Slow Food is a global association that pursues “cultural, environmental and social goals built around the centrality of food”. Slow Food´s motto, “Good, clean and fair food”, represents the three fundamental values that explain Slow Food´s philosophy and their social and political strategy. According to its statutes, Slow Food works in the international context aiming to:
The Slow Food International Association, founded in Italy in 1986, is present in 160 countries in the world, throughout 1.500 “convivial” (local chapters) formed by 100.000 members (who economically sustain the organization) and 1.000.000 supporters. Slow Food also counts with several national associations (Italy, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Japan, Netherlands, Brazil, Kenya and South Korea), two Slow Food International Foundations: The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity and the Terra Madre Foundation and one University of Gastronomic Sciences (Italy). Slow Food facilitates and promotes the creation of a network of local communities in both the global North and South. These communities -called “convivia”- share the principles of the Association, focusing their local or regional work on the current “unfair” systems of food production and consumption.
Chapter 3 of this study will focus on the Slow Food International Association. The research reviews the origin, evolution and organization of the international network. We also analyse the ambitions, activities and discourses of change developed by the association during its almost 30 years of history. We give special attention to dynamics of transformative social innovation and agency processes that contribute to the movement´s social impact, political influence and capacity for societal transformation, according to the operationalization described in the methodological guidelines (Wittmayer et al 2015). The report also presents the results of empirical research carried out on two local case studies the “Convivium Slow Food Araba-Vitoria” (chapter 4) and the “Convivium Freigburg-Südbaden” (chapter 5).
The “Convivium Slow Food Araba-Vitoria” (created in 2005) is located in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the Province of Araba, (Basque Country, Spain). This organization has 300 members which carries out an intense activity in the province of Araba, with more than 70 events per year. The convivium is also very well connected to the international network. They were invited to participate in the first Slow Food “Terra Madre” (2004) and have taken part in numerous Slow Food networking activities. The president of Slow Food Araba-Vitoria, Alberto López, is a member of the Slow Food Association´s International Council, in representation of the Spanish convivia, since 2012.
As a second local case study, the ‘Slow Food’ group Freiburg/Südbaden1 (SFFR) in Germany will be introduced in chapter 5. Founded in 1997, this convivium is one of the first and largest convivia in Germany. The area of the Freiburg convivium covers the far South West of the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg, close to the Swiss and French borders, in the so-called border triangle. Besides the city of Freiburg with its 220.000 inhabitants, it also includes a unique diverse agricultural infrastructure with the vineyards and fruit growing areas of Kaiserstuhl, Markgräfler Land, and Breisgau as well as the Southern Black Forest with traditional lifestock farming rising up to 1.500 m above sea level. Furthermore, a high pressure on land use competes with tourism and a very ecologically minded population of the ‘university city’ Freiburg [extracted from the report's overview].
Dumitru, A.; Lema-Blanco, I.; Kunze, I. and García-Mira, R. (2016) Slow food movement. Case-study report. TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169.
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