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2007 -
International Slow Food NEWS |
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October 2007
In this issue:
Editorial
Countdown to Congress!
Focus on Convivia
New
Convivia
Convivia
in Action
Terra Madre
Tales
of Terra Madre at UK tables
Events for Learning, Meeting and Tasting
Invitation
to Bilbao
A
sell-out at the restaurant of the Japanese Ark
Slow
Food events in Germany
Slow Education
Irish
chefs in the classroom
Austrian
mini-chefs
Mission Biodiversity
The
Ark of Taste expands in Eastern Europe
UNISG: Life on Campus
Wine
Online!
Po
River project
Launching
New UNISG Students
Communications...
Happy
Birthday, Slow Food Germany!
German
Slow Cities
Two
awards for Carlo Petrini
Questionnaire on Convivial Pursuits
As you may remember, in the August Convivium Update we launched a
survey about Convivial Pursuits, the international guide created by
convivium leaders to help other Slow Food leaders replicate
successful events or projects. We hope that it is a useful and
important tool for everyone wanting to spread Slow Food ideas and
style in their communities. Convivium Update will therefore always
give the
link where you can find the Guide and update
it with new suggestions.
The survey is crucial to help us know whether and how the Convivial
Pursuits project is working. We would like to again encourage you to
answer the
questionnaire: there are only a few questions!
We appreciate your help and give our sincere thanks.
Focus on Convivia
•
New Convivia
The
following are the most recent convivia created around the world:
Jyväskylä -
Finland
Worcestershire - United Kingdom
Pirin-Vlahi
- Bulgaria
Beleten Gran
Canaria - Spain
Stellenbosch
- South Africa
Pinzgau -
Austria
Gent -
Belgium
Denmark
Great Southern - Australia
Tanganyika -
DR Congo
Condesa/Roma
- Mexico
•
Convivia in action
A requiem for world hunger
TOn October 17, more than twenty four million people worldwide
celebrated the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty,
commemorated in a special "Poverty Requiem" written in five
movements: suffering, anger, mourning, humor and hope. The
initiative is part of the 2007 campaign of Global Call Against
Poverty. For more information: www.povertyrequiem.org In Kenya, the
requiem was performed by 500 singers: members of the Slow Food
convivium and producers of local Terra Madre communities. The
Kenyans immediately followed the words with action. In the
"Community to Community Support Initiative", small farmer members
from the area around Molo, Central Rift, donated food produce to a
community that had been driven by ethnic violence off an island in
Lago Baringo where they lived.
For further information about the "Community to Community Support
Initiative", contact:
Samuel Karanja Muhunyu, leader of the Central
Rift convivium
muhunyusk@yahoo.com
Transatlantic crossing
A group of members from San Francisco flew to Spain to visit
convivia in Barcelona and the Basque Country, learn about member
activities and taste Catalan and Basque gastronomic specialties.
During the trip, the American members met the Gallecs food
community--around thirty producers who live in a peri-urban
agricultural area of Barcelona, protected and subject to
particularly strict regulations to guarantee sustainable management
of the agricultural and forestry ecosystem. The US Slow Food
representatives made a donation to the community and gave the
farmers a basket of food bought at the San Francisco Farmers'
Market.
For more information, contact:
Alejandro Guzman
alejandroslow@gmail.com
Flavors from afar in Vienna
Members of Slow Food Vienna have "adopted" three young people -
refugees from Lebanon, Afghanistan and Mongolia, and started cooking
food recipes from their homelands: Huuschuur--filled ravioli from
Mongolia, Ghorme Sabzi--minestrone with veal and aromatic herbs from
Afghanistan, and stuffed vine leaves from Lebanon. On October 4 the
convivium organized an event where the young chefs cooked typical
traditional dishes for their guests: a small example of how
integration between peoples can start at the table.
For more information, contact:
Barbara van Melle
barbara@vanmelle.at
A bursary to reopen the family farm
Slow Food West Cork provides an educational bursary for students
taking the Diploma in Speciality Food Production at University
College Cork. This year the convivium awarded the bursary to two
young brothers who, after various activities overseas, decided to
return to where their family farm used to be in order to start
farming. Kevin and Dan Crowley will produce quality food to be sold
at farmers' markets in the region. |
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EDITORIAL
See You in Puebla!
Dear Members,
The date of the Puebla
International Congress is getting ever closer. An
exceptional event lies ahead of us, four years after the
last meeting in Naples.
In the intervening
time, our association has made enormous progress. It has
always been underpinned by shared values and human
relationships. Year by year, our focus has widened--from the
table to nearby fields, from nearby fields to the other side
of the world. We have shifted attention from pleasure to
responsible behavior, which will enable pleasure and quality
of life to survive, along with our identities and respect
for differences. These are the reasons why we are striving
to build a Good, Clean and Fair food system for the future.
It is a system created by our twenty year journey and is in
full agreement with Slow Food philosophy.
Terra Madre was created
three years ago as a meeting and then an ongoing living
project. It has had an enormous effect in helping us to
grow. Terra Madre is now a kaleidoscope of people networked
around the world, a vast array of diverse situations meeting
to improve food production and distribution. We must form
ever closer and more functional relations with this network:
it is the only way Slow Food will be able to bring profound
change on a global scale to people's ways of thinking about
and consuming food.
The University of
Gastronomic Sciences was also set up after the Naples
Congress. It has already produced its first graduates,
trailblazing professionals who are set to promote a new
approach to gastronomic science, espousing a complex,
interdisciplinary perspective which addresses food in all
its cultural dimensions and implications.
Delegates to Congress
are being asked to read and think about the document "Taking
Back Life: The Earth, the Moon and Abundance".
The earth's resources are limited; the moon represents our
capacity to dream and plan the future; abundance, true
abundance, will depend above all on our willingness to
modify our behavior: consume less and better, produce what
we need and produce it better. I think that an association
like ours has the duty to do all it can to follow these
principles and that the Congress in Mexico will be an
excellent opportunity to put forward and discuss ideas,
mobilize energies and to decide how, and with what means,
Slow Food will tackle this challenge.
Three Cheers for
Puebla!
Carlo Petrini
Countdown to
the Congress
Welcome to Puebla!
With not long to go before Congress, I would like to use
this newsletter to wish all delegates a good trip. I hope to
meet you at Puebla and personally welcome you to my
hometown. Members of the Puebla Gastronómica convivium have
been pulling out all the stops in the last few months to
prepare for this event and do our best to ensure that it
lives up to Slow Food ideals and projects. We are very proud
that the venue selected for the Congress is Mexico--and
Puebla in particular, a city rich in history and with a
great culinary heritage. We are aware that holding this
important international meeting here has significant
symbolic value at a time when our association is
strengthening its global perspective of food production. We
hope that for those of you who have not yet visited Mexico,
it will be an opportunity to personally experience legendary
Latin American hospitality.
Mario Riestra Venegas
Puebla Gastronómica convivium leader
slowfoodpg.mario@gmail.com
With the Congress coming up, you can find a
special feature
on Mexico on
www.slowfood.com
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Terra Madre
Tales of Terra Madre at UK tables
"Bringing Home Slow Food Stories from the World Network of Food
Communities": UK convivia chose this title for twelve dinners held
in various cities during October. The initiative was organized to
raise funds in support of the "Premières journées gastronomiques
Nord-Sud", an event being held in Gabon in 2008 and involving local
Terra Madre communities. Each evening, local Terra Madre cooks
prepared dishes using local traditional produce, accompanied by
Italian wines provided by the producers. In promoting this
initiative, Slow Food UK is making a significant contribution to
strengthening the Terra Madre network in Africa and is showing novel
ways to form partnerships between convivia in the developed world
and communities in developing countries.
For more information, contact:
Fiona
Richmond
f.richmond@slowfood.org.uk
Events for Learning, Meeting and Tasting
Invitation
to Bilbao
Slow Food Spain's first large-scale event Algusto, will be held in
Bilbao from November 29 to December 2.
Click here to find out more this show. Not to
be missed!
A sell-out at the restaurant of the Japanese Ark
Slow Food Japan and the newly created convivium of Aichi featured at
the "Festival of Food" held from September 27 to 30 in Nagoya. A
space dedicated to Japanese Ark products, selected by the Ark of
Taste project, allowed producers to meet the public and illustrate
the characteristics of the food. To enable visitors to better learn
about traditional flavors at risk of disappearing, a restaurant
served dishes prepared using Ark products. The event was a great
success, with the available food selling out well before the closing
time. Completing the program organized by the Japanese Slow Food
representatives were food education lessons, presentations and
discussions with experts.
For more information, contact:
Annalisa Lombardo
slowfood@tfu-ac.net
Slow Food events in Germany
At the end of September Slow Food took part in the regional market
at Rottenburg am Neckar in the south-west of Germany. It was an
opportunity to present a taste trail particularly intended for young
people, and to present, offer tastings and sell two Ark of Taste
passengers (Alblinsen and Filderkraut) together with the first, and
only, German Presidium product--the spumante produced from the
Champagner Bratbirne pear.
>From December 6 to 9, "Food & Life" will be held, a high profile
German event dedicated to quality food. Organized by the Munich
convivium, since 2004 the fair has attracted more than 50,000
visitors in four days. In the course of the event, the public will
be able to attend presentations and tastings guided by experts and
producers, as well as learning culinary secrets from demonstrations
held by chefs.
For more information on "Food and Life":
www.food-life.de -
muenchen@slowfood.de
Slow Education
Irish chef s in the classroom
The Irish section of Euro-Tocques, the association of European
chefs, together with Slow Food Dublin have for three years been
promoting food education in schools. They encourage students and
families to consume locally-sourced seasonal food in an approach
that takes account of taste, nutritional value and the health
effects of various food products. Euro-Tocques and Slow Food
have also provided a set of educational tools which can be used
by teachers, parents and students to replicate pilot projects
carried out in both urban and rural contexts.
On November 8, the European Day for Healthy Food and Cooking for
Children, they will launch a common project to promote balanced
food habits among young people. The program, organized in
collaboration with the EU Directorate for Consumer Health and
Protection, plans to run a series of taste workshops in
classrooms: the chefs will help young people discover the
enjoyment of cooking and the pleasures of good eating.
For more information about
the project:
www.eu.mini-chefs.eu
info@eurotoquesirl.org
Austrian mini-chefs
For 6 months from October, chefs and kitchen staff at six
well-regarded restaurants in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg
will teach fifteen 10 to 12 year olds to cook simple dishes
using traditional regional produce. The dishes will then be
served in the restaurants to the families and relatives of the
young chefs. This is part of the Rankweiler Miniköche (Rankweil
mini-chefs) initiative, organized by the Vorarlberg convivium
and officially launched together with local authorities on
September 28.
For more information about
the project, contact:
Klaus Breuß
klaus@amannweine.at
Mission Biodiversity
The Ark of Taste expands in Eastern Europe
In Bulgaria, a national Ark of Taste Commission has been set up to
discover, promote and defend native animal breeds, plant varieties
and traditional Bulgarian foods. The Commission, with seven members,
is chaired by Dessislava Dimitrova, a biologist specializing in
botany, national coordinator of the Bulgarian Terra Madre
communities and leader of the Rhodopi - Smilyan convivium. The
Commission will work with veterinarians, agronomists and cheese
experts to ensure that the products cataloged in the Ark obtain any
authorization required for sale. Bulgaria's entry into the EU has in
fact created many regulatory obstacles to the commercialization of
artisan products.
To contact the Bulgarian Commission:
dessislava_dimitrova@yahoo.com
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UNISG: life on campus
Po River project
The journey down the River Po Alla ricerca del Grande Fiume, came to
an end on October 20. The project was designed by the University of
Gastronomic Sciences to examine the health of Italy's most important
river, with analysis of its water and sediments carried out by
Golder Associates and Nautilus, and students were directly involved
in organizing the educational experience.
The group left the Po's source at Pian del Re under Monviso on
September 26. During the 24 days it took the students to reach the
Po delta, the students followed the course of the river on bicycles,
encountering rural communities en route and learning about food and
wine production in the surrounding area.
For more information:
www.allaricercadelgrandefiume.com
Launching New UNISG Students
With October came the launch of a new academic year in Pollenzo and
the arrival of 60 new undergraduates. A series of events launched
the aspiring gastronomes into their studies, including a formal
inauguration ceremony in Parma, timed to coincide with the arrival
of the 153 upper-year students on their Po River travels.
October also marked the retirement of UNISG Director Vittorio
Manganelli, who has served the school in that position since its
founding. He will continue to work in collaboration with the
university on a variety of projects. Carlo Catani, previously the
director of the Colorno campus, steps into the role of Director.
For more information about the University, including online
applications, visit:
www.unisg.it
Communications...
Notice
Due to the Congress, to be held in Puebla, Mexico early next month,
the Member Service Centre and International Office in Bra will be
closed from November 7-15. We apologize for any inconvenience this
may cause.
Happy Birthday, Slow Food Germany!
Slow Food Germany is celebrating its 15 year anniversary. The
association was founded in 1992 in a castle near Frankfurt by a
group of friends of the Italian movement. Over time the association
has assumed a significant role in German society and within the
international movement (the number of German members, 7500, is the
highest after Italy and the USA). It publishes a successful magazine
which will next year have six issues each of 100 pages, and
organizes various relevant events. These include theme markets for
cheese, sausage, beer and fish--the first German edition of Slow
Fish is planned for 2008--and regional events such as Flavors of
North Hessen (which attracted 20,000 visitors this year) and the
large Slow Food Fair which was held for the first time in Stuttgart
last June and will be repeated in the next five years. More recently
the German association has developed a particular interest in taste
education for young people: the 64 convivia around the country
organize activities in schools and specific trails for events, as
well as preparing suitable educational materials.
www.slowfood.de
German Cittaslow
Hersbruck is the first
Cittaslow
in Germany and has been part of the "international network of cities
of good living" since 2001. On September 22 the Nürnberg Slow Food
convivium met the mayor at the Hersbruck Museum for Pastoral
Agriculture to mark a new collaborative venture. Museum staff
organized two workshops at the museum for the occasion: "From Grain
to Bread" and "The Art of Butter Making". All those present applied
themselves enthusiastically to the various steps of producing bread
and butter and were able to then enjoy the fruits of their labors.
The
Cittaslow project, an international network
of cities of good living, was created by Slow Food and some small
Italian towns:
www.cittaslow.net
Two awards for Carlo Petrini
Carlo Petrini received a special award from the famous association
of French chefs Traditions & Qualité - Les Grandes Tables du Monde,
because "through the work of the Slow Food association he founded,
he has helped to give recognition to men and women around the world
who produce simple and extraordinary foods from the soil, while
pursuing an environmentally and culturally balanced approach." This
is the first time that the prestigious association of top French
chefs has made the award to a person who is not a chef: it is an
important international recognition of the value and merit of our
movement's activities.
On October 9, PKF Hotelexperts (a group offering specialized
hospitality consulting services to companies, government bodies,
public institutions, foundations etc.) gave the Slow Food
International President their Hospitality Innovation Award, "for his
ability in identifying the situation in the food sector, agriculture
and eco-gastronomy, and because Slow Food was able to positively
influence the international hospitality environment, improving the
quality of life". The ? 5,000 prize was donated to the Rimbàs Black
Pepper Presidium (Malaysia) towards the construction of a workshop
for drying and packing the pepper and to help to cover costs for
producers attending the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2008.
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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