What is the slow food movement?
The Slow Food movement doesn’t have to be about making everything slowly and traditionally, but to me that enhances the immersive aspect of being connected to your food sources and your community.
Photo by Anton
InstaPots and the lure of fast culture
I’ve been intuitively boycotting Instapots since they started becoming wildly popular. I’ll probably pick one up someday — secondhand — out of curiosity, but I feel like we rush through so much in our lives. Do we really need to pressure cook all our food?
I know this is wildly illogical because I’m known to pick up a frozen pizza or buy a box of mac and cheese when I’m pressed for time or my mental bandwidth is fading. I know what it’s like to just need things to be easy.
I have a slow cooker and I love to come home knowing that Morning Shara had the foresight to get something tasty ready so Evening Shara could rest and enjoy a meal with little fuss and I am reluctant to swap it out for something quicker.
This is one of the concepts of the slow food movement. It’s not actually about cooking slowly, but about getting good, clean, fair food onto tables for everyone. To reach that goal, they often encourage traditional cooking methods.
Slow Food is an organised movement that originated in Italy in the 1980s but has been picking up speed. On their website they talk about building cultural and biological diversity while making sure food is good for the people who eat it, the people who grow it, and the planet. It’s a brilliant, common sense principle that can also answer the question “what is food sustainability?”
“Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature.”
— Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Movement founder
How does biodiversity factor in?
Biodiversity is one of the keys to building sustainable food sources. It may look good to mass produce crops to feed earth’s ever-growing population, and it probably is — in the short term. Like all things that are too good to be true, large scale farming comes with a steep price and short shelf life.
Wheat, rice, and corn make up 60% of our food production, while 75% of our edible food plants have become extinct. Overconsumption, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and climate change all attribute to this loss.
With that kind of loss, our ecosystems become unstable. If natural habitats are being destroyed on large scales for agriculture, city expansion, fires, etc. then the habitat loss is significant not just of those species directly affected, but those that rely on it as an ecosystem has many components working together to function effectively. The fate of each species is so often interdependent on the fate of others.
Relying on wheat, rice, and corn means that not only have we removed significant amounts of habitat and food sources for other species, but we are putting all of our efforts into single food sources. If, or when, they fail, we won’t be able to sustain ourselves.
One gram of moss from the forest floor, a piece about the size of a muffin, would harbour 150,000 protozoa, 132,000 tardigrades, 3,000 springtails, 800 rotifers, 500 nematodes, 400 mites, and 200 fly larvae. These numbers tell us something about the astounding quantity of life in a handful of moss.
— Robin W. Kimmerer, Gathering Moss
Why we need to prioritize pollinators
The Slow Food movement advocates for policies and practices that support pollinator health. This includes promoting urban gardening, planting native species, and encouraging the development of pollinator-friendly landscapes. Slow Food events and initiatives often highlight the importance of pollinators in sustaining food systems, raising awareness about their plight and inspiring action to protect them.
One such initiative is Slow Food’s “Ark of Taste,” a catalog of endangered foods and agricultural practices. Many of the foods on the endangered list depend on pollinators for their survival. By protecting these foods and the traditional methods used to produce them, Slow Food helps preserve the ecosystems that sustain pollinators.
We need the bees, butterflies, birds, and bats. While a surprising stink or nightmares about vampires may make you hesitant to encourage some of these creatures into your space, they play a crucial role in maintaining the health of our ecosystems and supporting sustainable agriculture. Without them, many of the crops we rely on would fail to produce fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.
As biodiversity declines and modern industrial agriculture favors monocultures, pollinators face increasing threats. The Slow Food movement recognizes the essential role pollinators play in sustaining diverse, resilient food systems.
It’s impossible to stress the importance of pollinators. They are responsible for the reproduction of approximately 75% of the world’s flowering plants, including over 35% of global food crops. This includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, and even crops like coffee and cocoa. Some of the most common foods, such as apples, almonds, blueberries, and tomatoes, depend on pollination to produce their bounty. Without these pollinators, our diets would look vastly different, lacking in variety and nutrition.
In addition to supporting human food crops, pollinators also sustain ecosystems by enabling plant reproduction in the wild. This helps maintain biodiversity, which is key to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. A world without pollinators would not only affect the food we eat but also disrupt ecosystems that provide essential services like clean air, water filtration, and habitat for other species.
Modern agricultural practices, particularly the widespread use of pesticides, habitat destruction, climate change, and the dominance of monocultures threaten pollinators. Pesticides like neonicotinoids have been shown to harm bees and other pollinators by damaging their nervous systems, making it difficult for them to navigate, forage, and reproduce. Additionally, large-scale monoculture farming destroys diverse habitats, limiting the range of plants that pollinators depend on for nutrition.
How to build equity for farms, farmers, and consumers
Central to Slow Foods philosophy is the principle of equity: ensuring that everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, has access to nutritious, ethically-produced, and culturally relevant food. Equity within the Slow Food movement goes beyond the availability of food; it encompasses fair treatment for food producers, inclusive policies that address marginalized communities, and a commitment to creating a sustainable food system that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
This focus on equity challenges the notion that healthy, sustainable, and locally-sourced food should only be available to the affluent. In many parts of the world, particularly in low-income communities, access to fresh, nutritious food is limited due to food deserts, high prices, and industrialized farming systems that prioritize profit over quality and sustainability.
The Slow Food movement works to address these inequities by promoting local food systems that can provide affordable, high-quality food to communities. This includes supporting community gardens, farmers' markets, and urban sustainable agriculture projects, which help bridge the gap between food producers and consumers. By fostering connections between local farmers and consumers, Slow Food helps ensure that more people have access to fresh, nutritious food, while supporting small-scale farmers.
Equity in the Slow Food movement also means ensuring that food producers—farmers, workers, and artisans — are treated fairly. In many conventional food systems, small-scale farmers and agricultural workers are often underpaid and overworked, while large corporations reap the majority of the profits. This inequity is particularly acute in developing countries, where farmers may struggle to make a living due to low wages, exploitative practices, and a lack of access to markets.
Many communities are practicing Slow Food principles without specifically participating in the organization. My community has local shops with only local food for sale. Producers come together to run the shop and the community supports them because they know their farmers — their kids also go to school with their kids.
By emphasizing fair trade and ethical sourcing, Slow Food promotes a food system that rewards the people who grow, harvest, and prepare food, rather than exploiting their labor for profit. Additionally, Slow Food works to empower farmers and producers by providing education and resources that help them sustain their livelihoods while maintaining environmentally-friendly practices.
Equity within the Slow Food movement amplifies the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. Food justice is deeply intertwined with issues of race, gender, and class, and many communities of colour and Indigenous groups have been systematically excluded from conversations about food systems. Slow Food aims to address this by advocating for policies and practices that include these communities and their culinary traditions.
Organic tomatoes at sunset. Photo by Chad Stembridge
For example, the Slow Food movement’s “Ark of Taste” catalog includes foods and traditions that are at risk of being lost due to industrialization and homogenization. Many of these foods come from marginalized communities whose culinary practices have been historically overlooked. Slow Food helps ensure that the knowledge and contributions of these communities are not erased.
By centering equity, the Slow Food movement envisions a world where food is a right, not a privilege, and where the benefits of a sustainable food system are shared by all.
The Slow Food movement is worth explorin because it promotes health, sustainability, and cultural preservation. By emphasizing locally-sourced, seasonal, and nutritious food, it supports better health and environmental practices.
It also values traditional culinary methods and regional food cultures, fostering a deeper appreciation of diverse food traditions. Slow Food advocates for fair treatment of farmers and equitable access to quality food, addressing issues of food justice.
Understanding this local food movement highlights how mindful eating and sustainable practices can enhance personal well-being, strengthen local economies, and contribute to a more just and resilient food system.
If all else fails, ditch the InstaPot for the slow cooker (or, do what’s right for you).
