LOCAL:
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| © Eva Cherneff Photography |
The Slow Food Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands Convivium works to supports farmers, breeders and artisan food producers to link with the consumer. We work towards safeguarding our right to food sovereignty.
We also encourage a sustainable model of agrifood production and promotes collaboration between producers, cooks and the general public to change the way food is produced today. We promote buying local products as much as we can and share them with others through tasting seminars, dinners, educational events and try to learn and enjoy the great products we have on the Island.
We are a membership based organization and rely entirely on the ongoing support of our members. We believe in the concept of Good, Clean and Fair food.
Why Slow Food? Read the International Congress Paper "The Central Role of Food."
We also encourage a sustainable model of agrifood production and promotes collaboration between producers, cooks and the general public to change the way food is produced today. We promote buying local products as much as we can and share them with others through tasting seminars, dinners, educational events and try to learn and enjoy the great products we have on the Island.
We are a membership based organization and rely entirely on the ongoing support of our members. We believe in the concept of Good, Clean and Fair food.
Why Slow Food? Read the International Congress Paper "The Central Role of Food."
Our local board member, Cory Pelan a Slow Food Hero!
SLOW FOOD CANADA:
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| © Eva Cherneff Photography |
In May of 2009, Slow Food Canada formed a new Board of Directors and an Executive Committee that together form a new solidarity for the grass-roots movement, which promotes access to Good, Clean and Fair foods.
At an intensive long weekend of workshops, local culinary tours and strategic meetings - held in both official languages in Toronto - Slow Food delegates and leaders gathered from across the country, representing their members and the 39 local chapters (or convivia) from Nova Scotia to Whitehorse, Quebec to British Columbia.
Slow Food Founder and President Carlo Petrini, the famous guru of ethical, local eating, attended the meetings, advising the delegates to "find your own Canadian voice for the Slow Food movement."
Mara Jernigan of Vancouver Island, newly elected President of Slow Food in Canada, will lead the team of 17 Directors and Executive Committee to create a legal association nationally that has not-for-profit status. The directors will also develop a strategic plan in order to gain national association status with Slow Food International.
Other countries that have obtained this status, which ultimately allows for greater growth, include Slow Food USA, Slow Food UK and Slow Food Japan, among others. Jernigan says: "Now that we have a large, dedicated, and diverse board, I think Slow Food Canada actually has an opportunity to become the most important food organization in Canada."
Also at these meetings was the nomination of the heritage breed the Tamworth Pig for inclusion on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. The 11th product in Canada to be elected to this worldwide category for protecting food traditions, it joins Red Fife wheat, which was in danger of disappearing and today is grown in most major regions with a national yield of more than 500 tonnes annually.
Slow Food Founder and President Carlo Petrini, the famous guru of ethical, local eating, attended the meetings, advising the delegates to "find your own Canadian voice for the Slow Food movement."
Mara Jernigan of Vancouver Island, newly elected President of Slow Food in Canada, will lead the team of 17 Directors and Executive Committee to create a legal association nationally that has not-for-profit status. The directors will also develop a strategic plan in order to gain national association status with Slow Food International.
Other countries that have obtained this status, which ultimately allows for greater growth, include Slow Food USA, Slow Food UK and Slow Food Japan, among others. Jernigan says: "Now that we have a large, dedicated, and diverse board, I think Slow Food Canada actually has an opportunity to become the most important food organization in Canada."
Also at these meetings was the nomination of the heritage breed the Tamworth Pig for inclusion on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. The 11th product in Canada to be elected to this worldwide category for protecting food traditions, it joins Red Fife wheat, which was in danger of disappearing and today is grown in most major regions with a national yield of more than 500 tonnes annually.
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| © Eva Cherneff Photography |
SLOW FOOD INTERNATIONAL:
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.
Today, we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries. There are many pieces of Slow Food International, including the Slow Fish Foundation for Biodiversity, a Slow Food Youth Network, Earth Markets, a University and many more other smaller but still profoundly imporant projects.
We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.
We promote awareness of our ability to affect, through our choices, the market and therefore food production.
Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.
"Good"
Describes the complex sphere of feelings, memories and identity derived from the sentimental and sensorial value of food.
"Clean"
Food is produced without straining the earth's resources, respecting ecosystems and the environment.
"Fair"
Food is in line with social justice and fair compensation in the workplace and in commercialization.
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