WELCOME TO OUR WORLD COMPANION Slow Food® CONTENTS Graphic © areagrafica 1. GOOD, CLEAN AND FAIR 4 6. EVENTS 50 History of an idea 4 Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 52 Philosophy 6 Cheese 54 Mission 8 Slow Fish 56 Events worldwide 59 2. NETWORK 12 Structure 12 7. COMMUNICATION 60 Association and convivia 14 slowfood.com and social media 61 Members 16 Slow Food Almanac 61 Local communities 18 International communication 61 The Slow Food Youth Network 19 Video 61 Slow Food Editore 61 3. TERRA MADRE 20 Text Network of networks 23 8. CaMPAIGNS 62 John Irving and Silvia Ceriani The meetings 24 Land grabbing 63 Terra Madre Day 26 GMOs 64 Editors A Thousand Gardens in Africa 27 Slow Fish 65 Kate Mann, Silvia Ceriani Slow Cheese 65 4. BIODIVERSITY 28 Translation Foundation for Biodiversity 28 9. SLOW WORLD 66 Carla Ranicki Ark of Taste 30 Manifesto 68 Presidia 32 The Sixth International Congress: Art Director Earth Markets 34 strategic objectives 70 Paolo Rubei Frequently asked questions 72 5. FOOD & TASTE EDUCATION 36 Who’s who 74 Cover Convivium activities 39 Contact us 75 Photo @ Kunal Chandra Taste workshop 39 Schools and tools 40 © Copyright School gardens 42 Slow Food Worldwide 44 University of Gastronomic Sciences 46 ® All Rights Reserved Daily food 49 Slow Food FROM ENO-GASTRONOMY FROM ecO-GASTRONOMY FROM LOcaL TO ecO-GASTRONOMY TO NEO-GASTRONOMY TO GLOBAL arco Sasia Slow Food was founded as an “eno- Slow Food believes in a “new gastronomy”: Slow Food is a global grassroots organization M gastronomic” (wine and food) association by gastronomy as freedom of choice, as which envisions a world in which all people hoto © food activist Carlo Petrini in 1986. Its initial education, as a multidisciplinary approach to can enjoy food that is good for them, good P aim was to support and defend good food, food that enables us to live our lives as well as for producers and good for the planet. Today, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life. possible, using the resources available to us millions of people around the world are It then broadened its sights to embrace the without wasting them. involved in the movement. The organization quality of life and, as a logical consequence, has 100,000 interconnected members in 160 the very survival of the imperiled planet on countries, with national branches in Germany, which we live. Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. HISTORY OF AN IDEA GOOD “We can change the world, one meal at a time!” AN CLEAN D FAIR 4 5 FROM QUALITY OF FOOD TO QUALITY OF LIfe igliore M liver Slow Food is committed to protecting traditional and O sustainable quality foods, conserving cultivation and hoto © processing methods, and defending the biodiversity of P cultivated and wild varieties. The only type of agriculture that can offer development prospects, especially for the poorest regions of the world, is one based on the wisdom of local communities in harmony with the ecosystems that surround them. Slow Food protects places of historic, artistic or social value that form part of our food heritage, acknowledging the history and culture of every social group as it interacts within a broader network of reciprocal exchange. PHILOSOPHY Eating is an agricultural act. Informed, selective consumers become co-producers by demanding food that is good, clean and fair. Slow Food believes that gastronomy is indissolubly tied to, among other things, politics, agriculture and the environment, and is actively involved in agricultural and ecological issues around the world. “Food equals pleasure, awareness and responsibility” 6 7 Today, the most common food production The consumer orients the market and GOOD FAIR and consumption systems are harmful to the production with his or her choices and, A food’s flavor and aroma, recognizable to Social justice should be pursued through Earth; to its ecosystems and to the people growing aware of these processes, he or she educated, well-trained senses, is the fruit of the the creation of labor conditions that are that inhabit it. assumes a new role. Consumption becomes competence of the producer and the choice of respectful of man and his rights, and ichele Listello M part of the productive act and the consumer raw materials and production methods, which capable of generating adequate rewards: Taste, biodiversity and the ealth and well-being thus becomes a co-producer. should in no way alter its naturalness. through the pursuit of balanced global hoto © P of humans, animals and nature are coming under The producer plays a key role in this process, economies; through the practice of continuous attack. This jeopardizes the very urge working to achieve quality, making his or her CLEAN sympathy and solidarity; through respect to eat and produce food as gastronomes, and experience available and welcoming the knowledge The environment must be respected, and for cultural diversity and traditions. exercise the right to pleasure without harming and know-how of others. The effort must be a sustainable practices of farming, animal the existence of others or the environmental common one, made in the same, shared and husbandry, processing, marketing and Good, clean and fair quality is a pledge equilibriums of the planet we live on. interdisciplinary spirit as the science of gastronomy. consumption should be taken into serious for a better future. Good, clean and fair Each of us is called upon to practice and consideration. Every stage in the agro- quality is an act of civilization and a tool If, as the farmer poet Wendell Berry says, disseminate a new and more precise, yet industrial production chain, consumption to improve the food system as it is today. “eating is an agricultural act,” it follows at the same time, broader concept of food included, should protect ecosystems and Everyone can contribute to good, clean that producing food must be considered a quality based on three basic interconnected biodiversity, safeguarding the health of the and fair quality through their choices and “gastronomic act.” prerequisites. Quality food must be: consumer and the producer. individual behavior. MISSION 8 9 BUILDING NETWORKS E DUCATING CONSUMERS omune C SLOW FOOD defeNDS BIODIVERSITY Slow Food organizes local and international Slow Food believes that the best way to stem arco del IN OUR FOOD SUPPLY, PROMOteS taSte fairs, events and markets to showcase quality the tide of junk food, fast food and globalized M edUcatION AND CONNectS QUALITY food products. Above all, Slow Food manages standardization, and to save endangered local hoto © FOOD PRODUceRS TO CO-PRODUceRS Terra Madre. cuisines, traditional products, vegetable species P THROUGH EVENTS AND INITIatIVES. Terra Madre today is: and animal breeds is through taste education. TO DO THIS IT adOPTS A DISTINctIVELY a project to actively support small-scale, We believe that food is the ideal tool for ORIGINAL APPROacH. sustainable, local economies experimenting with and promoting an articulated, a network of thousands of food complex and creative education that gives value producers united in 2,000 food to interdependence, the environment and the communities, as well as 1,000 common good. Slow Food in Schools educates cooks, 450 academics and 1,000 the very young and the University of Gastronomic young people from 160 countries Sciences trains the gastronomes of the future. an event a world meeting of food communities See page 36. See page 20. PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY Slow Food argues that the pleasures of the table should be backed by a concerted effort to protect food biodiversity, meaning the countless traditional cheeses, grains, vegetables, fruits and animal breeds that convenience food and agribusiness are pushing out of existence. The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity has promoted projects such as the Ark of Taste, the Presidia and A Thousand Gardens in Africa to conserve our precious food heritage. See page 28. 10 11 NETWORK STRUCTURE ontanaro M ndrea A aolo P Formally, Slow Food is an international member- • more than 100,000 members in over 1,300 hoto © supported non-profit organization. Informally, it convivia in 160 countries P is the “facilitator” of a world network committed • organizations and other bodies around the to changing the way food is currently produced world that share the same objectives and distributed. The overall network is made up • Terra Madre food communities of a series of linked sub-networks: • the Slow Food Youth Network 12 13 “Food is culture, identity and wealth” ASSOCIATION AND CONVIVIA The hub of the network is Slow Food. Given the International Council, which represents 32 its non-profit status, it reinvests all of its geographic areas, the Slow Food Foundation for earnings and financial resources into the Biodiversity and the University of Gastronomic The “building blocks” of the association choosing producers to participate in activities defined in its statute. Sciences, and defines Slow Food’s political and are autonomous local groups known as international events and promoting development strategies. (see page 74) convivia, which cultivate the appreciation taste education in schools. Convivium The international Slow Food association of pleasure and quality in daily life by activities are very important to the Slow is coordinated by an International Council In some countries – Germany, Italy, Japan, the gathering regularly to share the pleasure Food movement because they bring and steered by an Executive Committee. All Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and conviviality of meals of local food, its philosophy to life. The events and appointments are held for a four-year term of and the United States – activities are run by building relationships with producers, initiatives organized by local convivia give office. The Executive Committee is Slow Food’s national associations, which are accountable campaigning to protect traditional members a chance to come together and highest institutional governing body.