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Life in the slow lane
By Jane Faulkner
February 28 2002

From Epicure in "The Age" newspaper, Melbourne

It was the majesty of Italy, or rather its wine, that lured James Broadway there, ostensibly on a fact-finding mission. He traipsed through cities older than the Mona Lisa, along roads Roman emperors travelled in times of conquest and in places where century-old traditions remained, although some tenuously so. All this in a bid to find great wines to import.

The significance of his bible - The Slow Food Guide to Wines of the World - wasn't realised until that trip in the mid-'90s. Everywhere he went, the Slow Food Movement's insignia, a snail, seemed to follow. He saw it on specialist produce stores, wineries and restaurants in villages.

The movement rallies against the kind of fast food McDonald's stands for - and globalisation, mass production and flavourless fast food.

Now an offshoot of the food movement is gathering momentum. Cittaslow - Slow Cities - relates to towns and cities committed to improving the quality of life for locals with particular regard to food but it's much more. It's about banning cars where possible, and walking or using bikes as a preferred mode of transport, about supporting local producers and artisans who keep alive traditions that otherwise would be lost.

Since its inception in 1999, Cittaslow has spread from the 30 Italian towns that have adopted its principles, to Germany, England and Australia.

In the official brochure of The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, which begins in two weeks time, Premier Steve Bracks extols the virtues of Melbourne as a great food and wine city. He writes: ``Melbourne was also the first city outside of Italy to be named a Slow City, an honour bestowed by Slow Food, a worldwide organisation dedicated to rediscovering the richness of culinary traditions.''

Can that possibly be accurate in Melbourne? And what exactly does Cittaslow mean in an Australian context?

It's all a matter of interpretation, says Broadway, and transposing it on to the Australian landscape.

It was writer and activist Carlo Petrini - a guest of the Melbourne Slow Food Convivium in 1999 - who declared Melbourne the first Slow City outside Italy. Petrini was so offended by the temerity of McDonald's wanting to open a store in an ancient Roman piazza that he started the movment in 1989.

Since then Slow has become a powerful international movement with a fast-growing membership of about 70,000 people in 50 countries.

As its charter states, it's a movement ``dedicated to the preservation of flavour and bio-diversity and the promotion of real food''.

The charter specifies that a slow city is one with a population fewer than 50,000.

``Technically we don't fit the charter,'' says Broadway, ``but I'm not going to stop pushing it; we are an associate member. It's a recent thing (the 50,000 cut-off), so although Carlo did welcome us into the movement, the charter has since grown to exclude us, which is a pity.''

That hasn't thwarted his efforts in the slightest. He's always looking for producers and people who fit the Slow Food-Cittaslow ideals.

He organised a trip that ended in Mildura with Stefano di Pieri, bringing local producers together for a moveable feast last week. The trip, titled Salt, involved visiting innovative people making use of our salinity crisis. The salt, a superior product compared with chemical-laden commercial varieties, is being packaged and sold. They also tasted fruit from a Harcourt woman's heritage orchard and in Wedderburn visited a chap growing rare Chinese pears. This is the Australian version of Slow Food and Cittaslow at its best: promoting local producers rather than illusory traditions.

And as part of the food and wine festival, Broadway has organised a Slow bike ride. Riders start in the Fitzroy Gardens, head to Richmond for breakfast with Stephanie Alexander before pedalling along the Yarra bike path to the Burnley Horticultural College, then to the Collingwood Children's Farm before taking the Merri Creek path to Ceres community environment park and ending with lunch in Brunswick.

``I don't know any city where you can do a bike ride like that without ever leaving a bike path. It's really quite incredible,'' he says.

Broadway suggests that perhaps Melbourne proper could still be a Cittaslow by its link with bike paths, or even include suburbs such as Carlton or Brunswick. He hopes to meet soon with local government representatives, including Melbourne's Lord Mayor, John So, to talk about such ideas. As important as keeping Melbourne on the agenda is to encourage regional towns to join. Broadway has already started making slow moves into Castlemaine.

``There are lots of things that make Castlemaine perfect as a Cittaslow - it has a regional arts festival, it has a regional economic development policy which is taking on sustainability issues as a region and it's surrounded by orchards, organic farmers, great producers. It's perfect!''

Angela Munro, manager of the economic development unit in the Mount Alexander Shire, agrees: ``There's a lot of informal discussion about food and wine at the moment and there's obviously the makings of Slow Food, Slow Cities here.'' The shire takes in towns such as Castlemaine, Harcourt, Elphinstone, Taradale, Newstead and Maldon - ``rural areas that produce super food with terrific businesses run by energetic and visionary people''.

Broadway and Munro acknowledge that there's much work to be done and will take a long time. Even the 30 Italian towns signed up to the movement are not yet Cittaslow through and through. There are stages and criteria to follow.

Towns must make a commitment to the charter. That includes implementing an environmental policy, which nurtures the distinctive features of the town and its area. They must focus on recycling and recovery; put in place infrastructure that will make environmentally friendly use of land; and encourage the use of technology that will improve the quality of air and life in their city.

They must support the production and consumption of organic foods; protect and promote products; ensure locals, not just those in tourism, are aware of Cittaslow, and encourage the next generation to learn about food and where it comes from.

In a sense, the Slow Food Movement is the Greenpeace of the food industry. Broadway says, ``what we are trying to do is become the UNESCO equivalent of a food organisation. Slow Food is a philosophical concept about preservation, flavour and bio-diversity, and the social issues that surround all that''.

The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival starts on March 14. For details about Slow Food and Cittaslow, contact James Broadway on 0403040177.

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John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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