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2008 -
International Slow Food NEWS |
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May
2008
 In this issue:
Editorial...by
Paolo Di Croce
Editorial
by Carlo Petrini
Honoring the Potato
Cooking for Kids with Kiko Klub
First Terra Madre Nederland
White and Green
Petrini Supports Anti-GM campaign in Catalonia
Experiences from a Master of Beer course
Teaching Sustainable Tourism in Romania
Per mangiarti meglio
The Gift of Bees
Slow Food busy in Brazil
Eyes on the Planet...
New Gastronomes for UNISG
New Convivia
 Honoring
the Potato
The UN General Assembly has declared 2008 to be
The International Year of the Patato.
To celebrate this important food product, many initiatives are planned
in various countries around the world. Joy Durston, leader of the
Slow Food Central Victoria convivium ,
describes how they are celebrating in Australia.
‘Why
on earth do we need an International Year of the Potato? Everyone knows
about spuds—after all, there are only four varieties. Red. White.
Washed. Brushed!
Ah—but we knew that wasn’t the whole story. After all, we live in the
middle of a potato-growing region. Added to that, any excuse for a
celebration is usually seized upon wholeheartedly.
All over central Victoria we held meetings—with chefs, agricultural
forums, producer groups, schools, growers. Secret meetings, sowing seeds
meetings, meetings where we muttered about the many fantastic varieties
of potatoes we’d seen, grown and eaten, meetings where we salivated over
the sound of the many delicious recipes we’d heard were out ‘there’,
meetings with families who had grown potatoes for over five generations
and even had their ‘own’ varieties.
Then the meetings became not so secret as the word got out. Primary
school students planted 17 different varieties of spuds in an
experimental patch. Gary Thomas devised the Spudhunter project—children
were encouraged to dig deep and find buried potatoes in a huge crate of
chip bark, and then identify the potatoes from a catalogue and taste
test different potato-based dishes. An entire town has encouraged almost
all its residents and businesses to spend three days doing nothing but
cook potatoes, eat potatoes, play with potatoes, visit historic potato
fields and see harvesting equipment. Another town commissioned new
gateway signage—a HUGE spud!
A whole year of celebrations! How lucky are we? And being modern day
citizens, we’ve been blogging our celebrationsA whole year of
celebrations! How lucky are we? And being
modern day citizens, we’ve been
blogging our celebrations’.
Joy
Durston
Leader
del convivium Slow Food Central Victoria, Australia
admin@slowfoodcentralvictoria.org.au |
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 Cooking
for Kids with Kiko Klub
‘I don’t like fish!’
‘Don’t you like fish fingers?’
‘Yes, of course I do...’
‘And what are they made of?’
‘Ah, that’s right, fish!’
These were initial comments at the last meeting of Kiko
Klub, the cooking club for 6 to 12-year-olds run by the
German Oldenburg Convivium.
Every three months, lessons are held in which seasonal
products are cooked (for example, strawberries in summer
and pumpkin in autumn), and theme topics—such as
potatoes, pasta and so on—explored.
The most recent lesson focused on fish. The kids learned
to cook salmon and discovered some tips to recognize
fresh fish: bright eyes, elastic skin, bright red gills,
an aroma of the sea and not fish. After letting the kids
inspect all parts of the fish, cook Michael Ditzer
taught them how to make fish fingers. They cut the
prepared salmon fillets into pieces and coated them with
flour, egg and breadcrumbs before frying them. As a
colorful side dish they prepared mashed potatoes with
carrots, peas and chard, finishing off with chocolate
cake.
For September a barbecue of game and mushrooms is
planned in the woods.
For information,
contact:
Klaus Ruwisch
Leader of the Oldenburg Convivium
oldenburg@slowfood.de |
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 First
Terra Madre Nederland
The inaugural edition of
Terra Madre Nederland, is to be
held from
May 17 – 18 at Middelburg
Abbey, The Netherlands.
Organized by Slow Food Netherlands, this meeting of
Dutch and Flemish artisan and small-scale food producers
is inspired by the international Terra Madre event held
every two years in Turin.
‘While the food culture of The Netherlands isn’t
comparable to Italy’s, there are increasing numbers of
people who value good, clean and fair food. Slow Food
Netherlands wants to stimulate this development, which
is why we are organizing a Dutch Terra Madre based on
the international model’ comments Slow Food Netherlands
president Jan Wolf.
A distinctive feature of Terra Madre Netherlands is a
producers’ symposium, giving growers, cheesemakers,
breeders and fisherfolk the opportunity to discuss and
share their knowledge and experiences.
Producers will present their products to the public at
the Local Produce Piazza and a Dutch Enoteca will offer
tastings of local wines and beers. Finally, a program of
films in tune with Slow Food philosophy will be
screened. |
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White
and Green
As far back as 300 BC, Egyptians knew about the
aphrodisiac qualities and curative properties of
asparagus. Pharaoh Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti
called asparagus ambrosia (from the Greek ‘food of the
gods’).
Since it was discovered how to stop the production of
chlorophyll by covering the tips, we now have white as
well as green asparagus. Harvesting (which lasts from
mid-May to mid-June) is a time-consuming and onerous
process since it is difficult to use mechanical methods.
Pickers dig into the soil and cut the asparagus about 25
cm below the surface using a special knife.
Slow Food Linz
is dedicating May 16 2008 to ambrosia with an excursion
to Count Ledebur’s asparagus fields in Alkoven. There
members will see asparagus being harvested, observe the
differences between the different varieties and learn
about sowing and harvesting methods. To round off the
visit, there will be a tasting of four courses all made
with asparagus.
For information about
the event, contact:
Philipp Braun
Leader of the Linz Convivium
slowfood-linz@gmx.at |
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Petrini
Supports Anti-GM campaign in Catalonia
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On May 11 Carlo Petrini spoke at the 15th edition of
BioCultura, Spain’s most important
organic food fair, held in Barcelona. The Slow Food
president described the movement’s philosophy from its
beginnings to the present day, focusing attention on
agriculture, particularly the risks associated with GMOs
and the loss of biodiversity. He also took part in the
meeting entitled ‘La
stevia, la planta que las multinacionales de los
edulcorantes pretenden ocultar’
(Stevia, the plant the artificial sweetener
internationals would like to hide) together with
Josep Pàmies,
and organic producer and leader of the Slow Food
Balaguer Convivium.
The Spanish association presented a manifesto in support
of stevia, a plant originally from Paraguay, with a
sweetening power 200 times that of sugar but containing
no calories. Its extracts have been used for centuries
by South American natives and, curiously, are widespread
in Japan, but can only be bought in herbalists’ shops in
the US, while in Europe, except for a few countries, its
sale is not permitted. Commercialization of the plant
would have significant consequences for the artificial
sweetening industry, dominated by producers of sugar and
other synthetic sweeteners.
Pàmies, accompanied by Petrini, presented the campaign
Som lo que sembrem, in support of
the citizens’ bill for a GM-free Catalonia. Until
Romania entered the EU, Spain was the only country
allowing large-scale cultivation of GMOs. |
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EDITORIAL
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The world is experiencing something very few people were
able to predict. The price of food, a basic human
necessity, is increasing uncontrollably. The stability
of many of the poorest countries is at risk (33 have
already suffered riots and unrest due to soaring food
prices). In the richer countries many families are
having to cope with higher shopping bills and find it
hard to make ends meet.
Industrially produced food is vaunted for its efficiency
and availability, despite being the result of a global
system we have always strongly criticized for its
quality shortcomings and damage to cultural and
biological diversity due to standardization. It is
finally showing its economic unsustainability. This is
exacerbated by the surging demand for ‘Western’
consumption patterns in many emerging countries such as
China and India, the dramatic increase in biofuels and
aggressive speculation on financial markets.
Suddenly the type of food we have always strived
for—food which is as good, clean and fair as
possible—has become cheap, as well as being tastier,
healthier and better for the environment. This might
finally help to demonstrate that our preference for
creating networked local economies and opposition to a
global system based on uncontrolled liberalism, was not
just elitist posturing. People often misunderstand our
position, perceiving our association as highly exclusive
and mainly serving the pleasures of the affluent. Our
complex ideas risked being dismissed as the superfluous
whims of those that could afford it.
The situation has now changed. Future prospects look
gloomy and never has it been more essential to redesign
our system for producing, transforming, distributing and
consuming food worldwide. I believe that our activities
and preferences have for some time pointed a way
forward. We should focus on local areas, eating local
foods wherever possible, shortening the food supply
chain and choosing natural as opposed to artificial
products.
In the lead-up to Terra Madre and the Salone del Gusto,
I’d like all our members to think about these issues.
You can find out more from the association’s various
sources of information and translate ideas into action
through your local convivium’s activities. Not so long
ago these ideas were out of the mainstream, but they can
now provide a significant opportunity for Slow Food to
gain support and involve many people around the world.
Please spread them as much as you can.
Carlo Petrini
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The Salone
del Gusto 2008 Program will be available on the
website
www.salonedelgusto.com
from the beginning of June |
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After five successful, sun-filled days at the international
gastro-cinema festival in Bologna,
Slow Food on Film proudly announced the results of
the competition:
BFF - BEST FOOD FEATURE
The Golden Snail
The
Wind Blows Round
by Giorgio Diritti
Italy, 2005.
DOCS COMPETITION
The Golden Snail
The
price of sugar
by Bill Haney
USA, 2006.
Mentions:
Cry
sea
by Cafi Mohamud and Luca Cusani
Italy, 2007.
Strawberry Fields
by Ayelet Heller
Israel, 2006.
DOCS COMPETITION - Under 35'
The Golden Snail
Silent Snow
by Jan Van Der Berg
The Netherlands, 2007.
Mention:
The
Poet of Grappa
by Stefano Scarafia
Italy, 2006.
SHORTS COMPETITION
The Golden Snail
Along
Came the Rain
by Alejandro Fernàndez Almendras
Chile, 2006.
Mentions:
Mammal
by Astrid Rieger
Germany, 2007.
Marie
Spapen, protagonist in
Alice, or Life in Black and White
di Sophie Schoukens
Belgium, 2006.
BEST TV SERIES
The Golden Snailo
Cooking
in the danger zone
by Mark Perkins, with Stefan Gates
UK, 2007.
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Terra Madre is the world meeting of food
communities, the largest cultural event
organized by Slow Food, which brings together
over 5,000 people from all round the world.
Terra Madre enables delegates from food
communities to exchange information, ideas and
solutions. This is the most effective way of
defending their work and agrifood biodiversity.
The event is crucially dependent on donations
and the many varied forms of support which help
us to organize this ambitious project. We again
need your help for this edition of Terra Madre
to allow delegates from developing countries to
take part.
If you would
like to make a donation, please contact:
Simona Malatesta
tel. +39/0172/419 648 |
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I believe that people’s different food cultures will lead us to recognize
new forms of social interaction, making our world a happier and better place
for all, without borders or frontiers.
Rodrigo Gajardo Robles
Valparaíso,
Chile
pelahez@gmail.com
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We are keen to be practically involved in the movement’s
activities and are using this newsletter to prompt some
feedback.
We think it would be useful to show the way food is
produced and dishes prepared within our various local
situations. With the incredible development of tourism,
local cultures risk losing their identity and food
sovereignty. |
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Experiences
from a Master of Beer course
Slow Food member Emanuela Daros tells us about the
Master of Food course on beer organized by the Ciampino
Convivium,
Italy.
‘The
other day I opened the fridge and saw two cans of
Guinness. ‘They might go nicely in the Sunday stew,’ I
thought. Until a year ago this idea would never have
occurred to me. At 29 years of age, a wonderful trip to
Ireland introduced me to the pleasures of beer. Then
came Slow Food, and when I became a member in 2007 I
discovered the Master of Food courses for specific types
of food.
I enrolled in a Master of Beer course organized in
Ciampino and held in a delightful pub, where I received
a warm welcome from a group of local convivium members.
I was pleased to find our teacher, Master Brewer
Leonardo Di Vincenzo, so knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
In the four evenings of the course, it was fascinating
to learn about the history, cultures and traditions of
such an incredibly varied product produced in so many
different places. The study program helped us take our
first steps as ‘tasters’ with delicate high and low
fermentation beers, and then challenged us with totally
unfamiliar beers (I still have a vivid memory of the
spontaneously fermented Flemish beer). It was
particularly intriguing to explore various combinations
with food, to discover the existence of beers to sip and
savor, find that some varieties are perfect as summer
thirst-quenchers and that Rauchbier is a great match for
smoked products. This four-day Master’s course
completely changed my ideas about beer. I can’t wait to
attend another course and make more discoveries!’.
Emanuela Daros
emanuela_daros@libero.it
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Teaching
Sustainable Tourism in Romaniaa
This month the Slow Food Turda Convivium’s program
includes a series of seminars in rural villages. The
workshops will present the potential and benefits of
sustainable tourism for local producers.
The objective of the meetings is to provide useful
information and skills for developing tourism through
the promotion of traditional food products and
agricultural practices.
The initiative was inaugurated last year at the Raitu
Center for Democracy in a series of seminars open to the
public but mainly tailored to hospitality and tourism
students. More than 100 students attended the courses,
which were held by Rosemary Baron, vice-president of the
International Association of Culinary Professionals and
a firm supporter of Slow Food philosophy, together with
four students from the
Oxford Brooks University’s school of hospitality
management.
Topics addressed included: what creates culinary
tradition and what is its value; the importance of
location and seasonality; conquering he food tourism
market.
For further
information contact:
Marta Pozsonyi
Program Coordinator
martapozsonyi@turdafest.ro
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Per
mangiarti meglio:
Slow Food Editore’s new series for younger readers
AMore stories about kids in red coats and hungry wolves? NOOO
Per mangiarti meglio (All the Better To
Eat You With) means being serious about food and finding things
out. The aftertaste of a red riding hood? You have to train to
learn to recognize it. It takes more than a big mouth …
Per mangiarti meglio is a new illustrated
children’s library in Italian from Slow Food Editore. It aims to
get the movement’s core ideas across to a young audience and
give kids the pleasure of getting to know and taste particular
foods. The snail has decided to have its say in the field of
children’s literature with a range of biodiverse books. The
books are not based on a simple story to capture the reader’s
attention, nor are they a careful list of good and bad things to
eat. They are in the form of a diary highlighting the links
between food, producers and the area it comes from.
The first two books in the Per mangiarti meglio library launched
at the Salone del Libro are:
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Il cioccolato. Diario di un
lungo viaggio (Chocolate. Diary of a long
journey), by Sara Marconi and Francesco Mele, illustrations by
Simone Frasca
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Il formaggio. Una storia vera,
anzi due (Cheese. Two true stories), by
Cinzia Ghigliano and Marco Tomatis.
The snail will reward anyone wanting to go beyond their senses
and taste buds and try their hand with pencil, paintbrush,
computer, camera, scissors and glue. There’s space to display
your work at
www.permangiartimeglio.it
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The
Gift of Bees |
Keeping bees as opposed to many other animals has its
advantages. Bees don’t need to be fed because they get their
food for themselves the whole year round; they produce honey
even in arid or semiarid areas; using traditional hives, all the
required materials can be found locally; beekeepers don’t need
to own land; once started, beekeeping is self-financing.
These advantages make beekeeping a simple activity to undertake
as it does not require much funding and can be carried out by
anyone (including young people and women). Honey has many
beneficial properties and can increase a community’s resources,
never mind the essential role played by bees in protecting
biodiversity.
The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is aware of the
sometimes fundamental role of beekeeping and has set up five
honey presidia around the world (in Brazil, Italy, Poland and
two in Ethiopia). The Terra Madre network boasts 58 communities
of beekeepers.
In Ethiopia, the Wenchi Honey Presidium’s first objective was to
train beekeepers by organizing exchanges with other beekeepers
in Ethiopia and also in Italy. The Foundation, with Diego Pagani
(CONAPI beekeeper) as consultant, helped producers to draw up
production rules. Pagani, who is a distinguished artist as well
as being a beekeeper, got so enthusiastic about the project that
he decided to contribute drawings for a cartoon-style manual of
honey production techniques drawn up by small beekeepers for
small beekeepers.
The book was edited by Diego Pagani and Massimiliano Gotti,
technical expert of the Aspromiele association and member of the
AAPI board.
Download this attractive
publication in
Italian or
English. |
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Slow Food busy in Brazil
May 11 was the last day of
Festival Brasil Sabor, an event organized
by the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism and Association of Bars and
Restaurants to promote Brazilian food and cuisine. From
April
9 to May 11 the Centro de Convenções
Ulisses Guimarães in Brasilia hosted the third edition of the
festival, which presented more than 2,000 different dishes. The
Slow Food Brasilia Convivium
was at the launch on April 8 to present the Slow Food philosophy
and principles of eco-gastronomy, together with dishes prepared
by members.
Children’s activities also featured, with the convivium
organizing a workshop for 30 children of 4-8 years of age. The
children prepared a cake made with walnuts, apples, bananas and
jabuticaba jam, all products sourced from
a local food community. To help them, be aware of the flavors
and aromas, children were encouraged to smell and taste each
ingredient during the preparation.
At the same time Brazilian convivia participated in
Bio Brazil Fair 2008 in Saõ Paulo, a fair
dedicated to organic agriculture.
Eyes on the Planet...
Keen photographers and people concerned about
socio-environmental issues should take a look at
www.eyesontheplanet.org and enter the
international Eyes on the Planet photography competition. The
initiative aims to raise public awareness of current
socio-environmental crises, recording the enormous changes
taking place round the world. There are four theme sections:
environment,
people,
climate
and
food.
Eyes on the Planet is intended for promising young
photographers, but is also open to all amateurs aged between 18
and 35, giving them the opportunity to gain a higher profile and
improve their skills. The best images will be displayed in a
photography exhibition and put up for sale in a charity auction.
The proceeds will be donated to projects being promoted by the
Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity and WWF in Amazonia to
support the long-term sustainable development of local
economies.
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On May 1, North American alumni held two information sessions
for prospective UNISG students, in New York City and Berkeley,
California. The first such sessions organized in the US, the
events attracted more than 50 people, packing the spaces at
Murray’s Cheese and The Ecology Center. Attendees were given a
presentation of the syllabus
—including the new English-language master in Italian Gastronomy
and Tourism—and asked questions about employment opportunities,
application procedures and life in Italy. Both organizers and
attendees deemed the events to be very successful, pointing to
increased applications for upcoming academic years.
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New Convivia
The following convivia have
recently joined the Slow Food network:
Bio Argentina, Mendoza
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Argentina
Oberà, Misiones
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Argentina
San Martín de los Andes
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Argentina
Rio Negro
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Argentina
Côté de Beaupré
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Canada
Klang Valley
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Malaysia
Alentejo
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Portugal
Brasov
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Romania
Extremadura
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Spain
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