What is a Slow Food Movement?

What is a Slow food Movement?

Slow Food is a major international movement.

Founded in 1986 in Italy, Slow Food is committed to promoting the right to pleasure and good, clean and fair food for all, as part of the quest for prosperity and happiness for current and future humanity and for the entire network of living things.

Since the drafting of the Slow Food Manifesto in 1987, it has worked to give the right value to food, practicing and spreading respect for those who produce it in harmony with the environment and ecosystems, thanks to the knowledge of local territories and traditions.

With full awareness of the climate and environmental crises and their economic, social and health consequences, Slow Food today acts through its own projects and networks, inviting everyone to give a sign of hope and to make a choice of individual and collective well-being: to feel good, to feel better together with those around us, people, but also other living beings. Having an ecosystem-friendly and resilient approach improves first and foremost the quality of our lives and those around us. This is our way of making a contribution to improving the future.

Slow Food is a global movement in which activists, organized in conviviums, communities and thematic networks, promote the defense of biodiversity through taste education and advocacy activities, fostering dialogue between civil society and institutions. Throughout its history, it has carried out more than 10,000 projects in 160 countries and has one million activists. Part of the international Slow Food movement is the national association Slow Food Italia, a Third Sector organization registered with Runts.

For biodiversity

At the heart of Slow Food's work is the safeguarding of products and production techniques (Presidia, Ark of Taste) that we also support through storytelling and promotion in the world of catering, through the construction of a relationship of trust and mutual support between producers and chefs (Chefs' Alliance). We also work every day to shorten the supply chain between those who produce and those who consume through the Earth Markets and we deal with "taste education" with the Slow Food Gardens, the Food to Action Academy and the Popular Academy of Taste.

Slow events

To raise awareness among civil society in every corner of the world, we organize international events such as Slow Wine Fair (in Bologna from 25 to 27 February 2024), Terra Madre Salone del Gusto (in Turin, Parco Dora from 26 to 30 September 2024), Slow Fish in Genoa and Cheese in Bra (the next editions are in 2025).

The network and the themes

In addition to the Convivia and Communities, our actions are carried out through thematic networks (Slow Olive, Slow Grains, Slow Beans, Chestnut Growers), international coalitions (Slow Food Coffee Coalition, Slow Wine Coalition, Migrant Network), the network of young activists of the Slow Food Youth Network and campaigns (such as Slow Fish, Slow Cheese, Slow Meat, Slow Bees, Slow Meat, Slow Bees, Slow Meat, Slow Meat, Slow Meat, Slow  Food and Health), thanks to which we bring the demands of the world of production and the request for consumer rights to the EU institutions.

A new travel model

To support the local economy of inland areas, Slow Food has created the Slow Food Travel project, which proposes a new model of travel, made up of meetings and exchanges with farmers, cheesemakers, shepherds, butchers, bakers, winemakers who, together with the chefs who cook their products, will be the narrators of their territories and special guides to discover local traditions.

The University of Gastronomic Sciences, the Wine Bank and the Agency Hotel

In 2004, Slow Food, together with the Regions of Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, founded a free and independent university based in the Savoy complex of the Pollenzo Agency: the University of Gastronomic Sciences, which offers degree and master's courses to train new professionals who have interdisciplinary knowledge and skills in the fields of science, culture, politics, economics and ecology of food and who are able to develop values such as sustainability and the sovereignty of systems global foods. The same Savoy residence also houses the Wine Bank, a place that collects and analyzes the vintages of the best Italian wineries and is proposed as an educational wine shop, and the Albergo of the agency.