Slow Food home | About us | Foundation | Editore | Sloweb | Press Office | Store     Sloweek - On-line News by Slow Food Sloweek Archive     Cultivating Minds A growing body of evidence is pointing towards the benefit of school gardens in ...     Slowing the CAP Slow Food joins the official debate for a reformed Common Agricultural Policy ...     Bundanoon to Concord: Go For It! As the first town in the world to ban bottled water, Bundanoon, Australia offers ...         News     Search:     Voices from the Slow world:     News from Terramadre     Mozambique: a cooking competition to qualify for Terra Madre 03 Sep 10 ...       News from Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity     Salt of the Earth 12 Jul 10 During the last trip organized by the Slow Food Foundation, we visited the Rif, one of the poorest and most disquieting areas of the country. ...       News from University Gastronomic Sciences     UNISG launches Advanced School in Sustainability and Food Policies 25 May 10 Italy’s University of Gastronomic Sciences launches an on-line summer school program focused on sustainability and food policies (July 19 – October 25) ...       Watch & Listen     Visit our new multimedia section! 22 Jun 07 Where you will find audio, video and text files to listen to, watch and download. ...           Slow Talk 12 Aug 10     The Plight of the Modern Farmer by Carlo Petrini Farmers in Italy are experiencing their most serious crisis for sixty years, accompanied by complete silence and lack of interest on the part of the media. The prices of all types of raw material have plummeted to historic minimums and farmers—irrespective of what crops they grow or animals they raise—are producing at a loss. There are many causes, both cyclical and systemic, but what is most evident is that farmers have lost their independence, the ability to set a price according to the quality of their produce. They are being brought to their knees by the agro-industrial, monocultural approach to farming, which serves the interests of the large-scale retail trade. This model is not only unsustainable from an ecological perspective; it is also devastating the economic viability of small farmers. But it is hardly surprising: in other countries around the world where the agro-industrial model has been adopted and expanded to greatest extent, we can see how the system works. At first farmers are persuaded to increase their production using unsustainable methods, replacing native varieties and breeds with products preferred by the industry. Then the economic benefits dwindle and many small to medium size farms are forced to close, being bought out by those able to achieve greater economies of scale. We are then left with the same pattern of concentration that has taken place in all countries of the global north: the country areas become depopulated; there is an increase in machinery and decrease in people. In the end, even the large farms begin to struggle. They grow monocultures or farm intensively, and depend on the only customers who can take their produce - the...             United Kingdom - 18 Aug 10     Youth Food Movement at Terra Madre     The Youth Food Movement has announced it will host a dedicated youth area and meeting space at the 2010 Terra Madre world meeting of food communities. The space will aim to communicate the...         News archive     Brazil - 17 Aug 10     Gastromotiva     Terra Madre chef and Slow Food convivium empower disadvantaged youth to enter culinary careers ...     Russia - 16 Aug 10     Biodiversity Hangs in the Balance     Slow Food joins the protest against destruction of Europe’s largest repository of rare fruit ...     United Kingdom - 13 Aug 10     Food Justice     Slow Food UK praises social justice report’s call for action ...     Philippines - 10 Aug 10     Against the Grain     The Indigenous Taguibong people in the Philippines continue to practice the traditional rice threshing and milling methods of their ancestors ...     Georgia - 05 Aug 10     Meeting in the Birthplace of the Vine     First Terra Madre Georgia held with a focus on wine and small producers ...     Italy - 03 Aug 10     Strengthening the Indigenous Voice     Slow Food enters into a partnership to advocate for indigenous groups around the world ...     Archive       Slow Talk Archive       Previous news archive   Slow Food 2010 - All rights reserved - P.iva 91008360041 - Powered by Blulab