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2007 -
International Slow Food NEWS |
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August 2007
In this issue:
Editorial
Countdown to the Congress
Focus on Convivia
New
Convivia
Convivia
in Action
Terra Madre
From Chile to Northern Europe in the Network
Events for Learning, Meeting and Tasting
On
the Road, with an Argentinian Flavor
School
in August? No Exams, Though
Slow Education
Learning
with an Indian Flavor
Mission Biodiversity
The
Extraordinary Biodiversity of Japan
A
Garlic-flavored Festival
UNISG: Life on Campus
Post-graduate
Work in Cheese
Communications...
Convivial
Pursuits
Focus on Convivia
•
New Convivia
The newest convivia to
become part of the Slow Food network:
Extrême Nord Cameroun - Cameroon
Shrewsbury - United Kingdom
Volca'niac - France
Rouergat - France
•
Convivia in action
Drinks and a Movie (or Two)
The Canadian members of London, Ontario, took part in a lovely
summer evening event with film screenings accompanied by aperitifs
made with local wine, organic beer and hors d'oeuvres made with
seasonal ingredients. This was a public screening of "Slow Food
Revolution", which describes how Slow Food was begun and has grown,
and "Cultivating Change", a documentary that follows the story of a
woman who donated land to her city to create a public garden and
orchard for the entire community to use. The event was held at the
University of Western Ontario and is an excellent example of how
good food, social issues and fun can come together.
Organic
Lessons at Slow Day
On August 12 the Irish convivium Erne-Garavogue, in County Leitrim,
invited 50 members and other eager participants to the Organic
Centre. The day began with a visit to the Centre's lush garden and a
conference on its Community Food Project, a program that teaches
people of different economic means how to grow and cook organic
fruits and vegetables. Tastings were alternated with presentations
on Slow Food, Terra Madre, local convivium activities and Irish Ark
and Presidia. Participants sampled different dishes made with
produce from the organic garden, and a local potato farmer presented
30 of the 160 varieties he grows. Participants showed particular
interest in presentations on beekeeping and edible algae.
Terra Madre
From Chile to Northern Europe in the Network
Julio Chomorro is a young
engineer with a passion for fishing who has partnered up with the
Robinson Crusoe Island Seafood Presidium. Last May he participated
with the Presidium's fishermen in Slow Fish, the event dedicated to
sustainable seafood organized biennially by Slow Food in Genoa,
Italy. There, he met his English, Dutch and Norwegian counterparts,
and the exchange of opinions and advice led to the idea of visiting
several presidia and food communities in nothern Europe. In June,
the Chilean experts worked side by side with several Dutch
lobstermen, while July was spent with the herring and salmon
fishermen in Norway.
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EDITORIAL |
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When something you own is connected to a particular memory,
you tend to hold onto it. Think about it: perhaps you have
something old at home. It might not work perfectly any more;
it might be a little beaten up. You might be tempted to
throw it out or replace it. But if this object, whether it's
a couch or a kitchen implement, is wrapped up in your
recollections, in the history of your home, in who you are,
you'll be hard-pressed to get rid of it so easily.
Memory means care, and this is one of the primary motives
for which I believe the concept of local memory is among
those we'll focus most on at the congress in Puebla.
Local memory means taking care of your region in 360°. It
means keep traditions alive--and not just gastronomic ones
like agriculture, recipes, products or biodiversity. There
are also other expressions of popular culture, like music,
architecture, oral traditions, micro-histories of particular
places and people.
To have local memory and to work within your own convivium
in order to share it, to publish about it, to revive it in
our initiatives - this is the most stimulating and
satisfying work we can give ourselves. It's a way to take
real action within our own regions and to take care of them.
It's also a way to support the local economy and to take
part in our ever-growing membership network.
Let's look around us: there are stories - at times hidden or
forgotten - in what surrounds us and what we like to eat,
stories of people that live where we live. It would surely
do us well to take care of them. If we safeguard our local
memory we take care of ourselves as well.
Carlo Petrini
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Countdown
to the Congress |
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In 1990 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded
to Octavio Paz, the most celebrated and
controversial Mexican poet of the second half of the
20th century. An essayist and driving force behind
world-class literary publications, Paz is considered
one of the most important contemporary Mexican
intellectuals.
Born in Mexico City in 1917 (where he died in 1998),
Paz is famous for his baroque-influenced poetry and
his political activism.
>From 1936 to 1939 he took his place among the ranks
of Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Referring
to those years, he declared: "For us poetic and
revolutionary activities were the same thing." Soon,
however, in poetry as in his essays, his attention
moved from the social sphere to universal problems
and metaphysical topics, inspired by the
Surrealists, whom he followed in the beginning of
the 1950s.
He became a diplomat in 1945 and then resigned from
his New Delhi post in 1968 in protest of the student
massacre that took place during a Mexico City
demonstration just before the Olympics.
His first verse collections have been followed by
numerous other publications, including
Libertad bajo
palabra (1949),
Piedra de sol
(1957),
Salamandra
(1962),
Topoemas
(1968) and
Ladera este
(1969).
As an essayist Octavio Paz is most noted for the
volume
El laberinto de
la soledad (1950), a
fascinating interpretation of the Mexican world from
conquest to today and an acute observation of the
Mexican identity.
With the Congress coming up, you can find a
special feature on Mexico
on
www.slowfood.com |
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Events for Learning, Meeting and Tasting
On the Road, with an Argentinian Flavor
>From July 12 to 15, the
Argentinian capital hosted the fair "Caminos y Sabores" (Walks and
Flavors), one of the most important national exhibitions for the
food and tourism sector, with over 200 exhibitors and 50,000
visitors. The convivium Punto Slow Food Buenos Aires as well as
representatives from the Mar del Plata and Rosario y Río Negro
convivia were on hand to present Slow Food's international and local
activities. Professor Hugo Cetrangolo also held a conferenced
entitled "The Slow Food Movement: Pleasure and Biodiversity".
Representing Slow Food at the fair were representatives of Terra
Madre food communities and the Andean Potatoes and Andean Corn
presidia. The main fair day was made even tastier by the dishes
prepared by Terra Madre cooks, who used products made by the North
Argentinian and Patagonian food communities.
An agreement signed by the Punto Slow Food Buenos Aires convivium
and "Caminos y Sabores" will help promote Slow Food ideas in South
American countries.
For more information:
www.caminosysabores.com.ar
School in August? No Exams, Though
Members of Slow Food France were invited to two days of lessons in
taste, Slow Food-style. L'Université d'été (Summer University) was
in session August 25 and 26 in Beaune, Burgundy. Hundreds of members
from all over the country participated in an extensive program of
conferences, visits and tastings. The theme of this second session
was taste, which was explored in its physiological and cultural
aspects as key elements to being able to analyze and fully
understand healthy and pleasurable eating.
Slow Education
Learning with an Indian Flavor
A collaboration between
Slow Food Delhi, Navdanya (a foundation that protects local
biodiversity) and the Diabetes Foundation brought together students
from 20 New Delhi schools to learn about eating healthily and
nutritiously. A full program of class lessons and cooking and
gardening activities helps the students recognize the effects that
various foods have on health, the environment and the lives of
farmers. In this way, the youngsters understand firsthand the value
of good, clean and fair food and can take what they've learned home
to their families. As part of the "Good Food Program" 50 students
and teachers, including Vandana Shiva, attended the screening of
"Eating Rights" on July 23. Participants discussed issues -
including diabetes, malnutrition, obesity and hunger - that affect
Indian children today, school gardens and visiting local producers
to support traditional, healthy Indian food.
Mission Biodiversity
The Extraordinary Biodiversity of Japan
The Japanese Ark of Taste
welcomes five new products: Nagasaki cabbage, produced in three
neighborhoods of the Kyushu city; masakari pumpkin, a type of
kabocha pumpkin that has such a hard rind that it must be cut with
an axe; mizukakena, a fleshy and sweet leafy green; the winter
yatabe onion, which requires long and careful cultivation; and the
sapporoki onion, which takes its name from the city of Sapporo.
A Garlic-flavored Festival
Ljubitovica garlic is
renowned throughout Dalmatia in Croatia. The bulb of this flavorful
and aromatic variety often has reddish veining. In July, the newly
founded Zagabria Convivium organized the first Ljubitovica Garlic
Festival, which saw the participation of 50 producers. A Presidium
will soon be created to protected this rural Croatian treasure.
UNISG: life on campus
Post-graduate Work in Cheese
Taylor Cocalis, after
receiving her master's from UNISG, is making good use of her
teaching and communication abilities and what she has learned at her
new job at Murray's Cheese, the New York gastronomic landmark. As
educational program director, Taylor brings together cheese lovers,
professionals, scholars, cheesemakers and farmers to analyze, taste
and celebrate the amazing variety of cheeses in the world.
If you are interested in teaching at Murray's or know someone who
might be, contact Taylor at
taylor@murrayscheese.com
For more information about
the program, visit
www.murrayscheese.com/edu_main.asp
Communications...
Convivial Pursuits
The online guide to
organizing Slow Food activities, events and projects has now been
out for nearly a year. Many convivium leaders have contributed to
the guide and all of us at the International Office have devoted
time and energy to this publication because we strongly believe it
can be a useful tool for organizing interesting, fun and successful
events.
It also seems like a good time to assess its effectiveness - and
this is where you come in.
Please click here and answer a few questions
to help us understand how this project is doing. Your help is
greatly appreciated.
You can also find a
new example activity contributed by Somerset
describing mushroom gathering.
< Return to top >
For any questions or information and events you wish to share please
contact your national office or your area coordinator if no national
office exists in your country.
Slow regards,
Slow Food International Office
international@slowfood.com |
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