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Political Activism and Cultural Translation in the Slow Food Movement

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Political Activism and Cultural Translation in the Slow Food Movement YOU SAY PLEASURABLE, I SAY POLITICAL: POLITICAL ACTIVISM AND CULTURAL TRANSLATION IN THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT by TABITHA STEAGER B.A., University of New Mexico, 1996 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) February 2009 © Tabitha Steager, 2009 Abstract In the twenty years since its founding, the Italian-born Slow Food movement has grown to include over 85,000 members worldwide. Its executive board has members from India, Japan, Kenya, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Australia, and the European Union (EU). Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy, France, the UK, and North America, this thesis explores how Slow Food principles and goals are translated culturally. I pay particular attention to how political activism around Slow Food is articulated in Italy and the United States through large conferences for both the public at large and food producers as well as farmers who are part of the global Slow Food membership. I conclude that Slow Food USA more visibly articulates a strongly politically active stance than is expressed by the parent Slow Food International organization in Italy. To bring context to this analysis, I provide a broad discussion of globalization and localization, and the intersections of the two, as well as the connections between food and identity. The ways in which Slow Food manipulates particular aspects of globalization are essential to understanding the movement and as such are explored in some detail. ii Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ iii List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1 – From Here to There…and There…and There and Back Again............................1 Chapter 2 – The Nitty Gritty: Methodology and Theory ........................................................6 The Brass Tacks.................................................................................................................6 Finding a Theoretical Comfort Zone ..................................................................................8 Beyond Theory: The magic is in the writing.....................................................................13 Chapter 3 – You are What You Eat: The Food and Identity Connection...............................17 Chapter 4 – The Local is Going Global. The Global is Going Local. ...................................26 Chapter 5 – A Great and Glorious Tale of a Boy, Some Sausages and a Bunch of Snails.....35 Chapter 6 - Slow Food and the Context of History...............................................................41 Don Carlo and His Merry Band and the Birth of a Social Movement ...............................43 Chapter 7 – You Say Pleasurable, I Say Political.................................................................47 Political Expression in the Home Territories: Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre.............50 Political Expression Across the Pond: Slow Food Nation Makes a Statement...................57 Chapter 8 - Virtuous Globalization......................................................................................68 A Broken Food System....................................................................................................71 Chapter 9 – Good, Clean, and Fair: Eco-Gastronomy and Environmental Sustainability......74 Challenges to Sustainability.............................................................................................78 Chapter 10 – Changing Culture One Bite at a Time .............................................................82 Chapter 11 – Building a Global Community........................................................................85 Chapter 12 – Expanding the Network: Slow Food Philosophy and Città Slow .....................94 iii Chapter 13 – The Future Beckons........................................................................................97 Notes.................................................................................................................................101 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................107 Appendix...........................................................................................................................120 UBC BREB Certificate of Approval ..............................................................................120 BREB Certificate of Approval – Minimal Risk Amendment ..........................................121 iv List of Illustrations All photos copyright the author. Figure 1: Carlo Petrini at the 2007 Slow Food International Congress in Puebla, Mexico. ...43 Figure 2: Via Cavour, Bra. ..................................................................................................44 Figure 3: Queue barriers for Salone del Gusto ticket purchases, early in the morning on the first day of the show. ...................................................................................................51 Figure 4: The Parmigiano-Reggiano booth. .........................................................................52 Figure 5: Terra Madre entrance, Lingotto Oval....................................................................53 Figure 6: Gabon delegate, Terra Madre................................................................................54 Figure 7: Tibetan yak’s milk cheese, curds, & whey............................................................55 Figure 8: Slow Food Nation information booth made from a shipping container..................58 Figure 9: Victory Garden, Slow Food Nation.......................................................................59 Figure 10: Heirloom tomatoes. ............................................................................................60 Figure 11: Gravenstein apples. ............................................................................................61 Figure 12: Part of the Fish Pavilion display. ........................................................................62 Figure 13: Giant bread snail at the Slow Food Nation Bread Pavilion..................................63 Figure 14: Huehuetenango coffee for sale at Slow Food Nation...........................................70 Figure 15: The Red Fife wheat booth at Salone del Gusto....................................................75 Figure 16: Water booth and station at Slow Food Nation. ....................................................79 Figure 17: Recycling and waste bins at Salone del Gusto.....................................................80 Figure 18: Salone del Gusto children’s taste education room. ..............................................82 Figure 19: Terra Madre marketplace....................................................................................85 Figure 20: Terra Madre delegates dancing in the hall...........................................................87 Figure 21: Terra Madre delegates. .......................................................................................90 Figure 22: European cheese makers.....................................................................................91 v Figure 23: Banner at the International Congress in Puebla. ..................................................91 Figure 24: Barrier between Terra Madre delegate area and public area. ...............................92 Figure 25: Ludlow, England. The first Città Slow in the UK................................................94 vi Acknowledgements Thank you to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (award number 766-2008-0714), the University of British Columbia Okanagan Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the Community, Culture, and Global Studies Unit for their generous financial support. To my generous, patient, sharing research participants – you know who you are and I cannot say enough about your help, openness, and willingness to teach me and guide me. Without you, this project would have been so much less exciting and successful. I am, trite as it may sound, eternally grateful. vii Chapter 1 – From Here to There…and There…and There and Back Again We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. -- T.S. Eliot (1944) Four Quartets. Quartet No. 4: Little Gidding. I begin with a warning. If you are expecting a straightforward, academic, perhaps dry Master’s thesis, you may want to move on to another in your stack. This is not to say that all the necessary academic ingredients are not contained herein. I am not such a rebel as that. While the following pages may not match the levels of daring, bravery, and all-around excitement Frodo and Sam faced when they traveled into the depths of Mordor to destroy the evil Sauron, I hope that, in some measure, I am able to bring to life my “adventure” of the past year and a half while researching and writing this Master’s thesis.
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