| Laureates Mansholt Prize Winner 2002 Slow Food: Commitment to Consumers, Farmers and the Environment The Slow Food Movement, winner of the 2002 Sicco Mansholt Prize, is a worldwide organization committed to promoting the diversity of local and regional quality food produced and marketed in a way that guarantees farmers a fair price and protects the environment and the landscape. Slow Food is firmly rooted in the Italian culinary tradition with its emphasis on regional produce. The movement was founded in 1986 in Barolo, Northern Italy; its international complement came into being in Paris three years later. Currently, Slow Food claims about 74,000 members in 50 countries, organized in 700 local chapters or "convivia". The movement is headquartered in Bra, Piemonte. Its U.S. offices are located on Broadway in New York City. The movement's original aim was to counter what it called the "universal folly of Fast Life" and its culinary counterpart, fast food. "Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food," the movement's Official Manifesto states. "Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and bansih the degrading effects of Fast Food." The snail is the official logo of the movement. In the course of the years, Slow Food's focus has broadened towards preserving and protecting agricultural biodiversity, rural landscapes and the environment in general. One of the movement's major projects in this field is the so-called Ark of Taste, which seeks to identify and catalogue products, dishes and animals that are on the verge of disappearing. Another is the Slow Food Award for the Defense of Biodiversity, which was first presented in 2000. The Ark project concerns products that are grown, bred or produced with an eye on respecting regional tradition and preserving fragile rural ecologies. To date, several hundreds of products have been identified, the overwhelming majority of them in Italy. They range from Acquaviva red onions from the Italian region of Puglia to Trenet, a specialty of stuffed sheep's tripe from the French city of Millau, and traditional Creole Cream Cheese from New Orleans, Lousiana. In many cases, the Slow Food Movement provides economic support and media back-up to groups and individuals pledged to saving a specific product from extinction. "A strong point of the Slow Food Movement is its firm commitment to preserving fragile rural ecosystems, coupled to an equally firm commitment to the consumer's right to varied, safe, and healthy food," said Arie van den Brand, the Chairman of the Mansholt Prize Jury. "They understand that protecting diversity begins with offering a wide range of tastes and products to the consumer. Slow Food is working hard to persuade consumers to buy and enjoy such quality products. Such an attitude will support farmers in preserving and protecting diversity in agriculture, the landscape and the environment by producing food in a sustainable manner." Other activities of the Slow Food Movement include publishing - the list of Slow Food Editore now counts 40 titles on tourism, food and wine, as well as the quarterly magazines Slow and Slowine - the staging of the bi-annual Salone del Gusto Food Fair in Turin, Italy, and extensive international public awareness campaigns through taste workshops and courses. For more information: > www.slowfood.com |