Dear Friends,

"If we wish to enjoy the pleasure which this can give us, we have to give of our all to strike the right balance of respect and exchange with nature and the environment. This is why we like to define ourselves as Œeco-gastronomes' . The fact is that our pleasure cannot be disconnected from the pleasure of others, but it is likewise connected to the equilibrium we manage to preserve (and in many cases revive) with the environment we live in." --from the Slow Food Manifesto "Slow Food" is the name of an Italian association that was founded in 1986 and became an international movement with the opening of its Paris office in 1989.

It's mission sounds simple: In its manifesto it defines itself as the "movement for the protection of the right to taste." But it is actually a complex organization with over 60,000 members in all five continents (about half in Italy), housing a publishing company and staging international events, as well as promoting scores of projects and activities, including charity work in Brazil, the former Yugoslavia, and the areas of Italy hit by earthquakes‹and supporting strong efforts to revive our increasingly endangered biodiversity.

Slow Food began with the intention of spreading awareness of good wine, which has literally changed skin in Italy over the last 15 years. They continued with the complex universe of cheese, creating a yearly international Cheese Exhibition, which showcases (and garners support for) some the world's finest handcrafted and artisan cheeses and cheesemakers. Now they also organize the Salone del Gusto (Hall of Taste), the third edition of which was held in October 2000. These are the major large-scale events Slow Food stages to create public awareness. They also devote great energy to what they call "Taste Education" through taste workshops, tasting courses and the books and magazines they publish. What an incredible organization! I'm defintely joining!

Why would a movement with the simple goal of increasing awareness and experience of relaxation and pleasure become so involved an endeavor?

Precisely because the concept of Œpleasure' is a complex one, encompassing many meanings and involving many aspects of our existence.

Slow Food's main offices, situated in Bra (Cuneo), a small town in southern Piedmont, employ about 100 people. They are the hub of a close-knit network of local grassroots offices in Italy and abroad, the so-called convivia, which promote the movement by staging events, debates ad other initiatives. Thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of their managers, collaborators and members, they provide continuous feedback to the central offices in Bra.

Slow Food's publishing company, Slow Food Editore, specializes in tourism, food and wine. Its catalogue now contains about 40 titles. It also publishes "Slow," a periodical about taste and culture, available in five languages: Italian, English, French, German and Spanish.

Slow Food promotes scores of projects and activities.

The Ark of Taste is a first step in this direction. The aim of this massive project is to identify and catalogue products, traditional dishes/recipes, and animals that are in danger of disappearing. The operational offshoots of the project are called Slow Food Presidia, through which the association provides economic support and media/PR back-up to groups and individuals pledged to saving an Ark product. To provide public recognition for all this work, the Slow Food Award has been introduced, the first being awarded in Bologna in October 2000.

To learn more about Slow Food, visit www.slowfood.com

Here are some excerpts from the Slow Food Ark of Taste Manifesto:

The Ark Manifesto
To protect the small purveyors of fine food from the deluge of industrial standardization; to ensure the survival of endangered animal breeds, cheeses, cold cuts, edible herbs - both spontaneous and cultivated - cereals and fruit; to promulgate taste education; to make a stand against obsessive worrying about hygienic matters, which kills the specific character of many kinds of production; to protect the right to pleasure.

As spokespersons for culture, the food and wine industry, scientific research, journalism, politics and the institutions, we hope to persuade like-minded people to join us in the pursuit of these objectives. By way of a response to the alarm raised by Slow Food, we are launching an Ark of Taste to Save the Universe of Flavors.

The Ark of Taste is the result of an idea conceived by Slow Food. Today, thanks to support from representatives of the world of culture, scientific research, the food and wine industry, journalism and politics, this idea has turned into a project aimed at safeguarding and promoting small-scale fine food purveyors who are threatened by extinction. The project embraces both the scientific and the promotional sides of the issue.

From the scientific viewpoint we undertake to:

1. Define methods and criteria for research - in particular, outlining the very notion of gastronomic asset, typicality, tradition and endangered products;
2. Provide an ethno-botanical and historical characterization of cultivars, local breeds and products as a measure for the recognition of what is typical and/or traditional;
3. Promote scientific training of experts in the field at a national level;
4. Set up a networked data bank managed by a central body for collecting the data progressively obtained on cultivars, breeds, products, research, recipes, producers, restaurants and so on.

From a promotional viewpoint we undertake to:

1. Draw up and circulate a list of endangered products - known by the public at large and steeped in symbolic value - so that the struggle to defend them becomes as encompassing as possible;
2. Analyze these products from an organoleptic viewpoint, providing the names and addresses of the remaining producers, and advertise them through the mass-media and specialist publications so that the concept of protection goes hand in hand with that of economic return;
3. Invite consumers to purchase and eat these products, convinced as we are that extinction can be avoided only if they are fully reintroduced into the commercial/food circuit;
4. Identify within each region a series of inns or taverns - to be awarded special recognition - that will become active regional promoters of the Ark products, using them on a daily basis in the preparation of their dishes;
5. Invite major restaurants to select a specific Ark product as their "pet product", protecting and introducing it in certain dishes;
6. Launch a campaign throughout Italy so that each municipality "adopts" an endangered product, thus promoting its production and consumption;
7. Promote projects aimed at teaching taste to young people right from school age, with a view to developing people's organoleptic faculties so that they can recognize quality products and draw the utmost pleasure from them;
8. Prod national institutions into considering the safeguarding of these products - gastronomic assets in general, and not just those in danger - as a major goal for the economy and integral part of Italy's cultural identity;
9. Associate with similar projects throughout Europe, convinced as we are that protecting typical and/or traditional quality food and agricultural products must become a transnational operation, given the fact that markets and strategies are growing increasingly globalized and standardized.