Italian “Slow Food” party visiting Islay on 29 April

Being an active member of the “Slow Food” movement, I’m involved in organizing activities for our members. Being a frequent visitor of Scotland, last June I took a group of Slow Food members to Speyside and Shetland. Thanks to Pam Rodway (she is one of the founders of Slow Food UK and manager at Soil Association Scotland) we visited crofts, farms, smoke-houses, and obviously whisky distilleries. You can find 2 reports of our trip (in Italian) in the below listed links.

What is Slow Food? Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in Italy in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet. Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work. Continue reading.....
We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process. Eating involves making choices which can have far reaching implications. If you consciously choose good, clean and fair food you are well on the way to becoming an important ingredient who helps decide what kind of food system we all enjoy.

Highlands, Pam Rodway's Farm

Each of the over 85,000 members in 132 countries are part of a local group called convivium (from Latin, conviviality). Convivia are the local expression of the Slow Food philosophy. They build relationships with producers, campaign to protect traditional foods, organize tasting and seminars, encourage chefs to source locally, nominate producers to participate in international events and work to bring taste education into schools. Most importantly, they cultivate the appreciation of pleasure and quality in daily life. Every Slow Food member can participate in convivium activities anywhere in the world.

Terra Madre 2008 - Carlo Petrini's Speech

Nowadays, Carlo Petrini’s new challenge is called Terra Madre (Mother Earth); it is an international meeting of food communities, born as a ‘network of networks’ of contacts and connections among all those who cultivate, process, commercialize and cook in a attempt to promote traditional, sustainable local food production the world over. Last October more than 7000 farmers, chefs and students (from 153 different countries) with their traditional costumes, gathered in Turin for the 3rd international meeting of Terra Madre to support sustainable agriculture, fishing, and breeding with the goal of preserving taste and biodiversity.

These are now all topical issues, but they have been developed 20 years ago by Carlo Petrini, a journalist, founder of the Slow Food movement.

I’m a member of the Monza and Brianza convivium, an area North of Milan. Our next trip will be to Islay (29th April – 3rd May 2009). I think the slow life on Islay marries very well the main ideals of our association. I’m just back home after a slow week spent on the island organizing our new trip. We’ll be visiting farms, distilleries, the woolen mill, the brewery and the RSPB reserve. We’ll have a couple of walks and dinner in the best restaurants. We’ll enjoy the best Islay has to offer.