When the Happy Meals are eaten, are you left with anything but a collection of cardboard boxes and cheap, plastic toys? What about the textures, the colors, the aroma and wonderful taste of what you have eaten? What about the knowledge that the food was cooked with love and pride; that it was assembled with regard for the growers and the environment; that it was not thrown together in a hurry, but created over time so that the outcome would be more than just a collection of bland items, but an experience?
The Slow Food Movement exists to achieve all of these. Formed in 1986 in the small Italian town of Bra, this originally small group of producers and enjoyers of food has grown into an international organization consisting of 850 conviva, or chapters – each working in a specific geographical area. The philosophy of the movement is simple:
We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.
Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.
We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.
The recognition of each individual not as a consumer, but as a co-producer is probably the most important factor that makes Slow Food different from all other philosophies, whether gastronomic, environmental or both. The term “consumer” is an invention of the industrial world: it defines people as economic units rather than individuals, thus taking away our basic right to self-determination – we are allowed to exist within the limits of an economic consumer system rather than the limits of our imagination.
This is expressed beautifully by one person, who states: “Being a Slow Food member is a self-fulfilling prophecy because as the saying goes, if ‘We are what we eat’, who wants to be fast, cheap and easy!” In those terms, Slow Food is most definitely a revolution in the way we look at both the food we eat, the also who we are.
There is a huge amount of information available on the web site, including a 46 page “Slow Food Companion”, the ideal starting point for everyone new to the concept. In keeping with Green Seniors’ global ideals, the Companion is available in seven languages, and will, no doubt be translated further as the movement grows:
Dutch: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_DUT.pdf
English: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_ENG.pdf
French: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_FRA.pdf
German: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_DE.pdf
Japanese: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_JAP.pdf
Portuguese: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_POR.pdf
Spanish: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_ESP.pdf
We can also, almost guarantee that there is a Slow Food Conviva near to you. You can look up the details at http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/where.lasso. And even if you don’t want to formally join the movement, there is nothing stopping you embracing its philosophy: for many of you reading this, slow food is what you have known for most of your lives.
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