Slow Food

Slow Food Organizations

There are many nonprofit organizations with a variety of programs dedicated to sustainable healthy food and style of life. Slow Food International is a leading organization that has 100,000 members in about 130 countries. Its global membership is organized in local sections—called “convivia”—coordinated at the international headquarters in Bra, Piedmont, and by regional and/or national executive committees (e.g., Slow Food USA). Branches and programs of Slow Food include the Tierra Madre Network, U.S. Ark of Taste, Presidia, RAFT, Slow Food in Schools, Slow Food on Campus, and the U.S. Youth Food Movement. The main media outlet of Slow Food is Slow Food Editore, which was established in 1990. It publishes a range of guides in order to lead consumers to food products available in their local areas. Osterie d'Italia, a guide to the traditional cuisine of the Italian regions, is the leading publication in Europe, and is updated annually. The guides usually list small restaurants with healthy meals, historic cafés, artisanal ice cream shops, delicatessens that specialize in regional products, and traditional bakeries. Recently, some of these restaurants have gone through a process of gentrification and are promoting a kind of gastronomic tourism.

Alternative Scenarios

Slow–Fast Food. On one extreme of this scenario is that fast food icon, the hamburger, made from meat that came from a feedlot of grain-fed cattle and was shipped to large processing plants through gigantic distribution systems. It was then slapped on a refined, puffed-up hamburger bun, packaged, and eaten on the run. On the other extreme is dining on a healthful meal, featuring foods that honor regional traditions passed down through the generations, while surrounded by good friends and family. Moreover, these foods feature local, sustainable, minimally processed ingredients.

The problem with this scenario is that a structural component is not the healthy food but the presumption that any slow food is healthy while any nonslow food is unhealthy. There are many traditions that pass from generation to generation and do not promote healthy food. On the other hand, not all cuisine types in the fast food chains are unhealthy. The debate between fast and slow food [Page 820]has been turning toward healthy versus nonhealthy food. Not everything that comes from a home garden is healthy (especially if you live in an area with air and soil pollution), nor is everything in a fast food restaurant unhealthy.

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