The Slow Food Movement originated in Italy in the late 1980s as a grassroots response to the growing prevalence of fast food chains and the erosion of local culinary traditions.

Sparked by the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome’s famed Piazza di Spagna, the movement was founded by sociologist and activist Carlo Petrini.

Petrini and his colleagues recognized the disconnect being created between consumers and food producers, as industrialized food systems prioritized efficiency and cost over quality, environmental sustainability, and cultural heritage.

At its heart, Slow Food advocates for food that is “Good, Clean, and Fair.”

Good food is fresh, flavorful, and healthful; clean production practices protect the environment and animal welfare; and fair trade ensures equitable relationships between producers and consumers.

The movement promotes seasonality, food biodiversity, local sourcing, and preservation of traditional food methods.

Lead initiatives include the “Ark of Taste,” cataloging endangered traditional foods, and “Slow Food Presidium,” preserving endangered crops and artisanal products.

This philosophy critiques an industrialized food economy that favors volume and uniformity over transparency, diversity, and sustainability.

From its Italian roots, Slow Food has expanded to a global network of over 100,000 members in 150+ countries.

This global manifestation highlights local adaptations while retaining core values, celebrating diverse cultural foodways worldwide.

In Africa, Slow Food’s emphasis on biodiversity and food sovereignty manifests through community-led projects prioritizing indigenous seed varieties and agroecological principles.

Slow Food Uganda actively participates in events like the National Agroecology Action Week and Indigenous Food and Seed Fair, promoting native crops and indigenous food cultures.

Their Earth Markets connect producers and consumers around unique products such as award-winning Nyasaland Arabica coffee.

Gender and youth empowerment feature centrally, recognizing local communities as custodians of biodiversity.

In Kenya, especially in coastal areas like Lamu Island, Slow Food principles are expressed in chemical-free, traditional culinary methods coupled with cultural and environmental stewardship projects like the Flipflopi recycled boat initiative, underscoring sustainable resource use tied to indigenous identity.

Latin America’s Slow Food initiatives strongly focus on indigenous crop preservation and community empowerment.

Mexico champions native maize varieties threatened by industrial agriculture, with communal and scientific efforts supporting seeds like Oaxaca’s Oloton maize.

Chefs such as Enrique Olvera work alongside indigenous farmers to valorize native crops in haute cuisine, nurturing both cultural pride and biodiversity.

Brazil promotes indigenous plants through campaigns like PANC, rediscovering unconventional edible plants including culturally significant herbs like cassia chrysanthemum and integrating them into contemporary gastronomic culture.

The movement’s spread sparks ongoing debate about authenticity and cultural translation.

Critics highlight the Western European origins of Slow Food, cautioning against imposing Western notions of “authenticity” and tradition onto vibrant, evolving food cultures outside Europe.

Theories of “othering” and “cultural ambivalence” illustrate how Western media dominance can marginalize non-Western voices and interpretations, a critique echoed by scholars from the Arab world emphasizing local food sovereignty and resisting oversimplified Western portrayals.

These critiques urge sensitivity, emphasizing community empowerment, respect for change within traditions, and avoiding idealized fossilization of local food practices.

Current global leadership includes Slow Food International figures like Andrea Amato and Daniel Cruse, who oversee projects such as the Ark of Taste and presidia safeguarding diverse food heritage.

Regional proponents—Ramon Uy Jr. (Philippines), Aruna Tirkey (India), and Nazlina Binti Hussin (Malaysia), among others—demonstrate how Slow Food has been adapted to local needs.

African and Latin American leaders similarly shape their regions' slow food discourse and projects, reflecting the movement’s pluralistic and evolving nature.

Travelers seeking authentic Slow Food experiences should prioritize venues deeply connected to their communities that emphasize indigenous ingredients, traditional preparation, and sustainability.

Engaging with local producers and attending food markets or festivals foster meaningful cultural exchange aligned with Slow Food ideals.

Conversely, be wary of venues relying heavily on branding, superficial claims of “slow food,” or lacking genuine local sourcing and community integration.

Noted authentic Slow Food restaurants include L’Ambroisie in Paris, exemplifying classic French gastronomy; Kanda in Tokyo, which honors minimal processing and local freshness; and Rome’s La Pergola, blending haute Italian cuisine with regional biodiversity.

In the United States, Charleston, South Carolina, boasts a flourishing Slow Food scene through establishments like Bar Rollins and The Obstinate Daughter, embracing Southern heritage and sustainable sourcing within a modern framework.

In sum, the Slow Food Movement represents both a celebration of culinary heritage and a call for sustainable food systems worldwide.

Its core principles resonate globally but require sensitive adaptation to local cultures and ecological realities to avoid reductive Western impositions.

Travelers drawn to Slow Food will find the richest experiences where community, tradition, ecology, and equity converge authentically.

Further study of Slow Food’s presence in less-documented regions such as additional parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America would enrich understanding.

Listening closely to local producers, consumers, and academics will ensure the movement continues evolving inclusively.

This approach will help travelers and advocates alike support Slow Food not as a static concept but as a living global mosaic of diverse, sustainable food cultures.

The Slow Food Movement originated in Italy in the late 1980s as a grassroots response to the growing prevalence of fast food chains and the erosion of local culinary traditions.

Title:

Content: Breaking The Industrial Cycle With Slow Food

Where do you go to get your groceries? If your first thought was your local supermarket, you are not alone. Shopping in large grocery stores became the norm for many of us, and we rely on these outlets more than we realise. They are convenient, filled to the brim with seemingly every product you could imagine and have a price point that fits most pockets.

From afar it seems like the perfect solution, but we all witnessed what happened in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic turned life on its head and among many others, highlighted the fragility of our food economy and the part supermarkets play in it.

The University of Oxford describes our food system as “a complex set of interconnected practices and relationships that ultimately deliver food from farms, processing facilities, factories, warehouses, and retailers, to the dinner table.”

Slow Food

The industrial food system is built for scale and efficiency with an aim to maximise production, reduce cost, and function much like factories.

Although many supermarkets and producers are taking steps to include the origins of their products on their labels, there is still not enough transparency around where our food actually comes from. This industrialised structure offers customers accessibility to a wider range of products at more affordable prices but has economic and environmental impacts that many are not aware of.

Industrial agriculture is notorious for using a range of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides in their processes to maximise output, some of which stays present in the soil long after the crops are harvested. The products are then processed in factories, stabilised with preservatives and packaged in plastic, all occurring before they are loaded onto long haul freights, planes, lorries to arrive in distribution centres and eventually to supermarket shelves.

BBC Good Food reported that “DEFRA estimates that moving food is responsible for 25 per cent of all miles covered by heavy goods traffic in the UK. Transporting food within, to and around the UK produces 19 million tonnes of CO2 annually – equivalent to around 5.5 million typical cars.”

The length of the supply chains involved in industrial food systems result in a fragile structure as any slight disruption throughout the intricate process can halt the supply chain at any time.

However, this industrial food system is not the only one available to our economy. While our modern supermarkets heavily rely on large-scale agriculture, large scale production and precise, uninterrupted international food trade and fast turnaround times, the alternative slow food system focuses on a more resilient structure.

As the resilient alternative to this industrial cycle that many in the industry are championing, Slow Food is focused on returning to the traditional methods and celebrating all things local.

The not for profit grassroots organisation, Slow Food was set up in Italy in the late 1980s in a bid to promote traditional food preparation methods and locally sourced ingredients, going against the arrival of the American fast-food chain McDonald’s in Rome. The eco-gastronomic organisation now has around 100,000 members in over 150 countries.

Recognising and raising awareness of the negative impact the industrial food system had on society, the economy and the environment, the organisation ignited a Slow Food movement: a new way of conscious consumerism that takes seasonality, locality and tradition into account.

A slow, or resilient food system can take on many forms, starting with us as individuals making a conscious effort to engage with producers, venues and outlets that are aligned with the slow food values, to foraging, growing our own produce and going to local farmers’ markets.

Any involvement in the movement can make a significant difference in local communities and build a more sustainable, resilient and eco-friendly food system.

As the first accredited Slow Food destination in Northern Ireland, the Causeway Coast and Glens have been spearheading the move toward this resilient system and together with Taste Causeway, the collaborative network of local food and drink businesses.

From exciting slow food events to highlighting producers and awarding them with Slow Food accreditation, Taste Causeway and Slow Food NI are putting local suppliers and venues at the forefront of consumers’ minds, one business at a time.

To find out more about how you can support the Slow Food movement, the businesses involved and the upcoming events on the Causeway Coast, go to https://slowfood.tastecauseway.com/

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What did Carlo Petrini think was the reason for the disconnection between farmers and consumers?

Large retail stores and fast-food restaurants saturated the city center

On returning to traditional food methods

What happened after the opening of McDonald's restaurants in Rome opened?

When did Carlo Petrini launch the Slow Food Movement?

Sparked by the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome’s famed Piazza di Spagna, the movement was founded by sociologist and activist Carlo Petrini.

Title:

Content: Praise the slow pace of life.
Explore the fun of the world calmly
The idea of slow living negates the belief that a successful person should be busy or fast, and encourages the person to be present consciously at every moment.
Once the society is saturated with the new, it returns to the past, and this is what happens in art, decoration, fashion, and social trends.
From here, too, the slow pace of life can be seen as a return to the old calm in some way, after the rhythm of life has become too fast to keep up with.
The idea of a slow life can be a convenient orientation for those who are looking for a calm state of mind, trying to take a long-term view of life and the world away from constant stress, anxiety and gasping.
Slow living helps us live more consciously and clearly with what we value and need in life, where we do everything at the right speed, rather than constantly striving for speed.
The idea of slow living negates the belief that a successful person must be busy or fast, and encourages the person to be present consciously at every moment.
Life is better, not faster.
The idea of slow living is part of the broader slow movement that began in the 1980s in Italy.
After opening McDonald ’ s restaurants in the heart of Rome, Carlo Petrini and a group of activists formed a movement defending regional food traditions called Slow Food.
Over time, the movement has gained supporters in more than 150 countries, trying to encourage the enjoyment of good food and conscious consumption that encourages respect for seasonality, and to minimize the negative impact on the environment of food production.
Carlo Petrini ’ s idea began to take shape when he noticed the disconnect between farmer and consumer, due to the huge boutiques and fast food restaurants that fed central Rome and dramatically eroded local food traditions.
Carl Honoré, one of the most famous theorists of the idea of slow living, helped bring the idea to areas other than food when he published a book in Praise of Slow in 2004.
Awareness is growing about slow travel, slow thinking and slow action, all of which are examples of the different branches of the slow living movement.
Not all slowness is negative.
As more people were forced to slow down their lifestyle, interest in slow living increased during the epidemic period.
The search for the term slow life has increased by 4 times in Google and YouTube.
Although some of these images and videos depict a romantic rural life far from reality, for most people, the increase in research related to this content shows the desire to return to nature and seek hobbies closer to it, especially as a large number of people turned to remote work, which gave the opportunity to connect more with the self and search for what is truly pleasing, which is forgotten in the midst of a fast and breathless life.
The slow life movement gets rid of the negative connotations of the word "slow", which some may associate with laziness and non-productivity.
Carl Honoré explains the difference between good slowness and negative slowness, as good slowness is the deliberate slowness to do things at the right speed to achieve the best result.
On the other side, there is also good speed and bad speed.
Speed can be exciting and exhilarating in the right circumstances while the rush to finish things from just above the surface without going deep is just the opposite, because it causes distraction and is difficult to prioritize.
Essential elements of slow living
Slow living doesn ’ t mean we give up technology and fall back into old times, but it does help us give up distracting activities, make us reclaim our own time to become more present and aware of every moment in life, and help build stronger relationships and spend quality time with friends and children.
It also helps us build our own values, design the lifestyle that suits us, and dedicate time to what we ’ re really looking for, not what the fast-paced lifestyle of the planet forces us to do.
A slow life entails taking a break and redefining our relationship with things like a phone, tablet, or other gadgets like them, and then making room for screen-free time.
Honoré says, “The cornerstone of slow living is to form balanced and more humane relationships with modern technologies.
“We have to somehow learn when to go ahead with technology and when to slow down and stop moving between social media, the Netflix screen or even aimlessly surfing the internet. ”
Honoré also emphasizes the need to let go of the fear of rejection or being lost, and instead of trying to do everything, we should choose only what matters to us and touches us, without the worry of saying the word “no ”.
We must say no to everything that does not concern us and not increase the burden we place on ourselves.
We have to prioritize carefully and let everything else go, having grown tired of the speed with which we feel we are racing rather than actually living our lives.
We always wait for a moment other than the moment we live, which makes us feel that our lives are vanishing in vain.
Slow life solidifies deep pleasures and strong emotions, away from entertainment and shallow pleasures that fade away shortly and leave us burdened with feelings of frustration and loneliness.
Source: Websites

What happened after the opening of McDonald's restaurants in Rome opened?

Who is founder of the Slow Food Movement?

An Italian sociologist and activist
Carlo Petrini

Petrini and his colleagues recognized the disconnect being created between consumers and food producers, as industrialized food systems prioritized efficiency and cost over quality, environmental sustainability, and cultural heritage.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

At its heart, Slow Food advocates for food that is “Good, Clean, and Fair.”

Title:

Content: Local Local Focus
Let ’ s eat out of the Bay!
Invited to the Slow Food Annual Conference in Italy, Slow Food Spirit received international attention
The Hualien Slow Food team was once again invited to participate in the 2022 Global Slow Food Conference in Italy. (Photo / Courtesy of Hualien County Government, same below)
Reporting by reporter Wang Chao-lin / Hualien
In the past two years, Hualien County Slow Food Team was once again invited to participate in the 2022 Terra Madre Salone del Gusto Global Slow Food Conference in Italy. On the 16th, Mayor Xu Harwei and team members gathered in the county government to discuss the relevant agenda.
The Terra Madre Salone del Gusto Italian Slow Food Conference is a space for communication centered on agriculture and diet, and an event that draws the world ’ s attention to the diversity and tradition of agriculture and diet.
From September 22 to 26, the team will give participants an in-depth experience of the Taiwanese aboriginal food feast in Dulin, Italy.
The mayor, Xu Wei, and the team members held in-depth discussions on the relevant agenda, and encouraged the members to achieve the richest results and return full load.
Xu started by thanking Hualien NGOs for participating in international exchange activities and conferences, so that local culture and Hualien characteristics have the opportunity to shine internationally.
Hualien attaches great importance to promoting slow food in the local context, and the original intention of Hualien Aboriginal food culture and the spirit of slow food are "high-quality", "clean" and "fair".
In the future, the Slow Food Forum and the Organic Forum will be scheduled to be held once every two years, and the organization will be staggered to extend and improve the preparation period, so as to maximize the benefits.
The Hualien County government has been engaged in discussions on the Slow Food movement since 2019, inviting Italy, Japan, the Philippines and other countries to participate in the first Hualien International Slow Food Forum, sorting out the local context and international development trends, and establishing a development direction for Hualien Indigenous Slow Food.
Two years later, the county government overcame the epidemic and held the second Hualien International Indigenous Slow Food Forum in 2021.
Through online meetings, people from Italy, South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan were invited to discuss the current status of the global slow food movement and the new development of the future of slow food in Hualien.
Hualien Slow Food Association members attending this annual meeting include: President Wu Xueyue of Hualien County Indigenous Ethnic Wild Vegetables School, Indigenous Slow Food Small Farmer Biyingshu Team, Indigenous Slow Food Restaurant Seven Xing Tan Mumming Menu Cuisine Ho Chi Minh, Guang Fu Red Tile House Chef Cheng Yi, Dance Poetry Picking Workshop.
After that, 12 people, including President Gao Zhiyuan of the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Voluntary Service International Exchange Association, and Youth Liaison Officer of the Taiwan Slow Food Organization, Hsu Gongyuan, and Director Deng Kelun of the Tribal Economics Section of the Indigenous Affairs Department of the county government, also went to observe and study, so that the county government will continue to work with NGOs to jointly promote the next stage of the Slow Food Project.
▲ ▼ The team will be in Turin, Italy, to let the participants deeply experience the food feast of Taiwan ’ s indigenous people.
The Slow Food Year 2022 will be held in Parco Dora, an environmentally friendly park in Turin, Italy, and will bring together Slow Food organizations and food manufacturers from around the world to discuss the environment, climate, public health and other issues. Parco Dora has become an important green center in Turin. The selection echoes the theme of the regeneration of the agricultural food system this year, and has also become a major highlight of this event.
Wu Hsueh-yueh, president of Hualien County Indigenous Vegetarian School, said that the Hualien Slow Food team will exhibit native seeds and important cereals during the annual meeting.
In addition, Chef Ho Chi Minh, a member of the Federation of Slow Food Chefs in Hualien, will lead cooks from the Asia-Pacific region to launch a cross-border indigenous slow food menu at the venue.
The 2022 Slow Food Salon will continue the spirit of the past, and with a new perspective and attitude, we will create a wonderful slow food movement with more than 30,000 slow food activists around the world in the new arena of Toulin.
Official Website: https: / / 2022.terramadresalonedelgusto.com / en /
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Good food is fresh, flavorful, and healthful; clean production practices protect the environment and animal welfare; and fair trade ensures equitable relationships between producers and consumers.

Title:

Content: About a fortnight ago in Rome, Pope Francis received a group of Italian activists, who drew his attention to an important initiative concerning the deteriorating situation of biodiversity and of bees in particular. The activists asked for the Pope's blessing for the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) launched by nine NGOs, including Slow Food - which calls for the phasing out of synthetic pesticides and a reduction in their use of at least 50% by 2030. Such an initiative, if signed by a million European citizens, could force European policy makers to take an initiative. Now, the European Commission in Brussels has announced the so-called 'Farm to fork strategy', one of the objectives of which is to...reduce pesticide use by 50%. The ECI could come as a powerful support for this.

Agrochemical companies such as Bayer, Basf and Syngenta hope that this ECI will fail because it directly affects their multi-billion dollar business, and an agrochemical lobby is going on to sabotage the Farm to Fork.

At the moment volunteers and many NGOs across Europe are campaigning hard to get those one million signatures. There is a deadline towards the end of September and it is therefore still very exciting whether the one million will be reached.

The role of citizens

Italian citizens can make a difference. Why? Because surprisingly few Italians (25,000) have signed up to this initiative so far. And because I know that many Italians feel attached to the land of their ancestors and to biodiversity, both of which are necessary for the production of healthy agricultural products and therefore the good ingredients of Italian cuisine... And which are also simply crucial to our survival. Years ago, I once had the honour of speaking at the great Slow Food Conference in Turin and that gathering of so many food producers, activists, scientists from all over the world and especially from Italy, all fighting and working for more sustainable food production, was simply impressive.

But despite the growing culinary and ecological awareness and the great appreciation for sustainable agriculture, the destruction machine of agrochemical agriculture and food production is unfortunately still running at full speed. Although the European Commission, announced its Farm to Fork strategy, there is still the recently approved European agricultural policy, which (also thanks to MEP Paolo di Castro) was supposedly reformed to better reward environmentally friendly production, but which unfortunately will continue to spend billions of euros annually on the destructive practices of industrial, agrochemical agriculture.

The harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and human health should have been reduced long ago with the implementation of the European directive on the sustainable use of pesticides adopted in 2009; And agriculture's dependence on synthetic chemicals should have been significantly reduced by now. This directive was revised in 2019, as an audit by the European Court of Auditors found that its implementation was inadequate in many member states, including Italy.

In March this year, a large group of Italian organisations sent an open letter to Italian policymakers to remind them of Italy's commitments to reduce pesticide use. The national action plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products expired in February 2018 and the new text submitted for public consultation in 2019 has already been overtaken by the objectives of the EU's Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies (which still need agreement).

More than 30 associations and citizens' committees, coordinated in Italy by the WWF, sent the open letter to the three ministers (Patuanelli, Cingolani and Speranza), to the chairmen of the parliamentary committees on agriculture, the environment and health, and to the president of the Conference of the Regions, all of whom are responsible for regulating the use of pesticides, asking them to adopt courageous and far-sighted positions in Europe. “Italy must make up for serious delays in updating the national action plan (NAP) on pesticides, drawing up the national strategic plan for the CAP after 2023 and adopting the national law on organic farming, all of which are indispensable instruments for protecting pollinators, agriculture, the environment and the health of citizens” they wrote.

Biodiversity at risk

Last week, three UN agencies (FAO, UNEP and INDP) published a major emergency report on the agricultural policies of western, rich countries. The report concludes that global agricultural support from rich countries to producers currently amounts to almost $540 billion a year "at a time when many countries' public finances are under pressure, especially in the developing world" and that "more than two-thirds of this support is considered price distorting and largely environmentally damaging". According to the UN institutions, the climate and millennium development goals (SDGs) are not achievable in this way.

Pesticides are a major cause of collapsing biodiversity, degrading soil fertility and depriving small farmers of a reasonable income. Scientists have already spoken of an 'insectageddon' due to the loss of insects. A few years ago, scientists published an extensive, global analysis in the scientific journal Biological Conservation, in which they calculated that the total insect population is declining by 2.5 percent per year. If this trend continues, there will be no insect left within a century. Today, about one third of all insect species are threatened with extinction, and 40 per cent of species are steadily declining.

Agriculture and food production are not sustainable in the long term like this. A transition to environmentally friendly agriculture is inevitable for the climate, soil and for a viable countryside, healthy local food and a financially healthy and vibrant countryside.

Democracy tools

The ECI instrument is intended to actively involve citizens in EU policy. We are making use of this now, in order to be heard. This is another important reason to ensure that this initiative is successful. Unfortunately, it seems that the government in Italy does not appreciate this, because it is throwing up some barriers to participation. People have to fill in their ID card number, while in countries like Belgium or the Netherlands only a date of birth is sufficient. Yet that is no reason to renounce your democratic rights as an Italian citizen. The data are not for the organisation, but only for the government to determine the percentage of valid signatures in a random sample. Afterwards, the data are deleted. So don't be put off and sign while you still can!

That Italians can mobilise en masse was proven by, among others, the successful EU citizens' initiative Stop Vivisection, which was signed by no fewer than 690,000 Italians.

And Pope Francis, did he sign? That is not known. But he did give his blessing to this ECI and that is not so surprising. In 2015 Pope Francis published the encyclical Laudato si'. For the first time, a pope put forward ecology as a theme in such a world letter. Inspired and informed by scientific and political findings, he knows what is at stake when it comes to pollution and climate change, water, loss of biodiversity and how urgent the problems are. Francis is critical of the idea that science and technology will solve everything, as many European politicians claim. The fundamental problem is that we have a wrong vision of our relationship with nature. In spite of the slogans of the agrochemical lobby, imitated by many politicians, it is indeed possible to produce enough healthy food for everyone without waging chemical warfare against the land and nature.

© Riproduzione riservata

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

Enjoyment of good food
Conscious consumption

A movement promoting high-quality, fair, and clean fisheries

What is the purpose of Taiwan's Taitung County Government ito hold the "SLOW SUPER Taitung Slow Farmer Market"?

To promote sustainable agricultural development

The movement promotes seasonality, food biodiversity, local sourcing, and preservation of traditional food methods.

On returning to traditional food methods

What is the purpose of Taiwan's Taitung County Government ito hold the "SLOW SUPER Taitung Slow Farmer Market"?

To promote sustainable agricultural development

Lead initiatives include the “Ark of Taste,” cataloging endangered traditional foods, and “Slow Food Presidium,” preserving endangered crops and artisanal products.

Title:

Content: Slow Food Uganda Triumphs at the National Agroecology Action week 2023

The Agroecology Week of Action, organized by Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda, served as a platform for like-minded Civil Society Organizations, and individuals to come together and uphold the cause of agroecology. From the National Agroecology Actors Symposium, Agroecology Market Systems Expo, to the Indigenous Food and Seed Fair, the five-day event was a dynamic and comprehensive display of the power and potential of agroecology. The Slow Food Uganda’s invaluable participation in this week-long event aimed to raise awareness, foster knowledge exchange, and inspire action towards a more just, resilient and equitable sustainable food system. The Slow Food Uganda participation in the Agroecology Week of Action provided a critical opportunity for the selected Slow Food Communities to share experiences, showcase success stories, and discuss the challenges faced by small-scale farmers and other Agroecological Actors.

PELUM Uganda, an umbrella organization comprising over 60 civil society organizations, has long been organizing this annual event of the Agroecology Week of Action, which has become an inspiration for empowering the small-scale farmers, stakeholders, and communities in driving positive change towards a more resilient and sustainable future for food and agriculture through fostering a deep-rooted commitment to promoting agroecology as a transformative approach to farming. The outstanding activities organized have made this event a platform for knowledge exchange, capacity building, and advocacy for sustainable food systems.

Throughout the Agroecology Week of Action, participants were treated to a diverse range of activities, including panel discussions, exhibitions, and cooking demonstrations. Slow Food Uganda’s active involvement in these events brought forth their expertise in promoting traditional food cultures, fostering food sovereignty, and advocating for the preservation of local food biodiversity.

By bridging the gap between policy and practice, the Agroecology Week of Action aimed to influence decision-makers and stakeholders to prioritize agroecology as a viable solution to the challenges facing our food systems. Through engaging dialogues and thought-provoking presentations, this event provided a space for critical discussions on issues such as climate change, food sovereignty, and rural livelihoods. Slow Food Uganda’s participation further strengthened the credibility and impact of these discussions, drawing attention to the importance of preserving traditional knowledge and promoting sustainable farming practices.

Here is the highlight of Slow Food Uganda’s participation in all the events that happened during the Agroecology Week of Action:

National Agroecology Actors Symposium

Slow Food Uganda’s participation in the side event focused on “Consumer and Market Led Mechanisms for Scaling up Agroecology” during the National Agroecology Actors Symposium was instrumental in highlighting the crucial role of Earth Markets in promoting and expanding agroecological enterprises. During this side event, John Kiwagalo from Slow Food Uganda shared insights and experiences on how Earth Markets can contribute to scaling up agroecology entrepreneurship. He emphasized the importance of Earth Markets in raising awareness among consumers about the benefits of supporting agroecological practices for environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and improved nutrition.

Slow Food Uganda’s participation in this side event was key in sharing success stories and best practices from the Earth Markets network, highlighting how market-led approaches can attract farmers to adopt agroecological practices, leading to improved livelihoods and sustainable agricultural systems. The insights and recommendations shared by Slow Food Uganda during the side event served as a call to action for policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders to integrate consumer and market perspectives into their strategies for scaling up agroecology.

Agroecology Market Systems Expo

One of the highlights of the Agroecology Week of Action was the vibrant market expo, where agroecological entrepreneurs from across Uganda showcased their organic produce and traditional food products. This unique platform not only celebrated the richness and diversity of local agricultural practices but also provided a direct link between agroecological producers and consumers who value sustainable and diverse nutritious food. Through showcasing the Earth Market and the Slow Food Cooks Alliance model, Slow Food Uganda played a crucial role in emphasizing the significance of supporting local economies and short supply chains as well as promoting food that is good for people, the planet, and communities. Milly Namakula, a dedicated member of the Dembe Catering Cooks Alliance, skilfully prepared the renowned Nyasaland Arabica coffee sourced from the Nyasaland Coffee Presidium in Mbale district. This local processed coffee was proudly showcased and served alongside the delightful local sweet bananas sourced from the robust BOCOVACO Food Community in Buikwe district. The esteemed presence of Mr. Abitekaniza Johnson, the Assistant Commissioner of MSME Training and Business Skills Development at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives who represented the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, as the chief guest of the day, further raised the significance of the occasion. During his visit to the Slow Food Uganda stand, Mr. Abitekaniza Johnson had the opportunity to gain deep insights into the remarkable work carried out by Slow Food Presidia, Earth Markets, Cooks Alliance, and Food Communities. This provided the minister with a deeper understanding of how these initiatives actively foster agroecological markets, thereby enhancing the livelihoods of small-scale farmers. Over 100 visitors had an opportunity to taste the flavours of Uganda’s Nyasaland Arabica Coffee.

During the engaging panel discussion, John Kiwagalo delved into the pivotal role played by Earth Markets in fostering agroecological markets. Earth Markets, as highlighted by Kiwagalo, serve as platforms for fostering innovation and implementing initiatives that prioritize the principles of sustainability and biodiversity protection. Kiwagalo’s insights shed light on the significance of Earth Markets in creating connections between producers and consumers, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and promoting agroecological practices for a more resilient food system.

Indigenous Food and Seed Fair

Slow Food Uganda was part of over 100 exhibitors who participated in the Annual Indigenous Food and Seed Fair that happened for 2 days, showcasing their commitment to promoting cultural and biological diversity. The event provided an excellent platform for Slow Food Uganda to exhibit their diverse range of initiatives, including exciting displays of the Slow Food Garden, Earth Market stalls, and seed banks, as well as highlighting the important work of the Cooks Alliance.

Dr. Paul Mwambu the Commissioner for Crop Inspection and Certification who represented the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries as the chief guest at the Indigenous Food and Seed Fair visited the Slow Food Uganda stand which further amplified the significance of the participation. During his visit, Slow Food Uganda emphasized the crucial role of supporting small-scale farmers in certifying their innovative practices. They stressed the need for policies that not only recognize and value the contributions of agroecological farmers but also provide them with the necessary support and resources to effectively utilize their innovations.

During the event, an array of indigenous seeds was showcased by dedicated farmers representing various Slow Food Communities. This exhibition not only provided a platform for farmers to display their valuable seed diversity but also facilitated seed exchanges among participants from different organizations. The collaborative spirit of the event allowed for the sharing of traditional seeds, ensuring their continued cultivation and protection.

Moreover, visitors were treated to a delightful gastronomic experience as members of the Cooks Alliance skilfully prepared a range of local dishes, showcasing the incredible diversity and flavours of the Uganda’s cuisine. From traditional delicacies to innovative culinary creations, the Cooks Alliance demonstrated the richness and versatility of local foods. Additionally, guests had the privilege of enjoying the renowned Nyasaland coffee, sourced from the Nyasaland Presidium, which further highlighted the exceptional quality and taste of Uganda’s coffee heritage.

The exhibition of indigenous seeds, food, artisanal materials, domesticated animals, poultry, clean energy technologies and locally made agroecological inputs coupled with the tasty offerings from the Cooks Alliance and the Nyasaland coffee, provided a memorable experience for visitors, fostering a deep appreciation for the cultural and culinary heritage of Uganda. This vibrant celebration of local food traditions and agricultural biodiversity showcased the vital role played by Slow Food Communities in promoting sustainable practices and preserving the unique flavours and traditions of Uganda.

In his opening remarks during the Food Fair, Edward Mukiibi, the president of Slow Food International and Vice Chairperson of PELUM Uganda emphasized the importance of local farmers’ initiatives in enhancing the protection of local food biodiversity. “Women, youth, indigenous peoples and men who are small scale farmers are the custodians of our biodiversity. These are the true people who are nourishing and feeding this country and no one should take this away from us.” Edward said. He added that biodiversity and culture are linked together and biological and cultural diversity is the foundation of every country’s food system.

Best Exhibitors’ Awards

Slow Food Uganda gained a well-deserved recognition by winning the prestigious award as the Best Exhibitor at the Annual Food and Seed Fair. This achievement did not only highlight Slow Food Uganda’s solid commitment to promoting biodiversity and supporting small-scale farmers but also underscored their significant contributions to fostering a more sustainable and inclusive food culture. Slow Food Uganda’s recognition as the best exhibitor in the Annual Food and Seed Fair serves as evidence to their significant impact in promoting sustainable food systems. The exceptional display at the fair captured the spirit of their mission, captivating visitors with a vibrant and diverse range of exhibits. The organization’s booth stood out through its thorough curation, showcasing indigenous seeds, traditional food varieties, and innovative farming practices. The passion and dedication of Slow Food Uganda members were clearly evident, as they shared their wealth of knowledge and engaged visitors in meaningful conversations about the importance of preserving local food heritage.

John Kiwagalo, Slow Food Uganda

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On returning to traditional food methods

This philosophy critiques an industrialized food economy that favors volume and uniformity over transparency, diversity, and sustainability.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

From its Italian roots, Slow Food has expanded to a global network of over 100,000 members in 150+ countries.

Title:

Content: The first International Slow Food Forum was held today at the Taitung County Government Auditorium. International Slow Food representatives from Italy, the Philippines, India and Malaysia brought experience from all over the world to promote slow food.
Wang Zhihui, deputy mayor of Taitung County, said that this year's Slow Food Festival "Morning Table" will be held in Taitung Forest Park on April 29 and 30.
The slow food movement, which has been popular around the world for more than 30 years, originated in Italy and has been promoted in Taitung for more than 10 years.
In the "Taitung Slow Food Festival" held every spring and autumn, the public and tourists pay more attention to the source of ingredients in their lives, practice environmental protection and plastic reduction, and tell new stories in the contemporary era with traditional ingredients.
On the eve of the first Slow Food Festival this year, the Taitung County government invited seven international Slow Food Movement advocates to exchange with local Slow Food practitioners. The theme of the forum was “From Festival to Everyday, From Tradition to Contemporary ”." Flowers? "and other issues, hoping to continue to move internationally and link the Austronesian culture.
The 2023 Taitung Slow Food International Forum begins at 9: 00 am on the 28th. Andrea Amato and Daniel Cruse, from the International Slow Food Headquarters in Italy, introduce the expansion of Slow Food from Italy to the world, and share the classic Ark of Taste and Slow Food. The Food Presidia Project.
In response to the International Year of Millet 2023, Indian representative Aruna Tirkey shared the experience of the local Slow Food Festival in India with Xiaomi Kitchen in Jharkhand, India.
In addition, Malaysia representative Nazlina Spice Station is a local cuisine, from Laksa to talk about the preservation of Penang ’ s food culture.
The ibu istanda takiscibanan, who represents the Bunun in Taitung, shares with the international community the journey of restoring millet to the Kandeng tribe in Haiduan Township, while Kuo Li-chin, CEO of Tinhetang, fully describes the experience and future vision of Slow Food in Taitung for ten years.
International speakers will participate in the Taitung Slow Food Festival “Morning Table ” held in Taitung Forest Park on the 29th and 30th, and demonstrate the traditional breakfast of Indian and Filipino aborigines on the 30th. The event is free of charge. Please refer to the full text of the forum download website (https: / / reurl.cc / pL0XvZ), and Taitung Slow Food Food Festival information (https: / / www.facebook.com / SlowFoodTaitung /).
# International Slow Food Forum # Taitung Slow Food Festival # Taitung County Government # Slow Food Festival

How many countries have members of Slow Food organization?

How many members does the Slow Food Movement have globally?

What is the birthplace of the slow food movement?

This global manifestation highlights local adaptations while retaining core values, celebrating diverse cultural foodways worldwide.

On returning to traditional food methods

In Africa, Slow Food’s emphasis on biodiversity and food sovereignty manifests through community-led projects prioritizing indigenous seed varieties and agroecological principles.

On returning to traditional food methods

Slow Food Uganda actively participates in events like the National Agroecology Action Week and Indigenous Food and Seed Fair, promoting native crops and indigenous food cultures.

On returning to traditional food methods

Their Earth Markets connect producers and consumers around unique products such as award-winning Nyasaland Arabica coffee.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

Gender and youth empowerment feature centrally, recognizing local communities as custodians of biodiversity.

In Kenya, especially in coastal areas like Lamu Island, Slow Food principles are expressed in chemical-free, traditional culinary methods coupled with cultural and environmental stewardship projects like the Flipflopi recycled boat initiative, underscoring sustainable resource use tied to indigenous identity.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

Latin America’s Slow Food initiatives strongly focus on indigenous crop preservation and community empowerment.

On returning to traditional food methods

Mexico champions native maize varieties threatened by industrial agriculture, with communal and scientific efforts supporting seeds like Oaxaca’s Oloton maize.

Title:

Content: Culture Mexico Life
Farmer Javier López in the Sierra Mixe mountains of northeastern Oaxaca looks over his crops of Oloton maize, a self-fertilizing variety. Allen Van Deynze/University of California-Davis

Two new books on vanishing foods examine Mexico’s maize

Mexico's diversity of corn varieties is in danger, but there are also strong efforts to preserve them

Widely considered the birthplace of maize, Mexico features in two new books about this ancient, beloved and important crop, which has been the focus of controversy and polemic here in recent years.

Used in multiple ways, from tamales to beer to popping corn, maize is nevertheless at risk of losing its diversity.

Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction, by University of Cambridge scholar Helen Anne Curry, is a deep dive into preservation efforts. BBC food journalist Dan Saladino’s Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them, which examines foods imperiled around the globe, looks at the unusual Oloton self-fertilizing maize that grows in the mountains of Oaxaca.

Each author approaches their narrative from the perspective of loss of indigenous food varieties and attempts at conservation.

“Even though I focus on one … unique and distinct global commodity — corn — the story I tell here about maize is actually relevant to understanding this broader story,” said Curry, the Peter Lipton Lecturer in History of Modern Science and Technology. “It’s not just varieties of maize cultivated in different parts of the world, especially Latin America – there are threats that bear on many different crops in many different parts of the world.”

Saladino is also concerned about endangered foods – of which there are 5,000 from 130 countries, according to the Ark of Taste catalog on the website for Slow Food USA.

For the book, he picked 35, including a sweet honey rich in protein because of the larvae within it, and an unpasteurized cheese from Albania with a lemony taste from wild bacteria. Individuals he interviewed included a Palestinian activist named Vivien Sansour, who was inspired to create a seed library in the West Bank after attending a conference in Mexico and learning Subcomandante Marcos’ maxim, “sin maiz, no hay pais” (without maize there is no country).

Saladino said that there are different reasons why foods are becoming endangered. “Some foods are being impacted because land use has changed,” he said. “Some are being impacted by lost skills, others because of climate change, others because of conflicts.”

“Many people are surprised to learn that one-third of the world’s wheat globally today originates in the Black Sea region of Ukraine and Russia,” he said by way of example. “Even if the war does not directly impact the supply of the wheat, global food production will be heavily influenced.”

Global production of corn goes back to the 19th and 20th centuries: the crop was hybridized in the U.S. In Germany, the Haber-Bosch process created synthetic fertilizer. More recently, transgenic varieties have been introduced. It’s all added up to skyrocketing production.

“Part of it is the significant breeding that’s occurred, and the resulting change of yield we’ve seen over time. Genetic changes achieved through various breeding practices have created the best possible combination of genetic material to survive in varied conditions.” She listed other, more specific factors – “what kind of fertilizer, how often they’re irrigated … It’s not all about genetic changes.”

While Saladino said that attempts to ramp up production have been done “for a good reason,” as a society, we’ve not “put the brakes on wanting more and more yield.”

“At the same time, we’ve ignored all the other factors at play, the impact by the system on diversity, soil, water use, the risk you embark [upon] in manufacturing very high-yield corn, the risk you find in terms of disease,” he said.

The Western world, he notes, has a history of ignoring the full picture: when the conquistadors arrived in Mexico, they were entranced with maize but ignored how it was grown. It was planted using the indigenous milpa system, alongside a nutritious complement of crops – squash and beans.

Europeans ate maize in isolation and as a result, suffered from the disease pellagra. “I think one of the big ideas in the book is the complexity that exists in indigenous traditions or food systems that many people fail to realize – in many cases, still fail to recognize or fully understand,” Saladino said.

One part of Mexico that Hernán Cortés found hard to conquer was the Mixe region of Oaxaca. Centuries later, the regional Oloton maize made headlines in scientific journals. “I was reading that a breakthrough had been made in understanding how a particularly unusual type of maize self-fertilizes,” Saladino said.

The variety drips with a mucus-like substance containing microbes that interact with the plant and air to provide fertilizer in the region’s nutrient-poor soil. “It’s one of the examples you can cite [to prove] that so much genetic diversity out there still exists,” Saladino said. “There’s so much we’re still learning.

“We don’t know if we’re going to need this in the future. So much is changing in terms of climate,” he said. Yet, he added, “Relying heavily on monocultures and [on] reducing diversity, it’s a risky situation to have arrived at.”

To date, Mexico has managed to hold onto diversity when it comes to this crop; Curry, familiar with sweet corn from growing up in the United States, was amazed by the many varieties of maize in Mexico. “I’ve only been privileged to experience a handful of other different kinds of maize in my life.” In that handful, she includes the corn on the cob she had in Mexico City.

“For obvious reasons, there’s a long history of experiences of far more varieties of maize and landraces of maize existing in Mexico,” she said.

A landrace is a crop variety that has localized characteristics due to adaptation over time to a region’s conditions.

Curry is pleased with Mexican initiatives to preserve maize diversity. “Mexico has a phenomenal history of work and research by Mexican agronomists, sustained by Mexican political institutions, in the development of maize culture from the 20th century onward,” she said. “Today, Mexican national agricultural research institutions continue to be central.”

She has visited many such institutions while researching her book, including the International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat in Chapingo, México state. Mexican scientists she interviewed voiced concern about indigenous maize being crowded out by imported corn from the U.S.

“There is,” she said, “as many people surely know, a strong movement in Mexico from a variety of different groups – environmentalists, indigenous groups, campesino organizations and also scientists … They feel very strongly and rightly that the restriction of maize imports from the U.S., especially transgenic maize, is essential to maintain the integrity of Mexican native maize, varieties of criollo maize.”

Saladino noted the role of NAFTA in facilitating the imports of U.S. corn into Mexico: “A crop that had been domesticated in Mexico now travels from the States to Mexico in huge amounts, a commodity type of corn rather than original, ancestral Mexican maize. It’s a complicated story.”

He notes a positive development: Mexico City-based celebrity chef Enrique Olvera, whom he interviewed for the book, is incorporating indigenous maize into his menu.

“He pays [farmers] way above market price for the maize,” Saladino said. “He talks about maize in the same way people refer to the diversity of wine. Each one is a reflection of its place, of its people, of the different seasons as well.”

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On returning to traditional food methods

Chefs such as Enrique Olvera work alongside indigenous farmers to valorize native crops in haute cuisine, nurturing both cultural pride and biodiversity.

Brazil promotes indigenous plants through campaigns like PANC, rediscovering unconventional edible plants including culturally significant herbs like cassia chrysanthemum and integrating them into contemporary gastronomic culture.

Title:

Content: Brazilian chrysanthemum: "numb to tremble" to make you want to drink the holy wine
• Jacob Mader
(by Jacob Mardell)
It takes about three seconds for Jambu to feel when it is eaten in the mouth, and the reaction will suddenly occur: it is like an electric current, tingling, causing a strong saliva secretion.
Like chili, it is unbearable and enjoyable, but it does not give people a spicy taste, but a cool, numb feeling, which takes a long time to fade and make you want to stop.
This Brazilian herb has been used for centuries in medicine and cuisine in the Amazon region, and its effect of anesthesizing the mouth is reminiscent of Sichuan pepper.
However, pepper is an indispensable ingredient in Chinese cuisine, and it is only recently that Chihryu has begun to stimulate the taste buds of Brazilians.
“I was so excited when I first discovered Chihiro, ” said Fabio La Pietra, creative director of the award-winning São Paulo cocktail bar SubAstor.
“It opened the door for me to Brazil ’ s biodiversity, incredible. ”
Its scientific name is "acmella oleracea". Other common names include gold button and toothache, which looks like a weed.
However, in the summer months, its ordinary appearance is made up for by clusters of small, button-like yellow flowers.
These hairy flowers contain a high concentration of compounds, a fatty acid called Spilanthol, which can numb the chrysanthemum.
The compound is structurally similar to the active ingredient in Sichuan pepper, but the pepper is much milder.
In fact, the anesthetic effect of chiricin is very good, so it is also used in medicine, so it has an English alias: "toothache plant".
For centuries, indigenous peoples have used chrysanthemum to treat mouth ulcers and dental problems.
Until recently, this herb was barely known outside of the Brazilian Amazon, where it was featured in a traditional dish such as “tacacá, ” a sour shrimp soup in which the chrysanthemum highlights the pungent savory taste of wild tapioca roots.
Today, with the growing interest in Brazilian ingredients and products, Chihiraki has begun to develop from a little-known regional ingredient to a symbol of Brazil ’ s biodiversity.
The main driving force behind this is a recent trend to combine this herb with cachaça, a sugarcane wine that is synonymous with Brazilian culture.
“When people started using Kirikyu, I thought, ‘ Wow, it ’ s time, ’ ” says Néli Pereira, a bartender in São Paulo who knows that Kirikyu lasts longer than most people.
She continued.
“Of course, in Belém, they ’ ve been using it.
She was referring to the capital of the state of Pará, in northwestern Brazil, where the lower Amazon flows into the sea.
Pereira ’ s first taste of chrysanthemum was at Dona Onete ’ s concert in 2014.
The Brazilian singer and cultural icon from the state of Pará produced a famous song about Chiharu, which includes the rhythmic repeating word "treme", which means "tremble."
It was during this song that the organizers of the concert began spraying cachaça jambu to the audience who volunteered to open their mouths.
Pereira said that not only highlights the fire of alcohol, its numbing properties also make people feel that "kissing is fun" with Kasasha, who added the chrysanthemum.
In other words, it is the perfect party drink.
“Chihiro is everything, ” she says.“ It ’ s popular, it ’ s traditional, it ’ s delicious, but it ’ s also fun — it gives a whole atmosphere. ”
Leodoro Porto, the owner of Belém ’ s “Meu Garoto ” bar, created the first cassia in 2011 to incorporate chrysanthemum. Pereira was an early taster who incorporated it into her cocktail creations after her 2014 concert, but it wasn ’ t until around 2018 that the cassia chrysanthemum brand emerged outside of Pará, bringing the drug The grass was presented to a national audience.
Rodrigo França, co-founder of São Paulo based beverage brand Jós Brasil, said, “The last few years have changed a lot.
The brand was one of the first businesses outside of Pará to produce cassia chrysanthemum.
At the end of 2017, Franca and his three co-founders stumbled upon the casachaia chrysanthemum while vacationing in the freshwater resort town of Alter do Chão in the state of Pará.
“It ’ s the only bar that ’ s open and the only wine they can drink, ” Franca said. The friends knew nothing about Chihiro, and when they first came in contact, they were struck by its“ trembling ” effect.
Couldn ’ t find this spirit in Sao Paulo, the world ’ s fourth largest city, where everything is available, they started homemade cassia chrysanthemum at a winery in Sao Paulo state.
To their surprise, little is known about this typical Brazilian product.
“Why is something a cultural phenomenon in northern Brazil not known in Sao Paulo? ” asked Franca.
“We know a lot about products from other countries, but very little about real Brazilian products. ”
Chihiro ’ s recent popularity is closely related to the growing interest in Brazilian ingredients and cultural identity.
“We ’ ve learned from abroad what ’ s good and what ’ s not, ” says Felipe Jannuzzi, founder of BR ME, an online store that specializes in Brazilian ingredients.
“Everything used to be cool from abroad, but now the younger generation is looking for a new cool – we ’ re learning how to appreciate our culture. ”
Recently, when I met him in his office in downtown Sao Paulo, he excitedly collected Brazilian coffee, olive oil and plants to show me.
Next, he poured me a gin made with a spice called pacová, which is the local equivalent of cardamom.
“You can ask the people here, no one will ever hear of it, ” he said,“ We used to use Pakova in Brazil, but it was replaced by cardamom from abroad, so I created this gin as a way to talk about Brazilian tradition and diversity. ”
""
Brazil is the world champion in biodiversity.
There are more species of plants here than anywhere else on the planet, and several extremely important ecosystems.
The Amazon is the star, but there ’ s also the Atlantic Forest, which stretches along the coast of Brazil; Cerrado, a savanna twice the size of Egypt; and Pantanal, the world ’ s largest tropical wetland.
These ecosystems are home to countless unique plant species, many of which are edible.
Sabor De Fazenda is a nursery in northern São Paulo that grows many of these little-known edible plants, known in Brazil as PANC, the Portuguese acronym for "unconventional edible plant".
Originally proposed by biologist Valdely Kinupp in 2007, PANC has evolved into a national campaign to promote the hundreds of edible plants that have been squeezed out of the diet by industrial diets.
When I visited Fassenda ’ s Song, edible plant expert Barbara Cordovani showed me some of the stars of the PANC movement, whom I recognized from the menu of trendy restaurants, such as ora-pro-nóbis, a dark green leaf that earned the “meat of the poor ” for its extremely high protein content. Named.
"Most of the herbs we use in Brazilian food come from the Mediterranean, but there are many native plants that have similar aromas," Cordovani said.
One alternative is fennel (alfavaca anis).
This herb is a favorite of Clarissa Taguchi, the founder of PANC in Brazil, who is also an expert on indigenous ingredients in Brazil. Anise, native to the Atlantic Forest, is a close relative of basil (nine-story tower), and it has a more complex, liquory-like flavor reminiscent of octagonal.
“Since then, I ’ ve fallen in love with a lot of other PANCs, ” says Tagucci,“ but this is the first time I ’ ve eaten them. ”
By eating native plants instead of imported raw materials, PANC supporters want to celebrate biodiversity to protect Brazil ’ s biodiversity.
Both Córdovani and Tagucci attribute the current popularity of PANC to the growing environmental awareness of Brazilians.
“People realized how much food production has an impact on biodiversity and the environment, ” Tagucci told me,“ so they started sourcing locally. ”
Chihiro chrysanthemum is just one of many up-and-coming Brazilian ingredients, but its iconic numbing effects and good reputation make it an excellent ambassador for Brazil ’ s biodiversity.
“It ’ s so exciting, ” Januz said,“ it ’ s a huge challenge and a huge opportunity. ”
Pereira is as optimistic as he is. “This movement is poised to take off, it ’ s not just a trend, it ’ s going to continue. ”
Please visit BBC Travel to read the original English version

On returning to traditional food methods

The movement’s spread sparks ongoing debate about authenticity and cultural translation.

Title:

Content: Campaign against the Qatar Monument.
The Western media is trapped in the discourse of Orientalism
In the final stages before the start of the Qatar World Cup, an unprecedented Western media campaign against Qatar was unleashed, with rhetoric describing the Gulf country as a “newly established state ”, producing“ exclusively gas ” with nothing else, a deep-seated homophobia, and building on the bodies of exhausted workers.
At the same time, Western newspapers have begun to establish a strange link between some of the sporadic events and the Qatar World Cup, such as the arrest of a British citizen in Iraq for failing to pay debts owed to a Qatari bank.
Remarkably, these descriptions have rarely been presented in a critical and balanced journalistic language to which the other party is called upon to respond, but have been formulated in the form of a crisis repeated by the Western media, and refer to what seems to be a fixed identity of Qatar and an unparadoxical identity. As for the thorny issues of the size of the political economy associated with migrant labor in West Asia, or the debate over the manufacture of liquid sexual identities, other newspapers decided to limit them to Qatar ’ s “unfair toward workers ” or“ oppressive ” gay policies.
With the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine, the Western media was busy making comparisons between the blonde and civilized Ukrainian refugees who share the same cultural base and the system of modern values, and the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who are distinct from them and belong to the category of "the other" characterized by poverty, ignorance and backwardness.
This is how Qatar is portrayed in Western media discourse, not as a host country for the 2022 World Cup, but as a new intensification of the image of the miraculous "East" stored in the imagination of the West - in the words of Edward Said in his study of Orientalism - which the Western media industries did not want to dilute for decades. Rupert Murdoch ’ s works, or on CNN ’ s more Democratic-leaning American channel, or France 24 funded by the French government, among others; in what looks like a coherent network that sees itself as the center and the other as the margins.
But this is not the first time that the Arab world has looked at the image of its features on the mirror of the Western media, to recognize its features as the West insists on shaping them on its behalf, features in which the hallmark of achievement is absent, while the exoticism and backward descriptions are evoked, and the highly structured contexts governing the economic, political and social structures of this region are crammed into a narrow simplistic field of vision. Progress / backwardness, democracy / tyranny, or freedom / oppression.
This media discourse towards the region clearly manifests itself in major events and prominent historical turns, and thus leads to the assumption that this campaign against Qatar is also fuelled by something deeper, the mental structure of those who consciously produce this discourse in the Western media, and who deliberately insist on creating an image through which the network of Western hegemony reproduces its narratives about the world and solidifies its economic, political, and cultural power.
A few months ago, with the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine, a wide range of Western media outlets were busy making comparisons between the blond and civilized Ukrainian refugees who share the same civilizational norm and the modernist value system, and the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who are distinct from them and belong to the category of “the other ” characterized by poverty, ignorance and backwardness.
It is also not the first time that the Western media has engaged in a systematic campaign against countries that organize major sporting events, according to the vision of the Western Central of the cultural divisions of the "Third World"; such as Brazil, South Africa, or even those classified in what we might call the "rival world"; China and Russia, but the high intensity of the campaign against Qatar makes it a suitable example to highlight orientalist media discourse and the dialectic. The “other ” on Western screens, the language of racial superiority and the politics of identity encapsulate Western journalistic treatment of these major events, while postcolonialism theory, which examines the structures of discourse between the colonizer and the colonizer, offers several theories to examine the Western campaign against Qatar and dismantle its philosophical and cultural foundations.
Does the Western media portray reality as it is?
"Theory of Representation"
In an Arab region hungry for a democratic transition, where the media, both digital and mass, have played an active role in the popular democratic movement, it may seem understandable to celebrate the liberalism, plurality, independence and breadth of public space of Western media compared to other political environments, but this should not lead us to jump over a history of sharp criticism of Western media industries.
The Frankfurt Monetary School is one of its most prominent pioneers since the late 1940s, and the literature of this movement classifies the media industries in the West as capital-driven industries not only as an economic factor, but also as a cultural giver; Western capital itself has not yet shed its colonial legacy and its neoliberal practices. The phenomenon is informational and cultural and also entails economic and political motives.
Contrary to what the media portrays itself in terms of conveying reality as it is, social science theories assert that their roles are more complex than simply having the audacity to "convey reality", in the words of British sociologist Stuart Hall; the media is not merely a reflection of pure reality, but it is they who shape our perception of the world, shape its meaning, and have the power to shape its representations in our minds. "Show" and "hide" or what Stuart Hall calls "representation theory"; the power to choose how specific social, racial or cultural groups appear, and this mechanism of representation is through the lens of photographers, journalists' pens, broadcasters' voices, and through editorial policies.
In this sense, the process of producing speech is the opposite of a soft reproduction of Western cultural and political hegemony networks, so the Western discourse carefully chooses to "represent" Qatar on its screens and pages according to these networks of interests and through the mechanism of "hide" and "show", so that the image of Qatar circulating is what these platforms chose to promote as a real reality.
In this sense, the discourse of Orientalism should not be treated, especially when it leaks to us through the language of the media, as a theoretical heritage belonging to the past of the tense relationship between the colonizer and the colonizer, a past in which it is clear that the imperatives of economic globalization and the universality of human rights have exceeded it, while it is still an intellectual system driven by the doctrine of Western centralism. I have a Westerner who stores a mental image of a lost, backward and reactionary East, to become a sign in all minds of the "other" whose existence is linked to being backward from the West, and retreating from it civilizationally.
Thus, a number of European cities have engaged in a popular campaign to boycott the broadcast of the World Cup matches in public places, in confirmation of the efforts exerted by the media to consolidate this carefully selected image in the Western public consciousness.
Critical cultural studies provide us with other theories that may seem useful in the analysis of this Western media behavior, the most important of which is the theory of “othering theory ”, where the Western media appear as if they need to install Qatar in the form of that“ other ” or “other ” to confirm the existence of the“ West ” or “I ” as a civilizational superior human rights, democratic and even cultural. They call it“ the other. ”
Thus, it may not seem surprising, for example, that the Guardian reminds in most of its articles about Qatar that it is a country in the Arabian Peninsula, and that it is newly established and its economy depends mainly on gas and violates the rights of workers and prohibits the expression of homosexuality, in what is like a reminder of elements of a fixed identity of the Qatari personality, and negative qualities attached to it as an essence (essentialism) Stuart Hall is one of the fundamental features with which Western culture portrays different peoples in order to perpetuate their superiority.
But the features of Qatar in the Western media discourse are also based on what can be described as the contradictory image it presents at times in the form of a regional actor and a crucial international partner in mediation and management of major international crises, and at times in the image of the Gulf state, which belongs to the deep east, can not be entrusted with the task of organizing a "Western" event par excellence for a sport that is "Western modernity" and the manufacture of its heroes.
This contradiction in the speech does not mean a duality in Qatar ’ s foreign policies, as the state itself and its policies are known to the world, but it mainly reflects a confused awareness among the West about Qatar and its image, or what postcolonial literature calls the theory of “ambivalence ”, but this confused awareness of the other reassures a parallel speech depicting the economic and social development that Doha aspires to achieve by hosting this sporting event. A Western model should be followed and other countries should step up their ladder, without having the right to suggest an alternative path.
Beyond the Rights Discourse of Western Media
Since the announcement of the acceptance of Qatar ’ s candidacy for the World Cup, the Western media has insisted on drawing it into the arena of human rights and examining the state ’ s record in this area, where it has also woven a vague discourse on the issue of workers ’ rights, one of the most prominent areas of controversy between Doha and the Western media.
It may seem understandable and acceptable to use a sporting event of this magnitude to press for the betterment of workers ’ conditions, but reducing a highly complex and overlapping issue such as expat labor in West Asia as a purely national problem implies a clear duality. In this context, political economy literature, for example, offers broad prospects for approaching an issue in which the local human rights dimension overlaps with the struggles of the proletariat across the West. The structural problems associated with transnational globalized capitalism that produced this phenomenon are intertwined with what is known as the racial system of labor, an ancient legacy that Western companies themselves are keen to perpetuate, while addressing it requires structural solutions jointly formulated by the various officials responsible for this phenomenon at the various transit and migration stations through which these workers pass.
Note that this type of monetary linkage is absent from the discourse of the Western media when dealing with the conditions of workers in Qatar, with the insistence that it also appears deliberate to form a picture of the “workers ’ rights crisis ” pointing at Qatar for making it exclusively through labor laws, although reformed by the Qatari authorities, but does not convince journalists, correspondents and analysts of Western channels and newspapers.
As the World Cup in Qatar approaches, a torrent of headlines on Western media has also begun warning of dangers for homosexuals while they are on Qatari soil, and Western media in various directions have launched what can be described as a battle for the fair presence of homosexuals in the World Cup, with Qatar being labelled "Homophobia".
This discourse attempts to suggest that his struggles are a victory for normalization with sexual behavior or tolerance of a different oppressed group, without noting that the issue of homosexuality goes beyond the problem of sexual behavior to the problem of producing sexual identities and transgender identities, and that there is a culture from the East that rejects or at least fears this ideology of creating a fluid “new human ” identity.
Thus, it seems that the discourse of the Western media chooses a simplistic formula, disguised by a human rights approach, to present “homosexuality ” in the Qatar World Cup, and ignores all the problematic dimensions of an issue that, even in the West, has been the subject of constant academic and educational debate for decades.
Can the follower speak?
This question, posed four decades ago by the Bengali thinker Gayatri Spivak during her discussion of the concept of the vassal as formulated in the postcolonial literature as “a self left behind by the occupier with all sorts of scars ”, may also be invoked in the context of exploring the Qatari response to this campaign, but perhaps in the form of another question, has the vassal finally regained its right to speak?
Despite the long history of authoritarianism in the Arab region, the media platforms funded by Qatar represented the first appearance of an Arab public space in the words of the German philosopher Habermas, an alternative to the real public spaces suffocated by decades of authoritarianism. Rather, this soft power contributed to igniting a historic moment such as the Arab Spring, to restore since then the “imaginary follower ” in the Western discourse his right to expression, and trying in more than one Arab arena to seize his opportunity for development, despite all the restraints, defects and horrors experienced by the region, and this difficult battle continues and has not yet settled on clear ends.
Criticizing the language of the Western press against Qatar does not mean that the peoples of the region should rely on the theories of Western conspiracies or reserve any speech that keeps pace with and discusses their transformations and criticizes the decline of freedoms in their systems, nor do they need intermediaries to speak on their behalf, because thanks to the huge digital transformation in the field of communication, they have more than an alternative to do so.
Based on this vision, the response to the Western campaign against Qatar may not necessarily require the production of a counter-discourse, which perpetuates the view of the West as an arrogant, racist and orientalist "other", but media platforms, especially those most influential and widespread, must have a sharp awareness of the seriousness of this discourse, and renegotiate the balance of editorial power, image features, language and forms of representation. Not only as a historical imperative, not as an impressive economic and political model, but also as a media model.

Critics highlight the Western European origins of Slow Food, cautioning against imposing Western notions of “authenticity” and tradition onto vibrant, evolving food cultures outside Europe.

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Content: Taitung ’ s first ever International Slow Food Forum will be held on April 28!
International slow food representatives from Italy, the Philippines, India and Malaysia gathered at the Taitung County Government Hall to share the experience of slow food promotion around the world, and exchange and learn with local slow food practitioners in Taitung, making Taitung a new base for dialogue with the international slow food movement and linking up the southern island culture.
The slow food movement originated in Italy, has been popular around the world for more than 30 years, and has been promoted in Taitung for 10 years.
The slow food spirit of “Good quality, clean and fair ” comes from Italy, but it has grown up in Taitung with a rich variety of local features.
The Taitung County government specially invited seven international slow food activists and local slow food practitioners from Taitung County to exchange ideas on the eve of the first slow food festival this year, “from the festival to the day, from the traditional to the contemporary. ” The theme is to explore how traditional food culture can be practiced in contemporary society through the Slow Food Movement, and how the international Slow Food Movement can blossom in all corners of the world through the diverse participation of citizens and community power.
On the agenda, Andrea Amato and Daniel Cruse, from the International Slow Food Headquarters in Italy, first introduced the expansion of Slow Food from Italy to the world, and shared the classic Ark of Taste and Slow Food Presidia projects of the Slow Food movement.
In response to the International Year of Xiaomi 2023, Indian representative Aruna Tirkey will introduce the Xiaomi Kitchen in Jharkhand, India.
Nazlina Spice Station in Malaysia is an introduction to the local cuisine, starting from Laksa, to the preservation of Penang ’ s food culture.
Community power is also an important theme of this forum. The Gonnay couple from the Philippines and Ramon Uy Jr will discuss how the Slow Food movement can achieve the function of cultural inheritance and food farming education through community connection from family, community, organization, market, and tourism.
The local representative of Taitung, ibu istanda takiscibanan of the Bunun tribe, shared the history of restoring millet in the Kandeng tribe of Haiduan Township; Guo Lijin, CEO of Jinhetang, will talk about the experience and future vision of slow food in Taitung for ten years; and many Taitung slow food chefs and shop owners will join hands to show the strength of the cohesion in the local community.
Simultaneous real-time interpretation service is available, and people who are interested in promoting slow food are welcome to join us.
For details and registration, please go to
https: / / www.accupass.com / go / TTSlowFoodForum
2023 Taitung Slow Food International Forum
From Festivals to Everyday, From Tradition to Contemporary
Date: 4 / 28 (Fri) 09: 00-16: 30
Venue: Taitung County Government Hall
Taitung County Government Advertisements
# Slow Food # Taitung # International # Slow Food Movement # Italy

On returning to traditional food methods

What is the birthplace of the slow food movement?

Theories of “othering” and “cultural ambivalence” illustrate how Western media dominance can marginalize non-Western voices and interpretations, a critique echoed by scholars from the Arab world emphasizing local food sovereignty and resisting oversimplified Western portrayals.

These critiques urge sensitivity, emphasizing community empowerment, respect for change within traditions, and avoiding idealized fossilization of local food practices.

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Content: Nation urged to embrace traditional food

15 Dec, 2022 - 10:12 0 Views
“To eat healthily, we need to base our diet on a traditional diet, it is not that we are going backward but we are moving forward. We need to find solutions on food insecurity, malnutrition, and dangers posed by the use of chemicals and misguided approaches such as biofortification.”

The Herald

Lesego Valela and Mandaza Chikarango

Civil society organisations working with small-scale farmers in Africa have urged Zimbabweans to shun foodstuffs that contain chemicals and embrace the consumption of traditional foods which have a variety of nutrients.

This was said by officials from the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) and Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) who are currently in the country conducting workshops with farmers.

PELUM is a network of civil society organisations working with small-scale farmers in East, Central, and Southern Africa.

AFSA brings together small-scale farmers, pastoralists, fish farmers, indigenous people, faith communities, consumers, women and young people from across Africa to create a united and loud voice for food security.

Speaking at the PELUM workshop held in Harare yesterday, the chairman of AFSA, Mr John Wilson said African solutions are required to address the continent’s food problems.

“To eat healthily, we need to base our diet on a traditional diet, it is not that we are going backward but we are moving forward. We need to find solutions on food insecurity, malnutrition, and dangers posed by the use of chemicals and misguided approaches such as biofortification,” he said.

He also said Africa’s crops are resilient as they contain a variety of nutrients which is a solution to some of the health challenges.

Mr Wilson further said that Africa should wake up and start celebrating the rich diversity in their cultures, languages, fashion and food.

Also speaking at the same event PELUM communications officer, Mr Collins Chirinda said the campaign is primarily to conscientise Africans on the importance of traditional foods and their consumption.

“The significance of the My food is African campaign is to empower African farmers to produce healthy nutritious foods for sustainable food systems,” he said.

One of the facilitators Ms Shirley Chingoka said it is important for people to take traditional food seriously.

“It is important to go back to basics and ensure that people have a huge uptake of traditional foodstuffs that do not have side effects and growth hormones and chemicals,” she said.

The two-day workshop ended yesterday.

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Current global leadership includes Slow Food International figures like Andrea Amato and Daniel Cruse, who oversee projects such as the Ark of Taste and presidia safeguarding diverse food heritage.

On returning to traditional food methods

Regional proponents—Ramon Uy Jr. (Philippines), Aruna Tirkey (India), and Nazlina Binti Hussin (Malaysia), among others—demonstrate how Slow Food has been adapted to local needs.

On returning to traditional food methods

African and Latin American leaders similarly shape their regions' slow food discourse and projects, reflecting the movement’s pluralistic and evolving nature.

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Content: The first Taitung Slow Food Festival in 2023 will be held in Taitung Forest Park on April 29 and 30. Slow food chefs from all over Taitung will serve up the best dishes and lead you to rediscover the rich breakfast scene in this land.
For the first time ever, the Slow Food Festival starts in the morning, what are the highlights to miss?
1.
Slow Food: Four major morning food themes + interactive food promotion booths in small rural areas + food farmers promotion, more than 40 booths, in the comfortable shade, show the morning vitality of Taitung.
2.
Slow Food: How good is Taitung ’ s food?
Teach you to use natural materials combined with traditional craft wisdom DIY, eat endless food, you can also use leaves to help you pack up, beautiful and beautiful!
3.
Slow Food Talk: What is the traditional breakfast in Taitung, India, and the Philippines? Representatives of Taitung landlords and international slow food chefs came to the scene to demonstrate and taste for free!
4.
Free guided tours: Walk through the streets, read the slow food festival scene, and learn about slow food and Taitung breakfast culture.
5.
Slow food exercise: Taitung breakfast, with the jump to show you!
6.
Slow Food: The only food blog in the world from the perspective of Taitung, this issue includes 400 years of history of local breakfast, a map of Taitung breakfast, a special collection of traditional breakfast of the tribe...
7.
Bilingualism: English instructions on site, English introduction to restaurant dishes, translation of lectures, English audio guide, etc. International travelers are also welcome.
And the first Taitung International Slow Food Forum will also be held on 4 / 28.
International Slow Food representatives from Italy, the Philippines, India and Malaysia gathered in Taitung to discuss how traditional food culture can be practiced in contemporary society through the Slow Food Movement, and how the international Slow Food Movement can blossom around the world through citizens ’ diverse participation and community power. Let Taitung become a new base for dialogue with the international slow food movement and link up the Austronesian culture.
The slow food movement originated in Italy, has been popular around the world for more than 30 years, and has been promoted in Taitung for 10 years.
The slow food spirit of “Good Quality, Clean, Fair ” has developed a unique and rich look in Taitung.
Please let us know Taitung through slow food, and change the world with “eating ”!
Taitung Slow Food Festival “Morning Table ”
Time: 2023 / 4 / 29 (Sat) - 4 / 30 (Sun) 9: 00-14: 00
Location: Taitung Forest Park
2023 Taitung Slow Food International Forum
From Festivals to Everyday, From Tradition to Contemporary
Date: 4 / 28 (Fri) 09: 00-16: 30
Venue: Taitung County Government Hall
Read more: Slow Food Taitung Facial Powder
(Taitung County Government Advertisement)
# Taitung # Slow Food Festival # Taitung Forest Park # Breakfast # Morning Table

Travelers seeking authentic Slow Food experiences should prioritize venues deeply connected to their communities that emphasize indigenous ingredients, traditional preparation, and sustainability.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

Engaging with local producers and attending food markets or festivals foster meaningful cultural exchange aligned with Slow Food ideals.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

Conversely, be wary of venues relying heavily on branding, superficial claims of “slow food,” or lacking genuine local sourcing and community integration.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

Noted authentic Slow Food restaurants include L’Ambroisie in Paris, exemplifying classic French gastronomy; Kanda in Tokyo, which honors minimal processing and local freshness; and Rome’s La Pergola, blending haute Italian cuisine with regional biodiversity.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

In the United States, Charleston, South Carolina, boasts a flourishing Slow Food scene through establishments like Bar Rollins and The Obstinate Daughter, embracing Southern heritage and sustainable sourcing within a modern framework.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

Enjoyment of good food
Conscious consumption

On returning to traditional food methods

In sum, the Slow Food Movement represents both a celebration of culinary heritage and a call for sustainable food systems worldwide.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

Its core principles resonate globally but require sensitive adaptation to local cultures and ecological realities to avoid reductive Western impositions.

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Content: Archive | Countries | Persons | Catalog | News | Discussions | Jokes | Contacts | PDA
| Central Asia | Afghanistan | Kazakhstan | Kyrgyzstan | Tajikistan | Turkmenistan | Uzbekistan |
News & Events
|
Saturday, 18.11.2023
17: 37 The second attempt of Elon Musk.
SpaceX launched Starship: the rocket exploded, the ship was lost
17: 14 Myths about Russia.
How the Russians created an inferiority complex.
Andrey Fursov
16: 52 Do women need higher education, - Petr Akopov
16: 20 Relocant show.
Do prodigal children need help? - S. Gomzikova
16: 18 The Turkish Communists are ready to destroy NATO.
Will it work out? - Dmytro Rodionov
16: 15 Russian-Chinese axis as a challenge for the West, - Daniel Koshtol
16: 13 Is Xi Jinping a "dictator"? - Le Figaro
16: 00 How Pashinyan ’ s cunning and wise maneuvers will end - G.Mirzoyan
15: 58 What will be the Russian analogue of “Eurovision ”
15: 54 Acute stage of global struggle for human capital begins - V.Bondar
11: 25 US is preparing to change one erroneous strategy for another, - Petr Akopov
10: 02 Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs announces search for ex-deputy chairman of the Central Bank Aleksashenko who fled to the United States
New Russian nuclear icebreaker project 22220 called “Stalingrad ”
08: 57 Military Mi-8 crashed at Kattakurgan training ground in Uzbekistan - crew killed
08: 52 Baluchis continue to fight for their independence from Pakistan, - L. Shashok
Three ski resorts of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia are united in an alliance
The tail surprises the dog: the state of US-Israeli relations, - A. Kuzmak
00: 51 Poland is growing up its "Fuhrer" - Marshal of the Sejm Holownia
00: 47 In Germany doubted the legitimacy of Erdogan, - Oleg Nikiforov
US avoided shutdown, postponing support for Ukraine and Israel - Nezavisimaya Gazeta
00: 33 What did Xi Jinping forget in America?
The United States is preparing a major provocation around Taiwan, - A. Goncharov
00: 31 The Demon Putsch.
"Separs" are preparing to break up the Spanish kingdom, - A.Latov
The UAE did not close the door for the Russian defense industry, - Igor Subbotin
00: 02 South Korean authorities have decided to ban the use of dogs in food
Friday, 17.11.2023
17: 03 Personnel reshuffles in Uzbekistan: abandoned and laid-back
The war in Ukraine is badly needed by the American economy, - Doug Bandow
16: 58 Revenge of Europe must be prepared in advance, - Dm.Bavyrin
16: 54 In the turn of Russia to the East, the Caspian direction becomes decisive, - Alexey Chichkin
16: 52 America is just one step away from a war that it could lose. – Wess Mitchell
16: 51 President Xi met with Biden to measure temperature - Malek Dudakov
16: 50 "TikTok-Islamism" threatens the statehood of Kazakhstan - Mikhail Zakharov
16: 45 Rise and Fall of Geopolitical Europe by Natalie Tozzi
15: 10 Maksat Turlubayev appointed Head of the Bureau of National Statistics of Kazakhstan
15: 05 Other Germans: East and West of Germany do not converge? - A. Belov
16 session of the Supreme Council in 1992: What has it fundamentally changed in the life of young Tajikistan? (history), - Kh.Shodiyev
15: 00 Pragmatism and disunity of Muslim countries works for Israel - Zoran Meter
14: 58 Time: Why the deadlock in Ukraine is likely to last another year
14: 56 Russia is running out of oil: the States once again believed in the dream, - S. Savchuk
14: 54 A mouse from San Francisco: China and the United States decided to talk further, - Dmitry Kosyrev
14: 53 Uzbekistan will build a nuclear power plant on the border with Kazakhstan: what is the danger of the neighborhood, and why no one asked the opinions of Kazakhstanis
14: 50 FT: US businessmen greeted Xi Jinping with a standing ovation
12: 39 Peskov said that the next President of the Russian Federation should be the same as Putin.
Cloning or printing?
11: 10 Palestinians are beating a non-existent European heart - Gevorg Mirzayan
11: 02 There was no breakthrough.
The meeting of the leaders of China and the United States did not lead to significant results - Vladimir Malyshev
10: 53 There is no Ukraine.
Meeting of warring chiefdoms, - Rostislav Ishchenko
10: 51 Trust burst: about the new situation in the world economy, - Nikolai Sorokin
10: 32 The Middle East has never loved America - and now it is no longer afraid of it - SP
09: 36 Digital yuan breaks beyond China, - V.Katasonov
Promise - does not mean to put up with: how did the negotiations between Biden and Xi at APEC end? - Izvestia
00: 47 The leaders of the United States and China converged and diverged.
"Structurally" sat, - "K"
00: 39 Gagauz are afraid of the elimination of their autonomy, - Svetlana Gamova
Archive
© CentrAsiaTop
CenterAsia |
Russian-Chinese axis as a challenge for the West – Daniel Koshtol
16: 15 18.11.2023
HlídacíPes.org
Czech Republic
The Russian-Chinese axis is a challenge for the West.
It ’ s time to invest in defense and self-sufficiency.
Hlídací pes: The West builds its policy on ideology without looking at reality
The West considers Russia and China a strategic challenge for itself, writes Hlídací pes.
To survive, he needs to mobilize all available resources and opportunities, the author of the article believes.
However, the basis of Western policy is ideology, and no one pays attention to reality.
The West faces an existential strategic challenge for its peoples and states.
Russia and China are mobilizing all available resources and opportunities.
If the West wants to survive, it will have to do the same, adhering to its values, and overcome the current internal crisis, caused, among other things, by the fact that Western policy is largely determined by ideology and reality is sidelined.
Russian and Chinese interests in general and in relation to the West in particular largely coincide.
This allows Moscow and Beijing to cooperate and overcome differences, dismiss divergent interests.
For the West, this is a global challenge in politics, economics, and defense.
There is not a single country in Europe that by itself has sufficient strategic weight to confront Russia and China alone.
Because European countries have long neglected investments in security and defense, they do not have global strategic weight even as a group.
At the same time, the West must understand that its political values are not necessarily what other states of the world dream of.
Nevertheless, we can be their good allies and partners at the level of international relations.
Today, the influence of the West in international relations is less than in the 90s of the twentieth century.
The reason is often his own mistakes and internal crises.
The existence of a multipolar world with poles of different weights is already a reality.
All this is a consequence of the political mistakes of the West (the failure in Afghanistan and the so-called Arab Spring can be considered a symbol of them), economic and domestic political crises caused by the disunity and atomization of society, including due to social networks aimed primarily at the business interests of their creators.
The European part of the West is faced with a demographic crisis, with a loss of competitiveness, with an increased bureaucracy, with unnecessary subsidies and artificial redistribution to the detriment of the market economy.
It is also very dangerous that politics is largely determined by ideology without regard to reality.
Without looking at reality...
Ideological and unrealistic approaches to combating climate change lead to solutions that destroy the industrial and raw materials base, energy stability and security of the European Union.
Ultimately, the competitiveness and weight of the European Union in the world is under attack.
This policy forces states like Saudi Arabia to orient themselves towards other parts of the world.
This is also because non-Western parts of the world are strengthening their economies, and states like China, India and South Africa do not dictate to their political, economic and defense partners how they conduct domestic politics and regulate public life.
Thus, in the modern system of international relations, a Western bloc and an anti-Western bloc have developed.
There are also countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America for which there is competition.
Also on these continents there are countries with their regional and global ambitions.
An example is India or Vietnam.
These states do not want to be anti-Western, but at the same time do not want to solve the problems of the West, and in achieving their own goals, they do not hesitate to cooperate with the states of the anti-West bloc.
The same can be said of many African countries.
The symbol of the above trends is the BRICS group and its expansion.
An absolute challenge for the West
The nature of the political system in Russia and China is fundamentally different from the political system in the West.
These systems are incompatible.
Russia and China see an authoritarian system as necessary and appropriate to advance national interests.
In the struggle to limit the power of the West, they offer their own model and their methods to other countries.
But wherever they exercise influence, they rigidly impose their political values and their political system.
Take Hong Kong and Ukraine as an example.
Russian and Chinese goals and interests are based on great political and historical values, transformed into political values that reflect their self-image.
Both Russia and China are deeply convinced that their natural right is to be strong players on the world stage.
Therefore, one should not expect Russia or China to change their approach after some kind of treaty or “battle. ”
They will slow down or stop their progress only if there is a serious obstacle in their path.
This obstacle can be real power and the ability to act.
The Russian and Chinese regimes understand only such things.
As for Russia, the sphere of its interests, in particular, includes the part of Europe that was part of the Warsaw Pact, with the exception of East Germany, integrated into the Federal Republic of Germany.
Russia and China use common methods to destroy the unity and will of the West, not shying at anything.
The united bloc of the West for Russia and China is a serious problem in the context of their desire to fundamentally change the balance of power in the world.
For the West, its peoples and states, this is a serious strategic challenge.
Therefore, at home, we must defend the Western way of life, but we must not force it on others, because we must actively seek partners and allies on the world stage.
If Western countries live strictly in accordance with their values at home, then society will become stronger, the state will be more efficient, the economy will flourish, and technology will develop.
That is, the West will set an example worthy of imitation, and take advantage of it.
When Russia and China will emerge from the 19th century
Analysts even give specific recommendations on how the West can win the power struggle with Russia and China.
In the first place are investments in security and defense.
It is necessary to ensure that the state and society are invulnerable to attacks of various kinds (not armed), as well as a deterrent mechanism.
These investments should be subject to the "minimum sufficiency principle", focusing on the identified threats in peacetime, in order to avoid excessive economic expenditures that would impede economic development.
Under the minimum sufficiency in peacetime is meant two percent of GDP per year allocated to the defense of the state.
Investments in the availability of raw materials and energy security should also be a priority in the name of self-sufficiency as much as possible.
The strategic goal of the West should be to prevent the formation of an anti-West bloc led by Russia and China.
This requires a very active foreign policy and security measures.
The West and, above all, the states of the European Union should pursue a foreign policy that will lay a real foundation for independent and sustainable development in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, rather than give them the impression that colonialism is taking on new forms.
Both Russia and China do not perceive the Western concept of the organization of the state and society in the same way.
Their goal is a comprehensive state, collectivism to the detriment of individual freedom in the Western sense, one center of power and the rule of a narrow circle of people.
While both of these states live in the coordinates of the XIX century, and therefore it is impossible to speak of a truly effective bloc.
So far, Russia and China adhere to the principles of independence, although they continue to converge and increase cooperation.
If Russian-Chinese cooperation deepens, then the Moscow-Beijing axis (along with a number of other states that joined them, including Iran and the DPRK) will become even more serious challenge for the West than the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis in the 1940s, and in all areas: raw materials, economic, political and defense.
Author: Daniel Koštoval
Source - Foreign Media
Permanent address of the article - https: / / centrasia.org / newsA.php? st = 1700313300
News of Kazakhstan
- Working schedule of the head of state
- Senators considered the law on information security
- Domestic producers will not need to obtain industrial or CT-KZ certificates - Alikhan Smailov
- Maulen Ashimbayev took part in the conference dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the Jogorku Kenesh of Kyrgyzstan
- Personnel reshuffles
The population of Kazakhstan has reached 20 million
- The first meeting of the National Council for Professional Qualifications was held
- Problematic issues in the field of migration were discussed at the meeting of the deputy group "Onir"
- Criminal cases against the management of Ozenmunaigas JSC were sent to the court
- Member of terrorist group extradited from Bulgaria
Go to the version with frames
© CentrAsiaTop

Travelers drawn to Slow Food will find the richest experiences where community, tradition, ecology, and equity converge authentically.

What are the supporters of slow food movement advocating?

On returning to traditional food methods

Further study of Slow Food’s presence in less-documented regions such as additional parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America would enrich understanding.

Listening closely to local producers, consumers, and academics will ensure the movement continues evolving inclusively.

This approach will help travelers and advocates alike support Slow Food not as a static concept but as a living global mosaic of diverse, sustainable food cultures.

What is the purpose of Taiwan's Taitung County Government ito hold the "SLOW SUPER Taitung Slow Farmer Market"?

To promote sustainable agricultural development