Slow Food
Slow Food is a global movement that advocates for food that is enjoyable, environmentally sustainable, and economically fair. Founded in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini and a group of friends in response to the encroachment of fast food, the movement seeks to preserve traditional culinary practices and promote local food cultures. It emphasizes three key principles: food should be good (tasty), clean (produced without harm to health, animal welfare, or the environment), and fair (accessible and produced under equitable conditions).
The movement has grown to include over 160 countries and more than 1,500 local groups known as convivia. Members participate in various events, including food tastings and educational workshops, and engage in initiatives like the Ark of Taste, which aims to protect endangered food varieties. Slow Food also supports biodiversity through its Foundation for Biodiversity and is involved in educational efforts, such as the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. While the movement is celebrated for its mission, it has faced criticism for being elitist, emphasizing the need for more inclusive priorities in food accessibility. Overall, Slow Food champions a more thoughtful approach to eating and food production in the face of a fast-paced modern world.
Subject Terms
Slow Food
Slow Food is a worldwide movement that "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," according to the organization Slow Food International. Its members believe that food must be defined by three characteristics: good tasting, meaning that it is flavorful and delicious; clean, meaning that its production and consumption are not detrimental to human health, animal welfare, or the environment; and fair, meaning that prices are affordable and that food workers labor under fair conditions for a living wage. The movement stands in firm opposition to fast food and, even more broadly, to the hurried pace of modern life. The founders of the movement chose to feature a snail in their logo to symbolize not only slow movement but also snails as a culinary specialty around the northern Italian town of Bra in the Piedmont region, where the Slow Food movement first began.
Background
In the 1970s, Carlo Petrini, a native of Bra, began writing food-and-wine columns for Il Manifestoand L’Unità, local Communist newspapers. He was a member of the Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana (L’ARCI), which sought to promote Italian culture and community solidarity, and he and his fellow members spent long evenings in Bra’s trattorias, enjoying the simple but skillfully prepared dishes served there.
Petrini was dismayed by news that the fast-food giant McDonald’s planned to open a franchise in Rome’s famed Piazza di Spagna. Fearing that mass-produced hamburgers might soon supplant local fare in popularity, he and a handful of friends met in 1986 to discuss the situation. They were aware that in the years following World War II, Italy’s culinary heritage—its butchers, cheese makers, and bakers—were slowly replaced by Americanized supermarkets that offered a plethora of less expensive products. Fast-food chains, the friends decided, presented an even greater peril to the Italian palate and sensibility.
Petrini and his cohorts decided to form a group they called Arcigola, whose name was a blend of the acronym ARCI and the culinary magazine La Gola. Arcigola’s initial goal was to fight back against McDonald’s, but Petrini realized that traditional picketing and protests would not be sufficient. Instead, he wanted to make the world aware of the traditionally grown and prepared foods that were at risk of being lost. Arcigola protesters arrived at the site of the proposed McDonald’s armed with steaming bowls of pasta instead of picket signs and chanting that they demanded slow food, not fast food.
Overview
Arcigola was the precursor to the organization Slow Food, which had its official launch in late 1989 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. At Petrini’s behest, delegates from more than a dozen countries traveled to hear and endorse the Slow Food manifesto, which asserts among other things that "we are enslaved by speed . . . which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes, and forces us to eat Fast Foods."
In 1990, the first Slow Food International Congress was held in Venice, Italy, and that year the group launched its publishing arm, Slow Food Editore, which released its first region-to-region guidebook to the traditional restaurants and food producers of Italy. Soon, more countries formed Slow Food groups, with the US branch launching in 2000 and counting famed chef Alice Waters as one of its biggest proponents. Each national group is autonomous but follows the Slow Food International guidelines when organizing events, which can include food and wine tastings, agricultural fairs, and educational workshops. Under the umbrella of the national groups are small, local organizations called convivia.
Among the major projects undertaken at all levels of the organization is the Ark of Taste, which was established in 1996 in an effort to rediscover and catalog unique varieties of edible plants, breeds of domesticated animals, and artisanal food products. In 2003, the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity was formed to further those efforts. The foundation now oversees hundreds of presidia, small projects in which Slow Food works with groups of artisan food producers and farmers to promote their unique products.
In 2004 Slow Food helped found the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in food studies. In 2008, inspired by a lecture from Petrini, the University of New Hampshire became the first US university to offer a major in EcoGastronomy.
The Slow Food Movement Today
Slow Food now boasts branches in more than 160 countries and refers to itself as an ecogastronomic movement that promotes sustainable agriculture. There are over 1,500 convivia worldwide, with an estimated 100,000 members. Members are eligible to attend the Salone del Gusto (Hall of Taste), which is held in Turin every other year and is considered one of the organization’s flagship events. The Terra Madre (Mother Earth) conference, held concurrently, draws more than 5,000 farmers and food producers from around the world who talk about their work and discuss methods of improvement.
Widely celebrated in many quarters, Slow Food has nonetheless been criticized as elitist or trivial by some observers. Petrini has acknowledged that quality food can be expensive, but he asserts that it is a necessity rather than a luxury and that the world’s priorities must shift to reflect that.
Bibliography
Andrews, Geoff. The Slow Food Story: Politics and Pleasure. London: Pluto, 2008. Print.
Block, Peter. "Technology, Culture, and Stewardship." Organization Development Journal 32.4 (2014): 9. Print.
Leitch, Alison. "Slow Food and the Politics of ‘Virtuous Globalization.’" Food and Culture: A Reader.3rd ed. Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 2013. 409–25. Print.
Petrini, Carlo. Food and Freedom: How the Slow Food Movement Is Creating Change around the World through Gastronomy.New York: Rizzoli, 2015. Print.
Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair. New York: Rizzoli, 2007. Print.
Schneider, Stephen. "Good, Clean, Fair: The Rhetoric of the Slow Food Movement." College English 70.4 (2008): 384–402. Print.
Simonetti, Luca. "The Ideology of Slow Food." Journal of European Studies42.2 (2012): 168–89. Print.
"Slow Food's Recipe for Good, Clean and Fair Food Systems." Slow Food, 17 May 2023, www.slowfood.com/blog-and-news/slow-foods-recipe-for-good-clean-and-fair-food-systems/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.
Stille, Alexander. "Slow Food: An Italian Answer to Globalization." Nation 273.6 (2001): 11–16. Print.