slow food ethnography

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University of Iowa

Iowa Research Online

Teses and Dissertations

2011

Savoring ideology: an ethnography of productionand consumption in Slow Food's Italy

Rachel Anne Horner BrackeUniversity of Iowa

Copyright 2011 Rachel Anne Horner Bracke

Tis dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2715

Follow this and additional works at: hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd

Part of theAnthropology Commons

Recommended CitationHorner Bracke, Rachel Anne. "Savoring ideology: an ethnography of production and consumption in Slow Food's Italy." dissertation,University of Iowa, 2011.

hp://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2715.
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SAVORING IDEOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF PRODUCTION AND

CONSUMPTION IN SLOW FOOD'S ITALY

by

Rachel Anne Horner Brackett

An Abstract

Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the Doctor ofPhilosophy degree in Anthropology

in the Graduate College ofThe University of Iowa

December 2011

Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Erica S. Prussing


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1

ABSTRACT

With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement

emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of

socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Foods rhetorical

emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer,

complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement.

This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food

and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic,

ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research

conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional

Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo(farm-based

tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on

the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow

Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at

conferencesand sometimes even at the tablebut it does so less often and less

obviously on fields and farms.

Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural

and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers.

I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Foods

rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of

small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between

producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of societys relationship to

food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response

to local, national, and global change.


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Abstract Approved: ____________________________________Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________Title and Department

____________________________________Date


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SAVORING IDEOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF PRODUCTION AND

CONSUMPTION IN SLOW FOOD'S ITALY

by


A thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the Doctor ofPhilosophy degree in Anthropology

in the Graduate College ofThe University of Iowa

December 2011

Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Erica S. Prussing


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Copyright by

RACHEL ANNE HORNER BRACKETT

2011

All Rights Reserved


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Graduate CollegeThe University of Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

_______________________

PH.D. THESIS

_______________

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of


has been approved by the Examining Committeefor the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophydegree in Anthropology at the December 2011 graduation.

Thesis Committee: ___________________________________Erica S. Prussing, Thesis Supervisor

___________________________________Mac Marshall

___________________________________Rudolf Colloredo-Mansfeld

___________________________________

Margaret Beck

___________________________________Doris Witt


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was made possible with the support of numerous individuals and

organizations. First, I am indebted to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological

Research Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, which made my research in Italy financially

feasible. Additional funding for various stages of this research came from several

sources at the University of Iowa, including the Graduate College Summer Fellowship,

the T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship, the Center for Global

and Regional Environmental Research Graduate Student Travel Grant, and the

Department of Anthropology Summer Research Fellowship. I was also fortunate to

receive a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship from the United States

Department of Education to fine tune my Italian language skills.

I will always be grateful for the opportunity to conduct research at the Tenuta di

Spannocchia, the most beautiful field site on earth. I am beholden to the Spannocchia

Foundation for cooperation on this project. To Spannocchias employees, interns, guests,

volunteers, and proprietors: thank you for welcoming me, for sharing meals and stories

with me, and for being the wonderful individuals you are. I could not have asked for a

better group of people to work with.

Thank you to my advisor and mentor, Erica Prussing, for pushing me onward

through this intellectual journey. I am grateful to my entire committee for providing

valuable feedback on my work. Special thanks go to Mac Marshall, who first encouraged

my interest in food and agriculture as a thesis topic. I also recognize Beverly Poduska

and Shari Knight for their ongoing administrative support. My colleagues and friends at

the University of Iowa (in anthropology, public health, and beyond) provided

encouraging words and inestimable advice over the past ten years. I am particularly

grateful for the long-term friendship and support of Kenda Stewart, my confidante and

travel companion, who stood by me since day one of graduate school.


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Last but certainly not least, I am humbled by the love and support of my family.

In particular, I am amazed by the unwavering support of my parents, Mark and Michele

Horner, in all of my academic endeavors over the years. Thank you for your love and

encouragement. Equally astounding is the boundless love and enthusiasm of my

children, Arys and Dell Brackett. Thank you for reminding me, every day, what is truly

important in life. Finally, I acknowledge my husband, Kelcey Brackett, who had no idea

what he was getting into when he married an academic. Thank you, Kelcey, for your

steadfast support of my work (both economic and psychological), your patience with me

as a human being, and your ability to direct me toward humor and joy in all things.


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ABSTRACT

With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement

emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of

socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Foods rhetorical

emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer,

complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement.

This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food

and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic,

ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research

conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional

Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo(farm-based

tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on

the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow

Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at

conferencesand sometimes even at the tablebut it does so less often and less

obviously on fields and farms.

Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural

and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers.

I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Foods

rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of

small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between

producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of societys relationship to

food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response

to local, national, and global change.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................vii

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1The Rise of Slow Food .................................................................................. 4Situating Slow Food ...................................................................................... 8Slow Food Ideology ...................................................................................... 9Consumption and New Social Movements .................................................. 11Chapter Outlines ......................................................................................... 12

CHAPTER ONE: SITUATING SLOW FOOD .............................................................. 18Portrait One: Sofias perspective on Slow Food........................................... 18Framing Consumer Distinction .................................................................... 20False Dichotomies ....................................................................................... 24Locating Slow Food .................................................................................... 26Spannocchia ................................................................................................ 28Why Tuscany? ............................................................................................ 31Local Nostalgia, Global Identity .................................................................. 33

CHAPTER TWO: INFORMING TASTE ...................................................................... 41Salone del Gusto ......................................................................................... 41A Brief History of Salone del Gusto ............................................................ 42Navigating the Slow network ...................................................................... 45The Halls of Taste ....................................................................................... 47The Case ofLardo....................................................................................... 50Taste Re-education ...................................................................................... 53

Retraining the Senses: Biodynamic Wine ............................................. 55Rethinking Terroirvia Prosciutto ......................................................... 57

Corporate Co-Producers? ............................................................................ 59Corporate Sponsors .............................................................................. 61Negotiating Sponsorship ................................................................ ...... 65Making a Pig Smell Like a Rose........................................................... 67

Beyond Greenwashing: Alternative Explanations..................................... 69CHAPTER THREE: CREATING FOOD IN TUSCANY .............................................. 72

Portrait Two: Brynn .................................................................................... 72Locating Slow Food Producers .................................................................... 74The History of Spannocchia ........................................................................ 80

Translating Tradition: The Cookbook .......................................................... 85Cooking with Loredana ............................................................................... 88Saperi e Sapori(Knowledge and Taste) ...................................................... 91Nostra Cena(Our Dinner) ........................................................................... 94Slow Food at Spannocchia .......................................................................... 96The Most Italian of Meals ........................................................................... 99


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CHAPTER FOUR: (CO-) PRODUCTION AT SPANNOCCHIA ................................ 102Portrait Three: Gavin the Intern ................................................................. 102Internships at Spannocchia ........................................................................ 106Organizing Labor ...................................................................................... 108Everyday Work ......................................................................................... 110Realities of Co-Production ........................................................................ 113Portrait Four: Giuseppe, the farmhand ....................................................... 114The Anthropologist as Co-Producer .......................................................... 116A Word of Warning .................................................................................. 119The Transformation Kitchen ..................................................................... 120Butchering ................................................................................................ 124Salumiversus Salame................................................................................ 127Le Muffe(The Molds) ............................................................................... 132

CHAPTER FIVE: THE CINTA SENESE .................................................................... 136Eat It to Save It ......................................................................................... 136A Truly Tuscan Pig ................................................................................... 138Emphasizing Locality Through EU Standards ........................................... 143The Trouble with Labels ........................................................................... 147The Ark of Taste ....................................................................................... 152

CHAPTER SIX: PRODUCERS IN THE MARKET .................................................... 157Portrait Five: Riccio .................................................................................. 157The Sovicille Market ................................................................................. 160The Casinodi Roma.................................................................................. 166Shifting Roles of Production ..................................................................... 173A Return to Turin: Terra Madre ................................................................ 175Fetishizing Cultural Diversity.................................................................... 180Finding a Middle Ground .......................................................................... 186

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 188Pleasure and Politics ................................................................................. 189Shifting Fields ........................................................................................... 191Future Directions ...................................................................................... 193

APPENDIX A: SALUMI PROCESSING AT SPANNOCCHIA.................................. 197APPENDIX B: ARK OF TASTE GUIDELINES ......................................................... 200BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 203


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 San Francisco Victory Garden ......................................................................... 19Figure 2 Postcard image; Image courtesy ofInstituto Valorizzazione SalumiItaliani.................................................................................................................. 38Figure 3 "Map" of the Slow Food network .................................................................... 45Figure 4 Buono, Pulito e Guisto: Good, Clean and Fair ................................................. 47Figure 5 Selling salumi products from Sicily ................................................................ 52Figure 6 Slow Food branded items for sale at Salone del Gusto 2004; Image

courtesy of Slow Food International ...................................................................... 60Figure 7 2006 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth ................................................................... 62Figure 8 2008 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth ................................................................... 62Figure 9 2006 Lavazza coffee booth ............................................................................. 63Figure 10 2006 Prosciutto di San Daniele stand ............................................................ 66Figure 11 2006 Rosa handout; Image courtesy ofProsciutto Rosa................................ 68Figure 12 Aerial view of Spannocchia; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia

Foundation ............................................................................................................ 76Figure 13 Spannocchia's 12th Century tower ................................................................ 81Figure 14 Delfino Cinelli and Frances Hartz; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia

Foundation ............................................................................................................ 84Figure 15 Young Loredana at Spannocchia, circa 1950; Image courtesy of the

Spannocchia Foundation ....................................................................................... 89Figure 16 Graziella at work in the kitchen..................................................................... 92Figure 17 Publicity photo with Slow Food Siena convivium leaders, Spannocchia

estate managers and workers. All of the foods pictured were produced on theestate; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation. ......................................... 97

Figure 18 Unloading a slaughtered hog ....................................................................... 117Figure 19 Making salame in the Transformation Kitchen ............................................ 123Figure 20 Piero stirs the cauldron ................................................................................ 129Figure 21 Straining meat and bones from the brine in the cauldron ............................. 130Figure 22 Slicing meat for sopressata .......................................................................... 130


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Figure 23 Putting the spiced meat mixture into casings ............................................... 131Figure 24 Gelatin forms on the exterior of freshly packaged sopressata ...................... 131Figure 25 Sliced buristo .............................................................................................. 132Figure 26 Racks of curing salame in the Stagionatura, with more aged productscovered in the desirable white muffa hanging on the lower racks ........................ 133Figure 27 Cinta Senese breeding sows ........................................................................ 138Figure 28 Detail of Lorenzetti fresco; Image courtesy of

www.cintasenese.blogspot.com........................................................................... 141Figure 29 The red Consortium labels contain serial numbers for traceability to the

point of origin. The brown paper labels from Spannocchia list the ingredientsand date of production, as well as contact information for the estate. ................... 148

Figure 30 Labeling for Presidia products .................................................................... 153Figure 31 Cinta Senese producer at Salone del Gusto .................................................. 154Figure 32 Cinta Senese statue in Sovicille ................................................................... 160Figure 33 Riccio slicing salumi products at market ..................................................... 163Figure 34 Delegate check-in ....................................................................................... 177Figure 35 Peruvian delegates at Terra Madre .............................................................. 180Figure 36 African delegate in "traditional" attire, Image courtesy of Slow Food

International........................................................................................................ 183Figure 37 Terra Madre sign at Turin subway stop ....................................................... 185


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INTRODUCTION

Slow Food reconceptualizes everyday food choices as subversive political

actionsone does not simply eat Slow, he or she imbues food with meanings thatexpress resistance to fast food, life and culture. Founded in Italy in 1989, the Slow

Food Movement instigated a case for tastea politically-aware reevaluation of the role

of food, conviviality, and localized culinary traditionto a primarily Western European

audience concerned with increasing gustatory homogenization. Over the past two

decades, however, Slow Foods message expanded to encompass a broad spectrum of

ecological, culinary, and social justice concerns surrounding food production and

consumption. Slow Food targets issues such as sustainability, loss of culinary tradition,

unethical rural development, and vanishing biodiversity.

Today, according to a prominent banner on the organizations website, Slow

food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots

associationthat links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the

environment.1 With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, Slow Food emphasizes

the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of ecologically

aware consumerism. Such consumer-based political acts, or reflexive consumption,

literally embody the Slow Food ideology.

However, this heavy rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures

inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement by

overlooking the parallel role of the food producer. In 2008, Slow Food introduced the

concept of a co-producera responsible consumer who chooses to enjoy quality food

produced in harmony with the environment and local cultures. The most recent Slow

Food Manifesto for Quality goes on to clarify:

1Accessed online atwww.slowfood.com on October 8, 2011.
http://www.slowfood.com/http://www.slowfood.com/


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[If] eating is an agricultural act,2 it follows that producing foodmust be considered a gastronomic act.The consumerorients themarket and production with his or her choices and, growing awareof these processes, he or she assumes a new role. Consumptionbecomes part of the productive act and the consumer thus becomesa co-producer. Theproducerplays a key role in this process,

working to achieve quality, making his or her experience availableand welcoming the knowledge and knowhow of others. (SlowFood International 2010)

Slow Food frames co-producers as potentially powerful political and social

actors in reformulating the marketplace. The producer, however, bears the responsibility

for making quality food available, with no explicit mechanism for creating social or

economic change beyond that of educating potential consumers. As such, the rhetoric of

co-production obscures the farmers position in the chain of Slow Food supply and

demand, and overlooks the myriad social, economic and political challenges faced by

small-scale food producers today.

This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of

Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create

economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. To what extent does Slow

Foods concept of a co-producer translate into actions that promote social justice for food

producers? Current scholarly work on the scope of alternative food networks emphasizes

the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-

conscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of

Slow Foods rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my

ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers (and co-producers) in Italy.

In the chapters that follow I present data gathered from two related but distinct

sites: 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and

work on a Tuscan agriturismo(farm-based tourism estate) called Spannocchia. These

sites provide multiple perspectives from which to examine the concept of co-production.

2This phrase comes from the work of farmer/author Wendell Berry (1990).


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Slow Food coordinates conferences, markets and other events to facilitate engagement

between food producers and consumers, in ways that highlight the movements

ideological investment in the power of socially-conscious capitalist consumers to institute

social change. At Spannocchia, links between food consumers and food producers

develop (both tacitly and overtly) through gastronomic tourism and onsite educational

programs based on agricultural and cultural sustainability. The directors of Spannocchia

actively engage with Slow Food ideologies and participate in activities sponsored by a

regional Slow Food chapter, or convivia. Food producers at the estate breed, raise, and

butcher Cinta Senese hogs, a heritage breed celebrated by regional authorities in Italy and

gastronomes alike. Additionally, the Cinta Senese is aboard Slow Foods international

Ark of Taste, a project working to promote forgotten food products, endangered

livestock breeds, and plant varieties in danger of disappearing. Activities at both research

sites attempt to create channels through which individuals on each end of the production-

consumption continuum can work toward a mutually beneficial goal: delicious food that

is sustainably produced by fairly-paid farmers and artisans who take pride in their work.

But does the notion of transforming educated consumers into full-fledged co-

producers play out in meaningful ways? How do localized cultural practices, particularly

those enacted through the organizational conduits of social movements like Slow Food,

act as a force for political, social, and economic transformations? An emphasis on the

relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of

societys relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of

Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change. Multi-sited ethnographic

research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 reveals that the relationship between

ideology and practice is often tenuous at best. Through an analysis of discursive

messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers

on the other, I argue that Slow Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer


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relationship may play out on paper and at conferencesand sometimes even at the

tablebut it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms.

The Rise of Slow FoodThe creation stories of a social movement operate as a common reference point

for those involved by forging a collective formative identity. Characterizing the rise of

the feminist health movement in the United States, Morgen states:

Once the ideas and actions behind a movement begin to stir, therewill at some point be a momentwhen it beginsthis is wherehistorical construction beginsand the movement is now asignificant actor in the future. The foundational story is afunctional scaffold for remembered history and for the

articulation of shared goals. When they are told and retold, byspecific people at specific times, in the context of particularagendas or political goals, these stories embody the discursiveprocess of movement making. (2002:14)

For Slow Food, the 1986 protest against a new McDonalds restaurant at the foot

of the Roman Spanish Steps constitutes this functional scaffold. Rome holds a

reputation as an epicenter of Italian cuisine for locals and tourists alike. The presence of

the American fast food chain, synonymous with globalization and homogenized culinary

fare, alongside this historic al fresco staircase led to local outcry. It was not the first

McDonalds in Europe, but the juxtaposition of the Golden Arches and one of Romes

most famous piazzas spawned an organized protest. A group of leftist wine and food

aficionados from Italys Piedmont region, led by a cult of personality wrapped up in the

form of Carlo Petrini, embodied the outrage many Italians felt. Armed only with bowls

of homemade pasta and slices of artisanal pizza, these food connoisseurs transformed into

activists as they converged around the McDonalds restaurant.3 These acts, and the

3It is interesting to note that the most stereotypical Italian foodspizza and pastaarespecific to southern areas of Italy such as Rome, yet many consider these foods typical of theentire country. Helstosky (2004) argues that this is largely due to the fact that most immigrants tothe U.S. hailed from southern Italy. Nevertheless, one can now enjoy apizza Napolitano (Pizzain the Naples style) anywhere in Italy, showing how food traditions created in a transnationalarena come full circle to shape the modern Italian palateand politicsas well.


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philosophies underlying them, spawned the Slow Food movement, which took its name

from the dialectical opposite of fast food.4 Slow Food emerged as a counter-initiative to

the third world of taste (Paolini 2003: 287) embodied by McDonalds and its globalized,

standardized fare.

In Italy and elsewhere, McDonalds has attracted rhetorical attention as asymbol

of industrialized, imperial food expansion (cf. Ritzer 1993), but the key to Slow Food's

success is not that it offers a nostalgic backward glance at a world of vanishing pleasures

or local identities tied to eating. Rather, emphasizing everyday cultural practices as a

force for political action, Slow Food creates a politics of aesthetics by linking the

pleasures of food with a neo-Marxist standpoint, examining the historical and socialimplications of food production and consumption through a critical lens (Miele and

Murdoch 2002). As a social movement, Slow Food aims to restructure post-industrial

foodways by changing the ways in which co-producersthink about consumption and

production. As Mintz characterizes these foodways:

The cumulative, selective process of modernity in actionwhetherof food, cooking method, cooking medium, plant variety, animalbreed, or tastehas repeatedly picked as criteria such things asstandardization, efficiency, preservability, convenience of packingand shipping, and underlying it all, the desire for profit. (2006:3)

Slow Food explicitly attacks these outcomes of globalized modernity, offering a

fundamental critique of what constitutes quality of life on both a personal and a societal

level. It is also a critique of unlimited growth, unrestricted consumption, and unrelenting

economic rationality. The first Slow Food Manifesto, penned by Carlo Petrini in 1989,

directly addresses these dimensions of industrial civilization in its opening statements:

Our Century, which began and has developed under the insignia ofindustrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took itas its life model.

4Although the movement began in Italy, among Italian speakers, the name Slow Food hasappeared since the movements inception (Schneider 2008).


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We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the sameinsidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades theprivacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.

To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself ofspeed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.

A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to opposethe universal folly of Fast Life. (2001:xxiii)

The early rhetoric of the movement works out a politically-thick vision of taste

refinement: its idealized consumer is an eco-gastronome, someone who adds ecological

concerns onto a continuously trained aesthetic appreciation of food (Sassetti and

Davolio 2010:202). By understanding where food comes from, how it was produced and

by whom, individuals learn how to combine pleasure and responsibility in daily choices

and to appreciate the cultural and social importance of food. Petrinis 1989 Manifesto

goes on to call for a Slow Food revolution, in which the value of taste and pleasure is

imbued with political and ethical significance:

May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitudewho mistake frenzy for efficiency.

Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let usrediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banishthe degrading effects of Fast Food.

In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way ofbeing and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So SlowFood is now the only truly progressive answer. (2001:xxiii-xxiv)

The manifesto encompasses environmentalism and the protection of gustatory

tradition and pleasure, while taking a conscious step away from the frenzied pace of the

modern world. It addresses both conservative desires to preserve traditional local

communities, as well as alternative, progressive solutions to industrialization (Andrews

2008). The unlikely connection between gustatory pleasure, social justice and

sustainability delivers a holistic critique that challenges many underlying philosophies

and outcomes of globalization. Slow Food moves within (and beyond) anti-neoliberal

epistemologies founded on critiques of industrial agriculture, nutritional science, or the


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ethics of development to examine the placement of value as it is related to the production,

labor, and consumption of particularly marked types of Slow food.

The movement continued to grow in size and scope, but it was not until 2006 that

Slow Food publications intensified the rhetoric of social justice by coining the term co-

producer. Highlighting the power of the consumer to enact political change, a revised

mission statement clarifies and emphasizes a more comprehensive, cohesive movement:

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure andconsequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food,tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Ourmovement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomyarecognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, cleanand fairfood. We believe that the foodwe eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean waythat does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;and that food producers should receive fair compensation for theirwork.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because bybeing informed about how our food is produced and activelysupporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partnerin the production process. (Slow Food International 2006)

The firm defense of quiet material pleasure and guaranteed sensual pleasure

offered by the 1989 Manifesto shift to clearly explicated goals of Good, Clean and Fair.

In Italy and abroad, Slow Food now operates in three central channels reflecting those

goals: taste education, defense of biodiversity and interaction between food consumers

and producers. This eco-gastronomy aims to preserve culinary traditions threatened

with extinction from mass production and globalization through in situ efforts, and

simultaneously works to educate consumers about the importance of good, clean, and

fair foods through widespread media and public relations campaigns. It is not simply a

matter of boycotting McDonalds. The articulation of shared goals shifted over time, but

the overarching paradigm of Slow Foodthat a culture of biodiversity will in turn foster

human, civil, and demographic growthcontinues to provide an umbrella over a

kaleidoscope of activities and goals addressed through practices of food and eating.


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Situating Slow Food

The shared reference points outlined in the Slow Food creation story and

subsequent manifestosall of which are available in some form on the internetenable

followers to navigate the movement from multiple geographic spaces. Although Slow

Food operates on a global scale institutionally, the local, grassroots conviva(chapters) are

the true heart of the movement, problematizing clear local/global dichotomies. As the

movement spreads worldwide, its institutional discourses are translated through a milieu

of diverse local histories and locally defined values surrounding food. The array of

participantsboth producers and consumers, food activists and culinary tourists

spreads across multiple arenas, both public and private. In many cases it is difficult toseparate the goals of the movement from the goals of its participants, especially because

Slow Food is an amalgamation of private entrepreneurs, volunteers, activists, and

commercial sponsors, and these roles often overlap and change over time.

As described above, Slow Food offers a holistic critique of the industrialization of

food and develops new discourses surrounding food production and consumption.

However, some argue that Slow Food goes beyond this to present a critique of an entire

way of living, offering an alternative set of values that draw it into diverse political

avenues (c.f. Andrews 2008; Honore 2004; Parkins and Craig 2006). From this

perspective, Slow Food critically engages with the nature of globalization and cannot be

reduced to only one of its many programs, messages, or goals. Here, the field of the

Slow Food movement is unbounded and complex, presenting a challenge for traditional

ethnographic research. As Appadurai puts it, globalization issues a fundamental

challenge to the mutually constitutive relationship between anthropology and locality

(1996: 178). Slow Food eludes a conventional heuristic method of investigation, and its

analysis exemplifies the awkward scale of contemporary ethnography that attempts to

tap into local and global discursive flows while simultaneously tending to the empirical

phenomena of the material, lived world (Comaroff and Comaroff 2003). In globalized


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social movements like Slow Food, local actions develop within transnational public

spheres through the relationships existing between members of multiple localities

(Guidry, et al. 2000; see also Hannerz 2003a). In other words, specific actions continue

to be realized in concrete locales, but the organization of these actions often occurs

within a transnational context.

Edelman (2001) argues that ethnographic analyses of social movements are most

successful when they examine the broad scope of political and social fields wherein

mobilizations occur. To study Slow Food, I conducted participant observation research

in two primary sites, one emphasizing the sweeping international character of the

movement and one pinpointing highly localized food production and consumption. Inthis study, I attempt to rejoin the politics and ideologies of a globalized Slow Food with

the everyday lived experiences of food producers who (often subconsciously) embody

those ideologies. In so doing, I centrally rely on the research methods of discourse

analysis and participant observation.

Slow Food Ideology

In this dissertation I first attempt to pin down the roles of producers and co-

producers through discursive analysis of Slow Food events. In order to study the

evolution of Slow Food discourse it is useful to analyze the factors sustaining the unityof

this discourse. For example, although they were written almost twenty years apart, the

manifestos described above share rules about food consumption and production that form

the core of Slow ideology. Foods, foodways, and producers identified by Slow Food as

worthy of attention (and consumption) are part of a broad discourse that extensively

contextualizes the meanings and motivations that underlie these acts. Appadurai (1981)

argues that food itself is a powerful semiotic device and form of collective representation.

His model of Gastro-Politics refers to the conflict or competition over specific cultural

or economic resources as it emerges in social transactions around food (1981:495). For


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Slow Foods co-producer, food is the symbolic medium that regulates roles and signifies

privileges.

The evolving rhetoric of the Slow Food movement can likewise be read as part of

a larger discourse of changing ideologies about food. If we understand discourse as the

dialogical process through which social action, cultural knowledge, and social institutions

are achieved and enacted (Graham and Farnell 1996), it is possible to critically engage

with Slow Food discourse as a means of understanding the connections between social

structure and individual agency. Such an analysis encompasses both written and spoken

forms of discourse as well as other expressive signifying acts. In the case of Slow Food,

such signifying acts include quotidian practices of the habitus (everyday cooking, food

selection) and public performance (Slow Food events on local, regional, national and

international scales). The very practice of eating Slow, or purchasing Good, Clean and

Fair foods, embodies in embryonic form the changes the movement seeks (Edelman

2001:289), regardless of any variety of social or political motivations that underlie the

act. Here,

Slownessbecomes a metaphor for the politics of place: a

philosophy complexly concerned with the defense of local culturalheritage, regional landscapes, and idiosyncratic material cultures ofproduction, as well as international biodiversity andcosmopolitanism. (Leitch 2003: 454)

However, Leitch (2003) argues that the Slow Food movement is less about the

support of local traditions and foodways, and more about the commoditization of specific

places and producers. The cultural politics of marketing nostalgia to an audience eager

for foods considered traditional, rural, and Slow further problematizes notion of a co-

producer effacing social inequality. Do these politics promote fetishizing cultural

diversity and sentimentalizing struggles for cultural or economic survival (Donati2005:

227)? My ethnographic findings about how consumers and producers actually interact in

different Slow Food settings highlight these tensions within Slow Foods ideological

claims, expanding upon existing academic critiques.


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Consumption and New Social Movements

A variety of scholars have offered critical analyses of Slow Food, most drawing

upon how Slow Foods consumer-based action at a distance draws attention to

conventional divisions between individual agency and structure (Lockie 2002). As

economist Bruce Pietrykowsi puts it, the key issue here is whether material pleasure and

the symbolic expression of identity through consumer goods is compatible with a more

politicized, socially conscious consumption ethos (2004:309). The clearly defined

marketing orientation of the Slow Food movement, developed in response to consumer

demands, stands at odds with the movements broad agenda to challenge national and

international agricultural and industrial corporations (Jones, et al. 2003). As consumerswho operate as international political activists by virtue of market choice (Leitch 2003:

457) and effect checkbook environmentalism (McWilliams 2009), Slow Food co-

producers address social and political issues in highly circumspect ways. Yet to date,

such critiques have not directly examined the actual impact of participation in Slow Food

on small-scale producers.

By focusing on producers, my research illustrates the need for creative approaches

to the study of New Social Movements that operate on both local and global dimensions.

New Social Movements such as Slow Food focus on the struggle over symbolic,

informational, and cultural resources and rights, which produce new social subjects with

multiple identities existing in a range of social positions. There are usually multiple

points of contention that New Social Movements are working to address, often in a

seemingly diffuse manner (Edelman 2001). Bourdieu (2001) outlines the common

features shared by such movements. By rejecting the formulas of traditional union- or

class-based revolutions, New Social Movements emphasize self-management and the

direct participation of all members. Such a shift requires that goals are

Concretized in exemplary actions, directly linked to the particularproblem concerned and requiring a high level of personalcommitment on the part of activists and leaders, most of whom


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have mastered the art of creating events, of dramatizing a conditionso as to focus media attentionand, consequently, politicalattentionon them. (Bourdieu 2001:40)

For Slow Food, a redefinition of the consumer as co-producer fundamentally

alters the capitalist consumer/producer dyad. The movement encourages co-producers toseek information about the food they purchase directly from the local farmers, fishermen,

and breeders themselves. For example, Slow Food views the connections forged through

farmers' markets, direct farm sales and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

schemes as the ideal medium in which to ask questions about the origin, cultivation and

production techniques that go into everyday food items. In other words, it is often not

enough to simply make informed purchases. There is an added responsibility to

physically and intellectually connect with the producers themselves. The socioeconomic

relations that people have to production in a specific time and placeMarxs relations of

productionshift as people formally and informally reconfigure their roles in the realm

of food production. Unlike the stereotypical supermarket shopper, a slave to commodity

fetishism even on diet, the emancipated co-producer shows up at the farm doorstep with

questions about food production. Yet as I argue here, this imagery is underwritten by

unseen demands placed upon producers.

Chapter Outlines

This dissertation addresses the connections between Slow Foods discursive

production of ideology and information for consumers, the subsequent consumption-

based activities that constitute co-production, and the ways in which these actions relate

to rural and agricultural sustainability in Italy. In chapter one I situate my research

methods and field sites within larger discussions of the Slow Food movement. The

official rhetoric of Slow Food underscores its emphasis on sensory pleasure and gustatory

license with a politically motivated critique of global inequality on sociocultural,

economic and ecological scales. Here, taste becomes inherently political due to the

effects of globalization and industrialization on the palates of ordinary people. In chapter


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one I describe how the aesthetic considerations central to Slow Food tend to generate

critiques of the movements Nostalgic view of the past, its festishized view of

pleasure, its paternalism, its imperial encounters with exoticized others (framed by

its own heritage of privilege), and its culinary Luddism. (Andrews 2008:172). Yet

through the consumption of foods deemed Good, Clean and Fair by the movement, the

reflexive Slow Food consumer may transcend charges of elitism. While recognizing

that cultural diversity plays a role in determining taste preferences and choices, the

aesthetic considerations central to Slow Food are increasingly underscored by highly

politicized efforts to rejoin production and consumption in meaningful ways.

In chapter two I draw from my observations at a range of Slow Food events,particularly the Salone del Gusto exhibitions of 2006 and 2008 held in Turin, Italy, to

explore the ways in which Slow Food functions as an international actor for the global

promotion of the local (Sassatelli 2007:183). Here, a critical examination of the

discourse presented by Slow Food at its defining events offers an analysis of the

dissemination of information, symbols, and food commodities among transnational

participants. My analysis of the 2006 and 2008 editions of Salone del Gusto reveals that

a singular objective of Slow Food is slippery to locate, and even its most representative

event is rife with complexity and, at times, contradiction. As the largest promotional and

educational event hosted by Slow Food, Salone del Gusto has the capacity and authority

to inspire a profound reflection on food and the global community it represents. The

official, evolving discourse produced by Slow Food for each Salone del Gusto reveals

scattershot efforts to reach the broadest audience possible. In some cases, these efforts

appear to directly undermine the stated goals of the movement. Here I describe the ways

in which Slow Food directly articulates its politics through food samplings, taste

education programs, and promotional materials, and also via thinly-veiled corporate

messages and commercial sponsorship. For example, Taste re-education prepares the

consumer palate and consciousness to sample a wide range of Slow food products


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available at the event. Fetishized in Slow Food promotions, the producers of these foods

present at the event may or may not be able to fully engage with the dialogic processes

encouraged by the movement. Moreover, the simultaneous presence of small-scale

producers idealized and heralded by the movement and the rhetorically villianized

corporate entities that provide the bulk of finanical support for the event underscore

tensions about modern food production. While improving social justice is an explicit

goal in Slow Food rhetoric, what impact does participation in Slow Food have on actual

small-scale producers?

In chapter three I turn to ethnographic research conducted at the Tenuta di

Spannocchia, where I surveyed the ways in which the enactment of Slow Foods current

focus on co-production of food is linked to invented traditions drawn from Tuscan

agricultural heritage on the estate. Drawing upon the historical elements emphasized by

the estates directors, I examine the role of authenticity related to food and rural life in

the production of agricultural tourism today. The commodification of recipes and

cooking styles, for example, offers guests the opportunity to very literally consume an

idealized version of Tuscany. Additionally, the ongoing presence of Americans and other

guests introduces new culinary conventions that coexist with traditional Italian foods.

More than a binary between global and local gastronomies, food-related activities at

Spannocchia are also variably interpreted by members of a local Slow Food convivium,

demonstrating that idealizations of tradition extend to multiple audiences. Here, Slow

Foods concept of the co-producer plays out for tourists, residents, and producers in both

implicit and explicit ways. How do the efforts at the estate connect to larger socio-

economic issues related to food production and consumption in Italy today?

The nature of participant observation research led to my own involvement with

food production at Spannocchia, both in the fields and in seasonal butchering activities.

In chapter four I present data from my experiences working as a de facto farm volunteer

alongside full-time Italian food producers and seasonal interns. I describe the small


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number of interns working to produce food at Spannocchia as Slow Food co-producers

par excellence. Acting neither as residents nor as tourists, the interns occupy a unique

position on the estate, where food remains at the center of the experience. Competitive

selection for internship positions reveals a widespread interest in sustainable agricultural

production in Italy, even when the realities of farm work prove to be labor intensive and

variably rewarding. Here I connect my own farm work experiences with those of

Spannocchias intern volunteers, with whom I wrangled and butchered pigs, prepared and

served meals, and experienced everyday life in rural Tuscany. How are the interns

construed as co-producers, and how do they differ from the other tourists visiting the

estate?In chapter five I continue my discussion of food production at Spannocchia,

presenting detailed information about the Cinta Senese hog. The production and

consumption of this pig embodies the symbolic meaning of food and culture in Tuscany,

and its increasing popularity via Slow Food and other, more localized channels reflects

shifting patterns of consumption. Drawing from ethnographic data gathered while co-

producing Cinta Senese curedpork products, I argue that consumer demand for this

particular meat is based not only on political or economic conditions favorable to an

expanding alternative food market, but also on the pigs symbolic ties to the region of

Tuscany. However, the economic viability of raising Cinta Senese pigs for artisanal

salumi products depends on the ability and capacity of various organizations to educate

potential consumers. Here I discuss the role of local efforts spearheaded by a Cinta

Senese breeding consortium, the EU-wide Denomination of Origin program, and the

globalized platforms of Slow FoodsArk of Taste and Presidia programs. Producers of

Cinta Senese pigs navigate between the requirements and constraints of these various

programs, all of which on some level operate for the purpose of consumer education and

market expansion, rather than to support producers on an everyday basis.


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In chapter six I examine the pressures placed on producers involved in Slow Food

through two examples that reconnect the Italian context with the global scope of the Slow

Food movement. First, I describe the challenges of marketing of Spannocchias salumi

products in local and national venues. I highlight my experiences with Spannocchias

farm manager, Riccio, whose everyday labor best demonstrates the numerous

expectations and tensions placed on Slow Food producers. His shifting performances in

both the marketplace and on the estate point to the challenges faced by food producers

obliged to operate not only as agriculturalists, but as educators and marketers. I then

connect his experiences with those of Slow Foods Terra Madredelegates, who present

not only the foods they produce but perform various aspects of ethnicity and identity atthe Terra Madre event held concurrently with Salone del Gusto.

At Terra Madre, delegates from developing nations symbolically represent Slow

Foods efforts at Virtuous Globalization. Although delegates performances of ethnicity

at Terra Madre may enhance their commercial success at the event, it is unclear if these

performances are voluntary or part of a larger marketing strategy coordinated by Slow

Food. As I describe in chapter six, the movement employs representations of producers

that are not necessarily based upon the lived daily realities and challenges of food

production, and these discrepancies are particularly problematic for producers in the

developing world. Nevertheless, Slow Food consumers adopt these representations, and

build them into the symbolic politics of the movement. Here, symbolic politics refer to

ideas and images, not common identity or economic interests, [which] mobilize political

actions across wide gulfs of distance, language, and culture (Conklin and Graham 1995:

696). As discussed above, these politics emerge in Slow Foods concept of the co-

producer. Through the lens of Slow Food, the labor and social lives of food producers (or

at least the performances thereof) become visible to the engaged consumer. As such,

concerns with unequal relations of production are largely subsumed by an emphasis on

relations of consumption, despite the fact that massive inequalities persist in food


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production, particularly between large scale corporate food producers and locally-based

small-scale producers.

In the concluding chapter, I consider the overarching question: Can the

connections forged at Slow Food events, or in agricultural settings like Spannocchia, with

their ideological emphasis on supporting small-scale food production, translate into real-

life changes in the daily lives of food producers around the world? I discuss the role of

anthropology within the larger arena of food studies, and address the disciplines

potential contribution to studies of food production and consumption.


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CHAPTER ONE: SITUATING SLOW FOOD

Portrait One: Sofias perspective on Slow Food

Sofia5

worked as an intern in the orto (vegetable garden) at Spannocchia. Herfamily lives in Bangladesh, and she first heard about Spannocchias programs from a

visiting former intern there. Before arriving at Spannocchia, Sofia served as an

AmeriCorps volunteer for two years in Berkeley, California, where she helped to build

school gardens. I interviewed her about her experiences there, and whether or not they

coincided with Slow Food. Her job dovetailed on the success of the Edible Schoolyard

project spearheaded by Alice Waters, the founder of the highly regarded restaurant Chez

Panisse and then-president of Slow Food USA. The Edible Schoolyard is a one-acre

organic garden and kitchen classroom for urban public school students at Martin Luther

King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. In programs like this, students participate in all

aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce as a part of

regular curriculum. However, despite her regular, engaged involvement with the food

politics of the area, Sofia was not formally involved with Slow Food. As she put it:

I was really interested in Slow Food. It was weird, because when Igot out there [to San Francisco] I really wanted to be part of it.And I thought I would somehow see information for it. You know,I was on all these email list serves, and Id find out about all thisstuff going on, but I never heard anything about Slow Food. So Iwas kind of like, what is this Slow Food? (laughs) What arethey doing? Because I never heard about any events. And then Ihad a friend that I met who was a member, and he said that youhave to be a Slow Food memberto get emails about the events.And he would just forward me the emails, and then if I everwanted to go, I could go. So then he was forwarding me theseemails and they were for all these dinners that were, like, $200. I

was making less than $200 a week! (laughs) So I actually never

5Individuals quoted in this thesis received pseudonyms upon request. English languagepseudonyms come from the U.S. governments 2010 list of the most popular baby names(http://ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi). Italian pseudonyms come from a list of the mostpopular baby names in Italy in the year 2008 (http://www.nomix.it/nomi-per-bambini-piu-usati-in-italia.php).


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went to a Slow Food event. My impression of it in California wasthat it sounds cool, as an idea, but its very exclusive and kind ofsecret society-ish.

This experience soured her to Slow Food, but her brief involvement in Slow Food

Nation, the inaugural U.S.-based version of Salone del Gusto, made things worse. SlowFood Nation took place in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend 2008. Foodies across

the country deemed it the debutante ball of Slow Food in the United States, which,

after Italy, is the country with the most Slow Food members. Physically and

ideologically central to the event was the Victory Garden, a massive planting on the

lawn of the city courthouse building (see Figure 1).6 In addition to raising awareness

about how food is grown and how plants can possess both form and function, food banks

received all of the gardens produce. Plopped down into the middle of a grimy area of

town, the Victory Garden was a green jewel that grew quite literally in the shadow of

City Hall. American civic life, government, and food symbolically united in this space.

Figure 1 San Francisco Victory Garden

6Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in this thesis were taken by Rachel Horner Brackett.


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Due to her bosss connection with Alice Waters, Sofia and her coworkers helped

to install the plants. Shockingly, the entire garden was complete in a matter of hours.

Professional landscapers developed the layoutan artful mix of flowers, vegetables, and

herbs in raised bedsand volunteers placed large greenhouse transplants into the correct

spots. The mayor of the city was there, along with Alice Waters and other food

luminaries, to promote the garden. In Sofias words:

It was kind of silly. There were 500 volunteers for 200plantsYou put in your one plant, they make you pose for a lot ofpictures, and then you get fed this really amazing catered gourmetmeal.

That day a New York Times photographer took a picture of Sofia and a friend

moving a large potted plant. The next morning she woke up to find that her face was on

the cover of the Times, something that she was not at all comfortable with. After

working on community-based garden projects for two years with little to no recognition,

the massive publicity afforded to Slow Food Nation came as a shock. Worse, it

confirmed Sofias suspicions of Slow Food as an inaccessible group that is somewhat

insincere about its efforts to improve local communities.

Framing Consumer Distinction

Sofias experiences with Slow Food highlight an oft-repeated criticism of the

movement: that it is little more than an inefficient assembly of elitist gourmands.

Anthropologist Adrian Peace distills this viewpoint:

Bluntly expressed, Slow Food continues to be stereotyped as anindulgence of the Wests middle classes as they seek out newsources of postmodern identity. It is caricatured as a class strategy,

in line with Pierre Bourdieus approach, identifying the immediatepleasures of high taste in the culinary sense with the steadyaccumulation of taste in the cultural one. (2008:31)

Utilizing Bourdieus (1984) approach to taste, which describes aesthetics as

learned practices that serve to reinforce and materialize social structures, Slow Food

functions as yet another structure that naturalizes social inequality. Taste is class culture


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turned into nature (Bourdieu 1984:190), and the food selections of the upper classes are

the practical affirmation of an inevitable difference (1984:56). Carefully refined

aesthetic preferences thus serve to bolster and reproduce social inequality. Thus,

Bourdieu shifts the focus of the body as a means of expression and source of symbolism

to the body as a locus of social practice (Csordas 2002). Following this, Watson and

Caldwell posit that the key to successful food politics is the ability to transform private

worries about body and diet into an organized, worldwide movementlinked via the

internet to allied groups that promote organic foods and/or oppose fast foods (2005:3)

Here, individual taste becomes a manifestation of culture and society on both

local and global sales. Pietrykowski states:

Slow Food has been able to take an attribute normally associatedwith cultural capitalculinary tasteand insert it into a socialeconomy built around the preservation of unique food, localcuisine, and cultural heritage. Cultural capital then comes toencompass more than a signaling device for social status. TheSlow Food Movement seeks to transform cultural capital into aform of social capital. (2004:317)

Slow Food claims to be democratic and based on the voluntary membership of

those with shared cultural and gastronomic interest. However, some argue that this

consumer democracy remains available only to those with the social and economic

capital to join in. The upper echelons of Slow Food are primarily composed of highly

educated idealists with ambitions beyond the local economy. Certain cultural phenomena

qualify as good taste notby random, but through dominant class functions that

legitimate their tastes as superior. In the case of Slow Food, do these classifications still

apply, or have traditional divides between high and low status foodsand their

consumerseroded?

If highbrow tastes displayed an intellectualized appreciation pitted against the

seemingly unreflective consumption of the lower classes in the past, Peterson and Kern

(1996) argue that today the cultural omnivore marks a qualitative shift in the ways that

elite status is marked. Rather than display a snobbish exclusion, the cultural omnivore


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claims to have an appreciation for all forms of culture, including those created by socially

marginal groups (e.g., isolated rural people, racial minorities, and youth). Whereas the

privileged classes of Bourdieus France would learn to appreciate caviar and champagne,

todays omnivorous, socially-conscious eater seeks out authentic hand-rolled tortillas,

locally grown heirloom vegetables, or sausages made from sustainably raised, antibiotic-

free pigs. This omnivorous cultural consumption strategy includes multiple genres of

food and drink, but does not discriminate against those that may be considered high- or

low-class. This strategy does not discriminate against foods considered high- or low-

status; the discriminating omnivore appears to reject an elitist, ethnocentric form of

gastronomy for culinary cultural relativism (or faux populism, depending on ones

perception). From this perspective, alternative food movements like Slow Food appear

to replace snobbery or exclusion with omnivorous appropriation and gentrification in a

quest for new forms of distinction. This begs the question: is Slow Food a

transformative social movement, or a new form of social capital for the affluent classes?

Anthropologist Janet Chrzan, who worked for the national board of Slow Food

USA for a several years, found that although many Slow Members in the U.S. are

committed in principle to sustainability and food-production equity, they are primarily

involved in meeting other interesting food lovers, learning about the local areas food

resources, and having really wonderful meals with congenial people (2004:123). In

cases like Sofias, the democratic accessibility of Slow Food membership remains

clouded by a lack of economic or social capital. In the United States convivia, these

forms of capital map onto larger issues of race, gender and ethnicity. Hayes-Conroy and

Hayes-Conroy (2010) reveal the social indexing of Slow Food in the following quote:

Slow Food has spread in the US through a certain gastronomicsociety, which is basically white. It has only spread in onecategory, white and wealthy, and has done so throughvolunteersit was just whomever asked to be a part of themovement, and so the message reached only those who were thereand ready to hear it. This [process] revealed the organization, and[being] organized this way organically generates problems. It


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doesnt guarantee diversity.(interview with a Slow Food leader,2010:2956)

The Hayes-Conroys research exposes not only an awareness of the primarily

white and middle-to-upper class basis of the Slow Food movement in the United States,

but suggests that embodied experiences of eating Slow foods are coded as white

practices that inhibit the participation of other groups. Yet despite the implications of the

research cited here, Slow Food founder and director Carlo Petrini maintains that Slow

Food is an inclusive elite, able to provide greater bargaining power for under-

developed markets, boosting knowledge and international contacts for these producers

(Van Der Meulen 2008:234).

Regardless of whether or not one views Slow Food as elitist or democratic,underscoring debates about omnivorous consumption is a knot of discourse that continues

to define particular foods and consumers primarily through socioeconomic strictures and

Bourdieuian Distinction. Sociologists Johnston and Baumann (2010) present a

particularly useful means of untangling this rhetoric through their exploration of foodie

discourse (2010). Many of the individuals they interviewed expressed ambivalence

toward the term foodieparadoxically, some argued that they couldnt be foodies,

since they lacked any interest in gourmet food, while others self-identified as foodies, as

they were willing to try anything, even if it was notgourmet. The term nonetheless

operates as a powerful descriptor of gastronomic identity. Johnston and Baumann

identify the tension between two ideological poles that frame the activities of foodies: 1)

a democratic pole that eschews cultural elite standards by valorizing the cultural products

of everyday non-elite people, and 2), a pole that valorizes rare, difficult to access, and

often economically inaccessible foods that represent possession of high cultural capital.

In other words:

Foodies commonly seek out the food of the common people, at thesame time they frequently idealize foods, meals andrestaurantsthat are inaccessible for the majority of the populationwith less cultural and economic capital. (Johnston and Baumann2010:61)


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Using this framework, it is possible to think about Slow Food followers as Slow

Foodies. Here, participants emphasize the qualities of Good, Clean and Fair in assessing

the relative value of food and its production. Food quality is a multidimensional

conceptin addition to sensory valuations it encompasses attributes of morality and

aesthetics, as well as connotations with particular geographies, organizations and

institutions (Harvey, et al. 2004). However, until recently, most studies of consumer-

based social movements like Slow Food overlooked these non-sensory attributes,

focusing instead on the rhetorical juxtaposition of Fast and Slow elements.

False Dichotomies

Anthropologist Sidney Mintz argues that between ideal types of Fast food

(which unapologetically destroys the health of bodies and ecologies while simultaneously

extinguishing local food cultures) and Slow food (which only permits those with the

economic and cultural capital to enjoy gastronomic freedom), there is room for a

Moderate pace, where healthy and meaningful food is available to everyone (2006).

Wilk connects this concept to a larger discussion of food politics today:

The extremes of slow and fast, local and global, artisanal andindustrial, are ideal types; at some level they may be goodintellectual tools, but all the real action takes place in between, inthe complex and interconnected highways where Mintzs food ofmoderate speed is travelingFrom a global scale, what looks likea linear long-term trend begins to resolve into processes that arefull of contradictions, the contingencies of culture and humanagency, and unexpected cycles, rehearsals, reversals, and reprises.(Wilk 2006a:15-16)

Several anthropological examples of this trend discuss the variable incorporation

of McDonalds-style fast food chains in various cultural spaces, such as across Asia

(Watson 1998), Mexico (Pilcher 2006), and the city of Beijing (Yan 2000). Similarly, in

his discussion of fast food in France, sociologist Rick Fantasia shows that although

France possesses a culinary patrimony that would appear to diametrically oppose

restaurants like McDonalds, some middle-class French citizens eat there as a means of


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transgressing traditional cultural forms and embracing American cultural ideologies

(1995:219). The franchise system reflects economic changes in France, embodying a

timely ideological message of individualism, free enterprise, and entrepreneurial

capitalism (Fantasia 1995:208). Moreover, Fantasia points out that so-called pure

French food is actually the result of several centuries of cultural change, appropriation,

expansion, and colonialism, a progression analogous to Englands traditional

consumption of tea and sugar (Mintz 1985). In each case, ethnographic inquiry illustrates

the ways in which consumers incorporate a seemingly overriding paradigm of fast food

into culturally situated and locally-based gastronomic structures.

The rhetorical extremes of Fast and Slow also apply to discussions of agriculturalproduction. Kloppenburg, et al. (2000) argue that the conceptual framings of alternative

food systems created by academics and policy specialists do not reflect the full range of

understandings (or agency) of producers and consumers. For example, organic food,

often rhetorically contrasted with the products of industrial agriculture, has expanded far

beyond what Belasco (1989) calls the counter-cuisine. This health-based approach to

food emerged out of 1960s counter culture movements, and emphasized unprocessed

foods and a connection to the agrarian environment. Today, it is easy to locate heavily

processedyet organicsnack foods in most supermarkets, and as Guthman (2003;

2004) points out in her study of the organic food industry in California, organic food is

rarely produced by small-scale family farmers working in opposition to "industrial"

agriculture. This example reflects the capacity of capitalist enterprises to recognize

market shifts, and to co-opt or even subvert the original moral economies that underscore

them (see also DeLind 2000). At the same time, it is also possible for social movements

like Slow Food to borrow tactics from these enterprises in order to spread information

and ideologies about alternative food systems.

For Slow Food, the positioning of Slow Food branded Presidiaproducts in the

ubiquitous COOP Italia supermarkets (Fonte 2006), and the presence of state agricultural


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ministers and corporate agri-food giants at Salone del Gusto further supports the theory

of interpenetration. The concept of the co-producer is also a form of interpenetration

between categories, wherein even the production and subsequent purchase of food is

undivided in the purview of Slow Food.

Locating Slow Food

My first ethnographic field encompasses the ephemeral sites of Slow Food

events like Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, where my role was as both a tourist and an

official academic observer. I researched Slow Food eventslongitudinally over three

years, beginning in October 2006 and continuing through April 2009. As Hannerz notes

in regards to studies of transnational organizations:

Conferences show up as important occasions in one study after theother. Actually, it is often precisely these kinds of temporarymeeting places, where participants are only briefly presenttogether, which contribute critically to the formation and enduringcohesion of translocal networks. (2003b:27-28)

During this period, the core ideology of Slow Food began to change in dramatic

ways, shifting its focus from that of a relatively elite gastronomic club to that of a

focused, highly-politicized food institution. My analysis derives from participant-

observation data collected during the 2006 and 2008 editions of Salone del Gusto and

Terra Madre, as well as from Slow Food Nation (held in San Franscisco, CA in 2008),

Terra Madre Toscana (Orbetello, Italy 2008), and Slow Fish (Genoa, Italy 2009).

At these events my presence was largely anonymous. I attended as many talks,

presentations, and colloquia as possible during each event, taking copious notes

throughout. I collected massive amounts of paperleaflets, flyers, informational

brochures, newspaper articles, magazine clippings, and event programs. During these

Slow Food events I also took approximately 300 photographs. During my subsequent

examination of these images and clippings, I began to realize that some of the


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information and sponsorship of major Slow Food events contradicted the stated ideology

of the movement in very significant ways.

In the fall of 2006, following a week at Salone del Gusto in Turin, I conducted

preliminary field research in the nearby small city of Bra, where the international

headquarters, communication offices, and publishing centers of Slow Food are located.

Here I attempted to locate Slow Food at the site of its institutional headquarters.

Pietrykowski (2004) argues that with its commercial publications, educational programs,

structured tourism, and formally affiliated University of Gastronomic Sciences, Slow

Food is not a social movement but rather an institution that formalizes the knowledge

of various other movements (e.g., anti-GMO/organic/Green movements). During thistime I collected sacks of printed materials, talked with administrators at the nearby

University of Gastronomic Sciences, and enjoyed numerous and extended conversations

with my roommate and neighbors, all of whom were employed by Slow Food.

Although I never saw him during my two months in Bra, Carlo Petrini also lives

in the citys outskirts. The Slow Food employees I got to know talked excitedly about

rare sightings ofIl Re(The King) in local restaurants and in the office. Petrini remains

steadfastly dedicated to this area of Italy, where his proto-Slow Food organization

Gambero Rosso, a group of local wine enthusiasts with communist affiliations, first

emerged (Parasecoli 2003). In the introduction to his 2005 bookBuono, Pulito e Giusto,7

Petrini describes his disappointment upon discovering that the farmers who previously

raised a local variety of pepper in the outskirts of Bra had turned, for economic reasons,

to tulip bulb production. Soon after, he learned that the flavorless peppers served to him

a local restaurant were imported from the Netherlands, and his outrage launched a

renewed attack upon the illogical nature of neoliberal food production. The rhetorical

7The title translates to Good, Clean and Fair, but was inexplicably changed to Slow Food Nationfor its 2006 translation and release in the United States.


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and historical significance of Bra and the surrounding region seemed paramount to my

study of Slow Food. Initially, I had hoped to compare data gleaned from my fieldwork in

Bra and its surrounds with ethnographic data from Slow Food sites in the United States,

highlighting the international scope of the movement.

However, despite my best efforts to situate Slow Food in its hometown of Bra, I

repeatedly found that the data I collected did not answer my questions about the

relationship between Slow Foods philosophies and the activities of its adherents.

Furthermore, preliminary data collection in the United States also failed to connect with

my core inquiries about the connection between Slow Food producers and consumers. At

this point, I chose to focus my attention on Italian food producers and the global SlowFood consumers with whom they interact. The question was where to locate these food

producers. Prior to travelling to Turin for Salone del Gusto, I spent the summer months

of 2006 living in the medieval Tuscan city of Siena, where I took advanced Italian

language courses in preparation for my fieldwork. During that time, my language school

offered several field trips into the Tuscan countryside to visit wineries and estates

focusing on small-scale agriculture. I knew that several of these agritourism estates

offered lodging for tourists, and I began ask Italian friends in Bra and Siena if they knew

of a place that might host an anthropologist as well.

Spannocchia

In the end, I discovered my field site of Spannocchia through a Google search.

Spannocchia is a roughly 1000 acre estate located approximately 30 kilometers southwest

of Siena. With its 800-year old stone tower at the top of a forested hill, an active rare

breed animal husbandry program, and a range of tourist activities spanning from wild

herb collection to open-air painting, Spannocchias scope provided me with multiple

avenues of investigation. The estate is also unique in that it hosts three 3-month

competitive internship programs each year, attracting groups of primarily North


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American young people to complete much of the unskilled labor required on the farm.

As such, my ideas about producers expanded to include highly localized actors as well as

international contributors. I initially arrived at Spannocchia as a tourist outsider and

gradually gained access to insider status through sustained daily work with the

individuals who live and work at the estate. Prior to my arrival at Spannocchia I worked

out an agreement with the foundation director in which I would pay a substantially

reduced rate for my room and board in exchange for work on the farm each week. At the

time I had no idea of what this work would entail. The directors at Spannocchia knew

about my interest in the Cinta Senese hog and in Slow Food, so I assumed that I would be

working outdoors with the pigs in some capacity.After a few days of settling in and wandering the estate, I joined the interns first

thing in the morning to receive my first work assignment. I had already spent a few

afternoons that week informally picking olives with other visiting volunteers, and I

expected to continue with that task as long as the rain held off. Each group went off to a

respective job until only I remained, stan

slow food ethnography

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