Slow Food

Debbie Field, FoodShare Toronto January 17, 2007, Noon - 1:30 p.m.Social Economy Lunchbox Speakers Series OISE/University of Toronto

Building a Global

Social Economy for

Good, Clean and Fair Food

Slow Food and the Social Economy

• Social Economy• Slow Food as an example of

one of the largest Social Economy experiments globally

• Slow Food• Terra Madre• Salon du Gusto• Slow Food Canada• FoodShare Toronto• Local Examples

Social economy refers to a third sector in economies between the

The Social economy refersto third sector between

private sector, or business, and the public sector, or

government. It includes organisations such as

cooperatives, non-governmental organization and

charities.

Direct Service

SlowFoodShare

Toronto

EntrepreneurialActivity

Advocacy

Successful Food Non-Profits

The story is now iconic…. To protest fast food --

the celebration of slow food…..

Italian Journalist Carlo

Petrini was so incensed

in 1986 when a McDonald's

outlet opened next to the

Spanish Steps in Rome, he

and a group of other

intellectuals launched

an "epicurean revolt."

The problem: Fast Food

• Corporate food

• Capitalist Food

• Processed Food

• Labour Intensive Food

• Kid Food

• Salty, sweet Food

• Chemical Food

• Dead Food

• Unhealthy food

The Solution: Slow Food Manifesto

The Slow Food international movement officially began when delegates from 15 countries endorsed this manifesto, written by founding member Folco Portinari, on November 9, 1989.Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction. A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects?Slow Food guarantees a better future.

Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into

an international movement, with the little snail as its symbol.

Slow Food Movement“A tantalizing mix of politics, environmentalism and the pursuit of pleasure.” -CBC

And from taste --- it has moved to politics

Slow food’s evolution from taste and what people put in our mouths– to commonsality and how we eat as a group

– to restaurants;

– to producers;

– to food communities;

– to the ark and the precidium;

– to a world movement for local food

– in fact for a world movement of counter-culture and slow activity.

Slow Cities

• The Slow philosophy has also spawned other movements such as "Slow Cities" (Citta Slow), which aims to promote local cultures, economies, and ecologies. Cities gain accreditation based on their adoption of policies designed to cut noise and traffic, to increase green space and to promote shops and restaurants that sell local produce. Designed to make cities more livable for their inhabitants, the Slow Cities movement — which emphasizes hospitality and neighbourliness — also develops local economies by encouraging tourism. As of 2003, more than thirty cities, mostly in Italy, had gained accreditation.

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling

interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

Today, it has over 80,000 members all over the world.

Beyond cooking to agriculture: monoculture creates lack of diversity

• 75% of European food product diversity has been lost since 1900

93% of American food product diversity has been lost in the same time period

33% of livestock varieties have disappeared or are near disappearing

30,000 vegetable varieties have become extinct in the last century, and one more is lost every six hours

Slow Food projects promote biodiversity

• The Ark of Taste came into being to save an economic, social and cultural heritage - a universe of animal breeds, fruit and vegetables, cured meats, cheese, cereals, pastas, cakes and confectionery.

• If Ark products can have an economic impact, they can be saved from extinction and become declared “ the Presidia”; small projects to assist groups of artisan producers.

Terra Madre 2004In 2004, Carlo Petrini, suggested that we all : ”... become co-producers. In the act of eating, we have already participated in production. By eating organic, we have said 'no' to toxins, and supported the organic farmer. By rejecting GMOs, we vote for the rights of small farmers and people's right to information and health. By eating local, we have taken power and profits away from global agribusiness, and strengthened our local food community. Eaters are therefore also co-producers, both because their relationship with small producers is a critical link in creating a sustainable, just, healthy food system, and also because we are what we eat, and in making food choices, we make choices about who we are."

Terre Madre 2006

Slow Food Principles• the product tastes good;

• the product is produced in a clean way that is sustainable and does not harm the environment, animal welfare or human health;

• producers receive fair compensation, no discrimination of any kind is practiced in the community and there is no exploitation of minors.

Moving beyond Europe to the South

The movement is also increasingly concerned with preserving the livelihood and tradition of indigenous and Third World food producers. Since 2000, Slow Food has given annual awards to publicize and reward producers who promote biodiversity. Many of these have gone to producers from Central and South America, Africa, and India.

The Plenary Sessions

Vanadana Shiva-- the Manifesto on the future of Seeds

• “Every year in my country 120,000 farmers, indebted to Monsanto and other agricultural holdings, commit suicide. No one cares, because profit has become more important than human life. Agriculture lacks free distribution of seeds.

• There is fear of small, decentralized producers, who are being destroyed by absurd regulations.

• Terra Madre is a tool for escaping from these food prisons, through valuing biodiversity and respecting all countries; and here begins the agricultural revolution, without hybrids, that will respect nature and labor.”

International Marketplace

Salon du Gusto 200610th year of amazing food fairs

Wine Tasting Workshop at Salon du Gusto

The Workshops

Slow Food in schools

Slow Food’s school programs range from training teachers and collaborating on curricula to improving school lunches and organizing after school programs. There is also no better way to understand food than to grow it yourself. For this reason, Slow Food decided that each convivium should create a school garden in their town or city.This way students learn to grow plants, understand the cycle of the seasons and also taste what they’ve grown before going on to study delicious ways of using

the ingredients in the kitchen.

The University of Gastronomic Sciences the first university in the world dedicated to cultivating a relationship between gastronomy and the agricultural sciences; it provides recognized degrees in Petrini's hometown of Bra in northern Italy.

The Edible SchoolMartin Luther King Junior Middle School, Berkeley California

• Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse restaurant, and founder of the new Berkeley convivium, has developed a hands on approach to teaching using the principles of food.

• Students' experiences in The Edible Schoolyard kitchen and garden are linked to their science and humanities curricula through the key concepts of community, sustainability, diversity, responsibility, networks, systems,

cycles, and flows.

Slow Fish -- a movement to save the fisheries

Slow Food and Terra Madre

• Prioritizing food and getting back to the basics of what food should be -- clean, good and fair

• Bridging the gap between producers and consumers

• Laying the basis for a new social movement and a new kind of activism

Can Slow Food Become the voice of southern farmers?

“It became clear over the three-day conference that the Slow Food movement is finally beginning to emerge as a new global counterforce for change in the way the world eats. And on the supply side, it’s helping farmers confidently face-off with goliaths of the global food economy like Monsanto, while challenging consumers to preserve eroding local

food traditions. “Lynn Peemoeller is a food systems planner, urban farmer and Program Director for Sustain USA.

•

Can Slow Food Become the voice of global hunger?

• “War

• Poverty• Drought• Mismanagement of Soil• Trade• Lack of Sustainable

Agriculture• Putting Food Last•

Global Hunger1.1 billion go to sleep hungry

Can Slow Food Become the voice of the global crises of unhealthy food?

1.1 billion go to sleep malnourished from too much food

Carlo Petrini: in the Independent 10 December 2006

• "These chefs should get out of their golden cages, let loose their media chains," he says. "They have to become more a part of society. They should cook for a village, teach children, feed old people in [care] homes, prepare food in hospitals. The cook is a social being.

• "The network of small local economies is stronger than the multinationals because it has its feet in the soil," he says. "The global market economy is destroying the Earth. We give more strength to local economies and we have better sustainability, better human relations and no need to fly food halfway around the world."

Slow Food Canada--www.slowfood.ca 18 Convivium in Canada

Red Fife wheat, Canada's first Presidium,

• Canada's first Presidium, seeks to bring Red Fife wheat back into commercial circulation for use in artisan bread baking.

• Red Fife wheat is a heritage wheat of notable flavour, the foundation of the entire Canadian wheat industry, and the genetic parent to virtually all bread wheat grown in North America today. Its near-extinction made it a successful nominee to Canada’s Slow Food Ark of Taste in 2003.

• The Presidium has petitioned the Canadian Wheat Board for legal recognition of the variety, a campaign that could lead to more widespread cultivation of Red Fife Wheat in

the Canadian Prairies.

• .

“ Conviviality is one of

the most fundamental aspects

of eating together, and I'm

hard pressed to think of

something sadder than eating alone,

without that social rite.

Breaking bread is an enrichment,

and it's very important to keep

alive the social aspects. “

Carlo Petrini

And so the coordinators of local chapters arecalled Convivum Leaders. Here in TorontoPamela Cutthbert was our Convivium Leaderfor many years and Paul DeCampo is thenew Slow Food Toronto Convivum Leader.

- Non-governmental organization with charitable status- 20 full time staff, 800 volunteers- Budget of 3.5 million dollars

(30% revenue generation, 30% family foundations, 15% individual donations, 15% government supported)

Working with communities to ensure that everyone has access to sustainably produced healthy food.

Focus on Food

Field To Table Catering

FoodLink HotlineThe Good Food Box

Urban Agriculture

Community Gardens

Student Nutrition

Toronto Kitchen Incubator

FoodShare’s Festival

FoodShare’s Programs

Healthy Babies Eat Home Cooked Food

Direct Service

SlowFoodShare

Toronto

EntrepreneurialActivity

Advocacy

Successful Food Non-Profits

FoodShare buys food directly from farmers and sells it at affordable, wholesale prices through 120 community drop offs

Focus on Food

Field To Table Catering

FoodLink Hotline

The Good Food BoxUrban Agriculture

Community Gardens

Student Nutrition

Toronto Kitchen Incubator

FoodShare’s Field To Table Festival & Campaign

FoodShare’s Programs

Healthy Babies Eat Home Cooked Food

Since 1992 FoodShare has sold produceat wholesale prices to schools;this year we distribute to over 80 schools weekly and it is growing all the time

Successful Salad Bars in action

Can slow food help us build the social economy?

• Do slow food businesses have more of a social conscious?

• Can the social economy movement learn from the multi-class food movement that seems to unite politics and profit?

Jamie Kennedy protesting GMO’s

What happens here in Canada if Chefs took on participating in schools and continuing to transfer knowledge to kidsIf private sector chef became social economy cooks?

What happens iffarmer’s markets could happen at every corner …

…so that people had better food access too?

…and farmer’s markets also enhancedfarmer’s marketshare …

The social economy The social economy is a grass-roots

entrepreneurial, not-for-profit sector, based on democratic values that seeks to enhance the

social, economic, and environmental conditions of communities, often with a focus on their

disadvantaged members.

What could happen for the goals of the food movement as Slow Food Canada increasingly takes on these goals and works with the social

economy to build these goals?

“Alternative Grounds Coffee House and Roastery is a

community-based business. We believe that the practice of business

and the strengthening of community should go hand-in-hand.”

http://www.alternativegrounds.com/show.php?ID=15

Alternative Grounds333 Roncesvalles Ave.Toronto, Ontario Canada M6R 2M8(416)534-5543

Slow Food and the Social Economy

Are there lessons from the Slow Food Movement and businesses like Alternative Grounds for the Social Economy Movement more generally?