Slow Food
The Slow Food movement was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy as a resistance movement to combat fast food and claims to preserve the cultural cuisine and the associated food plants and seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion.
All totaled, 800 local convivia chapters exist. 360 convivia in Italy — to which the name condotta (singular) / condotte (plural) applies — are composed of 35,000 members, along with 450 other regional chapters around the world. The organizational structure is decentralized: each convivium has a leader who is responsible for promoting local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through regional events such as Taste Workshops, wine tastings, and farmers’ markets.
Objectives
The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:
* forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
* developing an “ark of taste” for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
* preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
* organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
* organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
* promoting “taste education”
* educating consumers about the risks of fast food
* educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
* educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
* developing various political programs to preserve family farms
* Lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
* Lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
* Lobbying against the use of pesticides
* Teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
* Encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces
CITTASLOW
Cittaslow, (literally Slow City in English) is a movement founded in Italy in October of 1999. The inspiration of Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization; Cittaslow’s goals include improving quality of life in towns while resisting the homogenization and Americanization of cities, where standardized franchise stores dominate. Celebrating and supporting diversity of culture and the specialities of a town and its hinterland are core Cittaslow values.
Cittaslow is part of a cultural trend known as the Slow movement.
Membership
Like Slow Food, Cittaslow is a membership organisation. Full membership of Cittaslow is only open to towns with a population under 50,000. To become eligible for membership, a town must normally score at least 50 percent in a self-assessment process against the set of Cittaslow Goals, and then apply for admission to the appropriate Cittaslow national network. An annual membership fee is payable by towns.
Another category of Cittaslow membership, that of Cittaslow Supporter, was agreed during 2005 and is open to public bodies, businesses and towns that support the Cittaslow aims and goals but that are not eligible to become Cittaslow in their own right.
Slow Cities
List of Slow Cities in Australia
* Goolwa
* Katoomba, City of Blue Mountains
List of Slow Cities in Italy
* Abbiategrasso
* Acqualagna
* Anghiari
* Barga
* Borgo Val di Taro
* Bra
* Bucine
* Caiazzo
* Casalbeltrame
* Castelnovo ne’ Monti
* Castelnuovo Berardenga
* Castiglione del Lago
* Chiavenna
* Chiaverano
* Città della Pieve
* Civitella in Val di Chiana
* Cutigliano
* Fiumicino
* Fontanellato
* Francavilla al Mare
* Giffoni Valle Piana
* Greve in Chianti
* Guardiagrele
* Levanto
* Massa Marittima
* Montefalco
* Orvieto
* Pellegrino Parmense
* Pollica
* Positano
* Pratovecchio
* San Daniele del Friuli
* San Gemini
* San Miniato
* San Vincenzo
* Santa Sofia
* Suvereto
* Teglio
* Todi
* Torgiano
* Trani
* Trevi
* Zibello
List of Slow Cities in Austria
* Enns, Upper Austria
List of Slow Cities in the UK
* Aylsham, Norfolk
* Diss, Norfolk
* Ludlow, Shropshire
* Mold, Wales
* Perth, Scotland
List of Slow Cities in Germany
* Hersbruck, Bavaria
* Waldkirch, Baden-Württemberg
* Überlingen, Baden-Württemberg
* Schwarzenbruck, Bavaria
* Lüdinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
List of Slow Cities in Norway
* Levanger, Nord-Trøndelag
* Sokndal, Rogaland
List of Slow Cities in Spain
* Mungia, Basque Country