Saturday, March 29, 2008

Slow Food Movement

So, in my internet exploration for articles and information about growing your own food, I came across the Slow Food Movement. This is a relatively young organization that was started in Italy in 1986. Here is an excerpt from their philosophy:

" 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."

The members of this organization call themselves "co-producers" instead of "consumers". They believe that by being informed of the food production process and actively supporting producers, they become part of the process. It is now an international organization with over 80,000 members in 850 local chapters. As of now, there is not a Canadian chapter, but the slow food idealism has started.

The Walrus just published an article by Murray White about Vancouver Island's slow food rebirth. In his article, he discusses how
Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island is seeing some economic hope with the slow food movement since the faltering of the forestry industry, once the island's lifeblood.

The movement has been criticized for being "elitist" and discouraging
nominally cheaper alternative methods of growing or preparing food. Slow Food proponents respond by claiming to be working towards local production and consumption which will exploit "best practices" of science and professions worldwide but ultimately prove cheaper due to less reliance on transport and energy and chemical and technology intensive methods.

1 comment:

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Just found you on Blotanical.

Welcome.

Nice Post

Debbi