Excerpt
from the Foreword by Deborah Madison:
Slow Food is a very big creature, large enough to accommodate more than one point of view as to what it is exactly. Like the blind men patting the elephant to determine its nature, anyone who's drawn to Slow Food can probably find what they're looking for based on their own interests.
To the gastronome, Slow Food might have to do with artisanal foods and wines. To the person seeking a tempo of life that is more in step with life's natural rhythms, unlike America's present fast-paced model, Slow Food offers a sympathetic response. For those whose concerns run to the historical aspects of food, traditional methods of cheese making might be of particular interest, or the examination of traditional foods and food methods found in different regions of the country. Those whose historical quests are more aligned with animals and plants will find that Slow Food, through its Ark of Taste initiative, provides a place to actively debate the merits of old breeds, from turkeys to sheep, or oysters to apples, and to become actively involved with their preservation. If your concerns are with the politics of social change, you may find yourself in harmony with Slow's commitment to land stewardship and food that's grown by sound and sustainable methods. And all seekers join hands at the table, for Slow Food sees 'the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community.' The lens through which Slow Food views the world of food is a wide one indeed.
from "Region Is Reason" by Hermann Scheer:
The fast food question is not just about McDonald's. Fast food is one the main features of the world economy. It subscribes to the principles adopted for the Olympic Games: quicker, higher, further. In our data-obsessed society, this leads us to live in an increasingly stressful world, continuously under pressure, in constant competition with others and in obeisance to a single rule: producing ever more quickly and cheaply. This model has no future and embodies at least two contradictions. The first relates to the problem of transportation, one of the fundamental factors of global economy and global agriculture. The transportation system is based on an absurd principle according to which apples from New Zealand are shipped to Western Europe and Perrier water to California. Food that may be produced locally is thus increasingly moved from one end of the world to the other simply because fuel prices continue to diminish.
The low cost of energy does not promote well-balanced development and is the result of a mistaken policy. Moreover the regional character of our agricultural production is inevitably undermined by a number of factors: lifting fuel taxes on air and sea transportation, deregulation of air transportation, and increasingly high export subsidies that distort the market and promote large distributors to the detriment of small producers and distributors. The globalization of production in the agricultural market can in no way promote healthy development.
It is also time to face the fact that any attempt to make quick profits in agriculture tends to be highly destructive. The fast food -- fast profit ratio inevitably squeezes the breath out of small-scale production, which is unable to compete. . .