What is the Slow Food Movement & Why Does it Matter? (Part 1)

What started twenty plus years ago as a regional eco-gastronomic movement in northern Italy has grown to become a world wide peaceful revolution for change with over 100,000 members in 160 countries. To quote founder Carlo Petrini: “Human greed has destroyed our soil fertility, water, biodiversity. The Earth is not an infinite resource. We need to strengthen the true drivers of sustainable farming, small and medium sized farmers.” Petrini argues that the key to changing the way we produce food is through “glocal” action – linking up local initiatives using technology to create a global force, the “multi-nationals for tomorrow.” Slow Food Southern Alberta is committed to educate people about traditional and wholesome means of food production. Slow Food connects producers and co-producers; educates consumers, including children, through tasting workshops and community gardens; and help to protect biodiversity by providing better knowledge of and control over what we eat and how it is produced. Speaker: Jacqueline L. Chalmers Jacqueline Chalmers is the founder and president of Slow Food Southern Alberta. She was chosen to attend the international conference of Slow Food – “Terra Madre” in 2010 in Turin, Italy. Six thousand people from all over the world attended; workshops and seminars were translated into six languages, making it feel like United Nations of Food. The conference fuelled her on-going passion to do the utmost to protect and respect Mother Earth thus ensuring that everyone in the world has access to good, clean, fair food. Jackie and her family live west of Claresholm on the historic New Oxley Ranche. They raise garlic commercially and their produce can be found in all Calgary Co-ops and is served in many of the restaurants in southern Alberta that feature local producers.