Definition of Slow Food

What Is Slow Food?

The Slow Food movement began in 1986 in Italy with the work of Carlo Petrini and advocates a more moderate pace of life with a focus on regional cuisine and slow food preparation and eating. Today, it is an international organization promoting an alternative to fast food with over 100,000 members from around the world.

The movement argues that through industrialization, with assembly lines and standardized food choices, human society has lost an appreciation and knowledge of local culinary traditions and foods, and as such is worse for it.

As an alternative, the Slow Food movement looks to incorporate several important objectives into their organization culture:

• Maintaining heirloom seed banks
• In every region around the globe, creating an Ark of Taste to preserve local culinary traditions
• Working with local producers in small-scale farming and processing operations
• Celebrating local cuisine through various events
• Providing education to consumers about fast food risks, monoculture, factory farms, agribusiness, and genetically modified crops
• Lobbying in support of organic farms and ethical trade, and against genetic engineering and pesticides

In sum, Slow Food ideals center around the belief, “pleasure and quality in everyday life can be achieved by slowing down, respecting the convivial traditions of the table and celebrating the diversity of the earth's bounty.”[1]

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