Slow Food - The Case for Taste

There are times when food moves beyond the obvious, and becomes the basis of living life. When I picked up a copy of Slow Food: The Case for Taste by Carlo Petrini (2001), I suspected that this was going to be the case. But the extent of the commitment by the founder to the cause, and the number of supporters for this seemingly simple idea of designing a life based on the basic principles of food, drink, sustainable agriculture and community, is astonishing and heartening.

In advising us to “take a breath…. read slowly”, I share with you the blurb in the jacket of the book which summarizes Slow Food:

How often in the course and crush of our daily lives do we afford ourselves moments to truly relish- to truly be present in- the act of preparing and eating food? For most of us, our enjoyment of food has fallen victim to the frenetic pace of our lives and to our increasing estrangement, in a complex commercial economy, from the natural processes by which food is grown and produced. Packaged artificial, and unhealthful, fast food is only the most dramatic example of the degradation of food in our lives, and of the deeper threats to our cultural, political, and environmental well-being.

Petrini is a food writer, and both founder and president of the International Slow Food Movement. The seed of the movement was sown when, in 1986, he organized a protest against the building of a McDonald’s near the Spanish Steps in Rome. One man’s belief now has over 80,000 members in over 100 countries for what internationally renowned chef Alice Waters calls the “Delicious Revolution.”

The structure of the movement shows how it proposes to carry out action on its effort to raise public regard for human and territorial resources, committing to the education of taste, and campaigning to safeguard plant and animal species and create markets for locally specific and traditional products. The last has even extended to the people of Sarawak and the indigenous Bario Rice that is grown there.

Having Italian roots, the arms of the movement have names like convivium for local chapters, the Presidia to protect artisan producers, Aula Magna for taste instruction, and endangered products find refuge in the Ark. Slow Food even has a University and Agenzia di Pollenzo i.e. The University of the Science of Gastronomy, housed in a classic agricultural complex set-up with the cooperation of the people of Bra, Italy.

Obviously Petrini would have his detractors. One may argue that a movement like Slow Food is a luxury when many in the world are still starving. Even so, it is worth considering that if the rest of us do not eat and live responsibly, then the degradation of the quality of our life further erodes those who are more helpless economically, socially and politically to better themselves.

At the heart of the matter, it’s all about respecting ourselves enough to live life well, whatever our circumstances. Slow Food is simply one man’s fascinating example of how to do so.