What is Slow Food?

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization founded in 1989 to counteract the fast food movement. It's about the nonexclusive right to enjoy good, clean and fair food, while working against the disappearance of local food traditions and people's declining interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices impact the rest of the world.

We believe everyone has a right to enjoy good, clean, and fair food. The word good can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. For Slow Food, the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity. When we talk about clean food, we are talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity.

We believe that food is a universal right. Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.

Slow Food believes the enjoyment of excellent food and drink should be combined with efforts to save the countless traditional grains, vegetables, fruits, animal breeds and food products that are disappearing due to the prevalence of convenience food and industrial agribusiness. Slow Food also believes in education. By reawakening and training their senses, Slow Food helps people rediscover the joys of eating and understand the importance of caring where their food comes from, who makes it and how it's made. We consider ourselves co-producers, because by being informed about our food production and making choices in support of good, clean and fair food, we become a part of the process.

Slow Food is more than just an organization. It represents an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. In Memphis, we support this mission through proactively planning and partaking in activities and events that connect our producers with co-producers, keep us connected to our local food traditions, and defend the biodiversity of our land.