This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food USA
The critical turning point relates to the creation of the Slow Food USA National Association [1]. In 2000, when Slow Food had several convivium running over the United States, the national representative of Slow Food in the United States of America opened its office in New York City under the leadership of a food activist called Patrick Martins.
The objective of creating the national branch was to coordinate the work among each local chapter and to have a national interlocutor with the Slow Food International Association, headquartered in the city of Bra (Italy). During the first years, Martins and colleagues intended to spread the movement inviting food experts, professionals as well as well-known chefs to join the movement.
Then, Slow Food USA succeeded in connecting like-minded people, establishing new relations among producers with consumers willing to create an alternative market for those threatened traditional food products, claiming a kind of returning to traditional values. As the interviewee remembers, Slow Food gained a good reputation in the 2000s in the USA and mass media covered its activity:
In the beginning, it was something like meeting people I know and say them: “hey, I am creating a local chapter, I like you to be involved”. It was an interesting mixture of full-businesses professionals. No farmers at the beginning. When I was forming a chapter, I went to a farmer´s market in the city. It was about 2.000. I said then that I´ve created a chapter they could be interested in joining, we would love to have them as members. First, they think, what do you want from us? When I said that I only wanted to support them, they were very excited. We began to build a local chapter. We organized few activities, we tabled in conferences, fairs. That was about to put a table and just to talk to people about your organization. So, I did that about for three years. To spread the word about the organization to people I never heart about. I am happy to say that Slow Food gained reputation in 2000s in USA. There were some reports on newspapers, some interviews; our president went to some conferences. Most people know what is Slow Food now
In only four years, Slow Food USA counted over 140 chapters and 12.500 members nationwide, which is considered one of the first achievements of Slow Food USA, to reach to a critical mass of activists and persuade them to volunteer in a counter movement that aimed to put food at the center stage.
The Slow Food National office contributed to implementing in the United States two of the principal projects – the Ark of Taste and Presidia- that Slow Food International have extended in Europe and other parts of the world. With the “Heritage Turkey Project” Slow Food gained the acknowledgment of the American Society.
Besides, the creation of the national branch permitted to establish several partnerships with external organizations to start new projects in the national context. Examples of that are the Slow Food Garden Project or the Edible Schoolyard, which started with the financial support of external American institutions or foundations.
Note:
[1] According to Slow Food Chicago, around ten people gathered informally for the first time in Chicago using the name of Slow Food, which was still an Italian rooted initiative.
This critical turning point – the constitution of the national branch of Slow Food USA- has been co-produced by a reduced number of activists who decided to introduce the movement into the United States. According to the opinion of the interviewee, most of the Slow Food USA pioneers and first chapter leaders got inspired by their first contact with Slow Food -whether they travelled to Italy- or when they personally met the leader of the movement -Carlo Petrini- during his visit to Slow Food USA in 1999[1].
I’ve been involved in Slow Food USA since the beginning, since 1990. I was on a trip in Italy and I found out about a club, called Slow Food. I heard about people that get together and have dinners in warm communities of people that really care about supporting local farmers. When I get back from my trip I started to search about Slow Food and I found out that there was a chapter in USA and I talked to them to found my local chapter … I said: yeah, it is really an organization I would love to have behind!
As the movement got in mature, it became less a sort of “looking towards Europe” to focuses more on the American food traditions, supporting green producers and agriculture heritage. Thus, the North American activists adapted the European leftist discourse to the American culture (e.g. removing anticapitalist positions).
Furthermore, the starting of Slow Food USA also coincides with the expansion of the Slow Food Movement worldwide. After 10 years of existence, the initiative aims to spread across the world and establishing "convivia," in cities and towns throughout the world was the first objective of the international network. According to the media([2]), in the latest 90s, there were about 70.000 Slow Food members in 35 countries and a number of national organizations including Italy, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, Hungary, Venezuela, Germany and Brazil.
In 1999, the President of the Slow Food Association, the Italian Carlo Petrini, attended the one event hosted by Slow Food Chicago, the “Feast of the Senses”. Petrini organized a 13-city tour over the United States in order to disseminate the discourse of the Slow Food Movement and enhance the constitution of new local chapters in the USA. Besides, in this moment, Slow Food has launched the “Ark of Taste” and “Presidia” projects (which seek both "to promote biodiversity by discovering, cataloging and safeguarding small-quality food productions in danger of extinction), which resulted extremely attractive to new North American partners.
Otherwise, contextual conditions might not have contributed to the expansion of the Slow Food discourse in the United States, due to the powerful agriculture and meat production American industry. However, a cultural shift within American society has been observed by some experts who, in the early 2000s, relished a series of publications that served to fuel an increased awareness on health issues and distrust of the corporate food system (e.g. Fast Food Nation, Schlosser, 2001; Food Politics, Nestle, 2002).
Such cultural shift facilitated the emergence of alternative local production communities that countered processed and/or industrial food communities by promoting local farmers' markets, food co-ops, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. Slow Food USA took advantage of this increasing awareness and contributed to the acknowledgment of these slow food production alternatives.
References:
[2] Information published in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/07/magazine/20081012-STYLE_6.html
[2] Information published in the Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-05-26/entertainment/9905260003_1_carlo-petrini-spiaggia-food-wine
Few related events were mentioned here by the interviewee. First, she described the first years of Slow Food USA, when Patrick Martin was in charge of coordinating the network. During these years, the network was mainly grounded in personal relations and friendship among the Slow Food associates and volunteers who desire “to be a part of a good cause and to get together over food and drink”:
In the beginning, when Patrick Martin was the Executive Director, Slow Food was a small organization. But by the end of 2000s, there were 150 chapters across the country. The movement was still very personal. It was run by Patrick and his wife
Besides, since the constitution of the national branch, a number of Slow food projects where launched in the USA, such as the “Heritage Turkey project”, which started in 2003. Such project aimed to safeguard the diversity of turkey varieties (in risk due to the massive production of only two varieties of turkey), persuading American people to buy heritage turkeys for the Thanksgiving dinner from the few remaining farmers raising them.
Slow Food USA also launched, in the same period, the "American Raw Milk Farmstead Cheese" project aiming to promote artisan American landscape products. Slow Food USA teamed up with the external institutions to support farmers, create markets, and increase the availability of the rarer seeds or breeds. In this period. Slow Food gains in acknowledgment and reputation and serves as a trusted social actor that creates and sustains eco-friendly markets.
Since the 2000s, Slow Food USA has developed a kind of hierarchical structure – with intermediary bodies- necessary to coordinate all local chapters and volunteers across the country. If in 2000 only a few chapters were active in the country, in 2002, Slow Food USA claimed to have 74 local manifestations (in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc.) and thousands of volunteers.
As a result of this, the national association needed to hire new staff in order to gain in capacity. A new person was hired to work in the national office, Erika Lesser, who later will be Executive Director of Slow Food USA, from 2004 to 2009. The interviewee describes the first change in leadership in Slow Food USA in the following:
In 2002, Patrick launched the heritages turkey project. And the turning point was to create a turkey viable consumer market. He told farmers to raise. Slow Food was very involved at that time in biodiversity conservation, saving endangered species. Patrick was so successful in his Heritage Turkey project that he saw a business opportunity to launch some business based on saving endangered breed livestock... and so, Erika Lesser took over as Executive Director of Slow Food USA and remained for 7 years. And Patrick left to run his own pro-profit business and leaves to her the responsibility to be on change of SFUSA. Erika, I believe, she did a really good job, within the organization for a number of years, which became bigger and bigger
No contestation within the organization was reported by the interviewee concerning the constitution of the Slow Food national association. As Slow Food local chapters have usually extend autonomy for starting any project and fundraising, Slow Food USA was probably perceived as a consequence of personal relation between Patrick Martin and Carlo Petrini. Both had met in New York in 2009 and later, Martin travelled to Bra (Italy) to know deeper the kind of projects Slow Food aimed to launch in the United States. Besides, Martin becomes the liaison between the movement in the USA and the International office in Italy.
However, some critical voices did arise –in the press and other media- in these days regarding the external image that Slow Food gains in the United States. For instance, some people described Slow Food USA as a club of “wealthy people”, mostly businessmen/women who aim to enjoy traditional high—quality aliments that only can be seconded by middle-class people. Slow Food started mainly organizing tastings at its local chapters to “educate palates” enjoying good, clean and fair food in a feast, friendly context.
The emphasis on pleasure and celebration has contributed to the misunderstanding of Slow Food as an elitist association, although this perception seems to have changed over time. The Edible School Garden project, the Ark of Taste and Presidia or the Slow Food Nation event that the Slow Food has developed nationwide did eventually contribute to the good reputation of Slow Food in the United States.
The constitution of the Slow Food USA´s association has been pointed out as a critical turning point in the timeline of Slow Food Movement at national and international scale. Slow Food succeeded in spreading its transformative discourse along the country where the “fast food” started, as the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, acknowledged in a recent Terra Madre event (Turin, 2014).
According to him, Slow Food USA has done an extraordinary work in America “not just for the USA but for the rest of the world” starting a “slow revolution toward respecting food, demonstrating that good food is not a commodity or merchandise” but a human right.
Thus, Slow Food USA associates consider that Slow Food was called to make a serious contribution to the arising debate over environmentalism and globalism in the United States. In the early 2000s, Slow Food USA provocatively challenged to some assumptions about consumption, free trade or food politics.
Indeed, American activists are proud to have anticipated themselves to the emergence of a wider movement of people –including large NGOs- with increasing awareness on health and food issues. Slow Food paved the way for an arising grassroots community around food existing nowadays hundreds of organizations devoted to eating carefully sprinkled throughout the United States:
Slow Food was the pioneer. We were the first organization in generating awareness and interest in food and, in this moment, there are a lot of like-minded organizations that are just are growing incredible fast around us
Learning from this Critical Turning point relates with the first stage at a grassroots voluntary-based movement as well as developing engagement strategies to maintain member´s satisfaction and commitment. The interviewee highlights Slow Food USA leader´s special ability to run the initiative, making people happy and appreciated, which resulted essential to the consolidation and expansion of Slow Food in the United States:
As a chapter leader in that period, it was a really exciting moment to start. Patrick was a very good appreciating other chapter leaders and hard work they do at local level to run the chapter. I think he was special on cheering organizations local based and volunteering leaders and recognize their work. Appreciating them. And Patrick was excellent at doing that. Making chapter leaders being appreciated. Building community leaders. Organizing events sometimes. It was an exiting time. We have regular meetings. Annual conferences at that time. That was very exciting. To come together with other leaders across the country. Slow Food USA did a marvelous job coming together, making us fun useful, we are not doing that any more
As mentioned above, in order to maintain the motivation of volunteers and chapter leaders, Slow Food USA started to organized special gatherings and summits to meet one another, to create the sense of belonging to a close community, enhancing relationship, personal attachment to like-minded people who care and dedicate time and effort to the same goals. The national initiative created annual meetings as a learning space to share experiences and having fun as described in the following:
I was involved in 2000, and this was about 2000-2007. At some point, all of us were volunteering leaders expending our free time on the organization. When we attend leader’s congresses and get involved together in these events, it was like a reward. It was like we are being rewards for lot of time; effort, energy, and we had fun. It was fun. We paid for travelling and hotels, but they did everything else. They created a magic experiences for us. We attend an international congress, with leaders coming from all parts of the world. And I never forget that (...) Slow food international created a dinner for us. It was the most wonderful dinner in the world. It was in archaeological ruins in Pompeian, in Italy. I will never forget that. It just magical. They made a big effort for doing this such special for us, for Slow Food USA. It was like a reward for our hard work, an appreciation for our work
However, the interviewee is aware of the risks of becoming too big. Friendship relations and personal attachment are not possible whether the association becomes bigger, losing the feeling of belonging to a close group but turning into a global community:
That is how Slow Food USA works. We have the Board of Directors and the executive director. We have also the staff. At the State level, we have the governors and the chapter leaders. And the chapter leaders have boards and many, many, volunteers. And each chapter is different and depends on leaders´ skills and personalities, as well as the volunteers after chapter leaders. I think that the organization gets probably too big. Maybe is the triple or quadruple now, but I have not the sense to be a great community. Patrick, and later Erika, made a big work to create this sense of being a close community
The interviewee draws useful lessons from her experience starting and leading a local chapter and dealing with internal issues, developing leadership and conflict-solving skills, engaging new members and maintaining people´s motivation, for example, by organizing "annual congresses to gather leaders together, special meetings to cheer leaders, etc". Besides, being a coordinator also involves to "solve conflicts, ego staff" and a variety of personal matters.
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