Nothing. And I don't know.
I was one of five original board members, the only non-native to represent a country from North Africa and the Middle East. Initially, there was a list of PR driven activities, media contacts, and a few initiatives on the table.
For a brief moment it all seemed very exciting, at least the possibility of working with culinary "elites" from this part of the world; scholars, academics, food writers, producers and chefs. But I already knew people like this and didn't need to serve a big, bloated organization to participate in the culinary glamour that Carlo Petrini is so adept at marketing.
I tend to be wary of large organizations and Slow Food International is
no exception. They exist to serve both public and private agendas.
The slow death of Slow Food UK by Paul Levy in last week's Guardian UK blog
"As those who follow the fortunes of SF International probably know, its ambitious programme includes running a University of Gastronomic Sciences with a campus near the movement's birthplace, Bra, in Piedmont. One SF member described it to me as "a bottomless pit" into which SF money must be poured."
Apparently, Slow Food Pan-Arab never happened because there was no money for it. Which was absurd considering the players involved, we were more than capable of raising our own funds for pet projects.
Every time I offered to raise funds for Slow Food Pan-Arab I was told to feed Slow Food International with more members or travel to Italy for Terra Madre. Besides being a non-believer in trickle down economics, there were other niggling problems.
I could never answer the very simple question, "what does Slow Food do?". Most of my close friends are literate about trendy issues and are in the socio-economic group that Slow Food markets to. Many in my professional networks who have issues with Slow Food's ideology (I do as well) seemed willing to overlook them in support of Slow Food Pan-Arab. But nobody seemed to understand what it is that Slow Food actually does.
My friends Paolo Ferrero (Italian food and wine writer) and Ed McGaugh (Swiss-American chef based in Western Europe) attended a Slow Food event in Italy. They gave me a detailed report of a very pretty food bazaar. Both were disappointed, but not surprised, that Slow Food's rhetoric was out of sync with their actions.
Last year Slow Food Nation splashed onto the California food scene with much hype. I belong to an e-list monitored by the Association for the study of Food and Society. We had an ongoing discussion about Slow Food in general with several detailed reports of Slow Food Nation's first event in San Francisco. It was a very pretty food bazaar and there were some small producers who had benefited from piggy back marketing.
Maybe there would be something more substantive at Slow Food Nation's Panel Discussion? I emailed panelist Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, to share a bit of my experience, or rather non-experience, with Slow Food; and to get his take on what is that they actually do. He wasn't sure either.
Besides food bazaars and panel discussions, Slow Food also organizes activities I've described as "field trips to honey farms to service the queen bee". Patel has a notorious potty mouth and a terrific sense of humor, so I was bit more graphic in my email description of what Slow Foodies might do to please the queen bee. He responded with "olive oil circle jerk".
The problem with Slow Food isn't so much what they do or don't, it's their rhetoric.
Comments