Slow Food Movement

See also: Local Food Movement.

The Slow Food movement, begun in Italy in the 1980s, seeks to preserve traditional foods, recipes, and cooking methods, which generally take some time, as opposed to "Fast Food". It stands for the pleasures of the table, for the importance of good-tasting food, biodiversity of food crops, and for the defense of cultures facing growing homogenization as a result of industrialized agriculture and food manufacture.

Selected Books

For additional titles, browse the library catalog under the subject Slow Food Movement.

Kummer, Corby
The Pleasures of Slow Food: Celebrating Authentic Traditions, Flavors, and Recipes
q TX652.K86 2002
This volume introduces the Slow Food movement and then visits individual artisan food producers both in Europe and North America. This is followed by recipes contributed by artisanal produces.

Nabhan, Gary Paul
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine
QK46.5.D58 N33 2009
Ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan retraces the expeditions of Russian botanist Vavilov in a quest to find earth’s richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them. Since Vavilov's time in the 1940s, much biodiversity has already been lost.

Petrini, Carlo
Slow Food: the Case for Taste
TX631.P474 2003
Written by the Slow Food movement's Italian founder, this small volume describes the history and goals of the Slow Food movement, which seeks to preserve traditional foods, recipes, and cooking methods.

Petrini, Carlo
Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture for Eating and Living
TX631.P473813 2006
Tells how the powerful international coalition against "fast" food came about from its roots in Italy in the 1980s.

Petrini, Carlo
Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food
TX631.S58 2001
An anthology of writings from the movement's quartely publication Slow.

Planck, Nina
Real Food: What to Eat and Why
TX360.U6 P63 2006
Real Food reveals why traditional foods are not only delicious - everyone knows that butter tastes better - but are actually good for you, making the nutritional case for egg, cream, butter, grass-fed beef, roast chicken with the skin, lard, cocoa butter, and more.

Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving And Savoring The Continent's Most Endangered Foods
Gary Paul Nabhan, Editor
TX715.R42157 2008
An interesting book with essays on specific historical American food plants (and corresponding foodways) from the "Renewing America's Food Traditions" (RAFT) alliance. Some are native American crops and others are heirlooms of European tradition.

Videos

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Web Sites

• Edible Communities
  Edible Communities offers more than 52 regional publications emphasizing local foods and farms in distinct culinary regions throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Read more about them in the New York Times article.

  Publications
  Links to the existing Edible Communities

• Epicurious: Seasonal Cooking
  Slow and Local food is largely about eating what is in season. Check out these recipes for ideas on how to use seasonal produce.
• Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity
  Part of Slow Food International, the Foundation operates projects to defend local food traditions, protect local biodiversity and promote small-scale quality products, especially in the southern hemisphere. They also have an Ark of Taste with lists of endangered foods throughout the world, but mainly in Europe.
• Slow Food International
  The Slow Food movement, started in Europe, is characterized by local rootedness and decentralization of production. The emphasis is on traditional artesanal ways of food production throughout the world.
  • Sloweb
    Read the latest news in the slow food community.
  • Slow Food Multimedia
    Audio, video and text files to listen to, watch and download.
• Slow Food Italia
  Go to the country where the slow movement started. The site is in Italian but what better time to learn the Italian language?
• Slow Food Pittsburgh
  This is the Slow Food convivia for Pittsburgh.
• Slow Food USA
  A global, grassroots movement that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.
  • Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT)
    RAFT is an alliance of food, farming, environmental and culinary advocates who have joined together to identify, restore and celebrate America’s biologically and culturally diverse food traditions through conservation, education, promotion and regional networking.
  • Time for Lunch
    "On Sept. 7, 2009, Slow Food USA is asking people in communities all over the United States to sit down to share a meal with their neighbors and kids. This National Day of Action will send a clear message to the U.S. Congress: It's time to provide America's children with real food at school."
  • US Ark of Taste
    The US Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
• Sustainable Table
  Sustainable Table is a consumer campaign developed by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) to educate the consumer about the Sustainable Food movement.
• Terra Madre