such as the famous Salone Internazionale del Gusto (International Fair of taste) in Turin, Italie. This event, which is held every two years, allows people to discover and enjoy culinary delicacies from all over the world, to meet with top chefs who are willing to share some of their secrets, to attend taste workshops,etc.

Books

Slow Food also publishes gourmet books, including Slow magazine, published four times a year in Italian, English, German, french, Spanish and Japanese. It is a publication that deals with anthropology and geography of food. It is distributed free to members of all international units of the movement.

Socio-economic Actions

Through various programs, the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity's mission is to organize and fund activities to safeguard the diversity of heritage food processing and the richness of the culinary traditions of the world.

Thus, the Ark of Taste is an initiative of the movement to identify and protect the varieties of food plants or animals threatened with extinction due to the standardization of agricultural production industry. Adding food to the Ark of Taste is sort of allowing it to climb aboard a virtual Noah's Ark, which may protect it from the flood announced.

Europe has lost 75% of the diversity of food products since 1900. In America, these losses amount to 93% for the same period.

The Presidia is in a way the executive branch of the Ark of Taste since it is responsible for providing financial and logistical support for farmers, contractors and craftsmen who produce food enrolled in the Arc. It encourages groups of producers and supports the marketing of these products to chefs, gourmet and the general public.

Since 2000, Slow Food Prize for the safeguarding of biodiversity highlight the efforts of individuals or groups who, through their research, production, marketing or communications, help safeguard biodiversity in the agri-food industry. The winners receive a cash prize and take advantage of the media exposure of Slow Food in its publications, in its press releases and public events during the Salone del Gusto.

Among the winners of the previous editions include a group of Native Americans in Minnesota, United States, producing wild rice, a native plant in the region. These people have convinced geneticists of a university in their state to refrain from taking a patent on any new variety of wild rice issue of their genetic research. Also, they managed to obtain assurance that no genetically-modified variety of this plant would be set up in the region in order to preserve the genetic integrity of traditional varieties.

In addition, the international Slow Food movement demonstrated solidarity with the poorest of the planet by the financial support of various projects: recovery of agricultural land and improvement of production facilities in a rural community in Nicaragua, taking charge of the kitchen a hospital in Brazil, funding for emergency food programs mainly intended for children in Bosnia, reconstruction of a small cheese factory destroyed by an earthquake in Italy, and so on.