Slow Food Nation

In the autumn, San Francisco will host the first Slow Food Nation event.  Slow Food Nation is a subsidiary non-profit arm of Slow Food USA founded by Alice Waters.  The event aims to increase awareness of how food choices affect our health, our culture and the environment.  Hundreds of farmers and food artisans from across America will present their products.  There will also be many activities such as lectures, films and music.

Fairtrade fortnight: 25 Feb – 9 March

Just a reminder that 25th February – 9th March is Fairtrade Fortnight.  Bedford has many traders who offer fairtrade products.  Look out for the fairtrade sign to support many of the world’s producers who are still finding it very hard to make a living from their produce. Slow Food’s Foundation for Biodiversity is a supporter of producers worldwide.

Buying produce where you see the fairtrade sign or switching from your normal produce to Fairtrade maybe just a small change but it can make a big difference to those producers who strive to make a daily living from their produce. The attachment below details some great events going on in Bedford during Fairtrade Fortnight supported by The Bedford Borough Council.  And Bedford’s Thursday Gourmet Market has a regular fairtrade stall.

Details: Fairtrade fortnight events

International film festival

Slow Food and Cineteca di Bologna are promoting an international festival of cinema and food.  The festival aims to promote awareness of food-related issues.  It will be held in Bologna between 7-11 May.  If you are plan to go to the Festival, please could you let the Newsletter Editor know.

Outcomes from Fifth International SF Congress

The Fifth Slow Food International Congress, held in Puebla, Mexico, brought together more than 600 delegates and observers from 49 countries, including 21 UK representatives.  Fiona Richmond, Slow Food UK Co-ordinator summarised some of the key outcomes for UK Convivia.

A Declaration set out the key strategic themes reflecting the movement’s ‘Good, Clean and Fair’ mission.

Fiona reported that one of the highlights of the Congress was a presentation by the students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences and the Youth Food Movement delegation from Slow Food USA.  They proposed launching an international network of young farmers, producers, students, chefs and activists.  This was unanimously approved by the Congress.  Action Plan

One report, Slow Food in Schools, outlining initiatives in the USA is particularly interesting for Slow Food Bedford because of our new projects for 2008.

Shortly before the Congress met, Mexico was hit by devastating floods.  This had severe economic, social and ecological impacts on the Tabasco area, forcing more than 3 million people to leave their homes and almost wiping out farming production.  The Congress expressed solidarity with the flood victims and an appeal fund has already raised thousands of Euros.

Carlo Petrini having fun

The fifth Slow Food International Congress was held in Mexico in November.  The meeting brought together more than 600 delegates and observers from 49 nations, representing the association’s 85,000 members across five continents.   As well as lots of serious work, there was also some fun, as this video shows.  If you read the 2005 book Slow Food Revlution you’ll find out about Carlo Petrini’s passion for music and how it contributed to the start of the slow food movement. 

Tales of Terra Madre – Wild & Winter

Since 2004 Slow Food has promoted Terra Madre, a worldwide project that supports the principles of eco-gastronomy – small scale production of quality food, defence of biodiversity and knowledgeable and responsible consumption.  Terra Madre is an international network that allows all those involved in the food sector – farmers, fishermen, ranchers and herders, artisan producers, cooks, educators, researchers, scholars and “co-producers” – to get to know one another, to exchange knowledge and experience and to work together.  The last meeting of this network (held in Turin), in October 2006, gathered 4,803 farmers, breeders, fishermen and artisan food producers from 1,583 food communities and 150 nations; 953 cooks; 411 professors and representatives from 225 universities. 

Slow Food UK has been twinned with Gabon.  As a result the UK will help to set up a Terra Madre conference in 2008 in Gabon to bring together producers and co-producers from all over Gabon to record traditional recipes and methods farming that have never been recorded before.  This is a major step forward to securing the food heritage of this country which, without this initiative, would certainly be lost. 12 conviviums will be raising money to help Gabon Terra Madre hold this vital conference (Gabon dinners).

Please support Slow Food Bedford’s dinner.  75% of the profits will go directly towards Gabon Terra Madre and 25% will support Terra Madre in the UK.  Plus we will be holding a very special raffle on the night that will have some great Slow Food and local prizes.  The seating is very limited for this event so if you would like to attend, please e-mail Sue (slowfoodbedford@ntlworld.com) as soon as possible.

Event details: Wilde & Winter

Taking back life

Carlo Petrini has written a new Slow Food pamphlet called ‘Taking back life‘.  It summarises some of the current initiatives and the key themes for the Slow Food 2007 International Congress taking place in November (in Mexico).