What is the appeal of the Slow Food movement?

Before answering this question, I will start by explaining what the Slow Food Movement is, as, ironically, Hubber paperclips, the only one to respond before I began this Hub as my response, answered with the question What is the slow food movement? I'm guessing it's got nothing to do with slow cookers.

This was my question when I first heard the term Slow Food Movement while having lunch with a couple of chefs who teach in the culinary department at the college where I teach economics..

Not wanting to show my ignorance, I made a mental note of the phrase Slow Food Movement and did a Google search and some additional research that evening and ended up publishing a Hub about the Slow Food Movement.

The Slow Food Movement had it origins when the Italian author and social critic Carlo Petrini became upset in 1986 when McDonald's Corporation announced its intention to build a restaurant near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome.

Carlo Petrini began the Slow Food Movement as a protest against the idea of so called fast food. His movement has grown slowly and is basically a loosely organized movement composed of mostly small local chapters in cities around the world.

In addition to opposing fast food and companies like McDonald’s which members of the movement tend to blame for fast food, the movement also opposes giant agribusiness and would like to see large agribusiness with small family run farms located on the outskirts of urban areas.

For members of the movement, the appeal of the Slow Food Movement is basically a desire to return to a bygone era when life was simpler and lived at a more leisurely and enjoyable pace.

While few would object to this dream, the fact is that such a past never existed - it is an overly romanticized version of a mythical past.

Part of the appeal of the Slow Food Movement is simple elitist snobbery. An indulgence that that only a few, mostly affluent writers and others unburdened by nine-to-five jobs and families to raise, have the time and money to pursue.

Despite the fact that the past described by the Slow Food Movement is mostly myth, the ideas behind the Slow Food Movement are still an attractive ideal for most of us.

Our bodies require food for both sustenance and energy. From earliest times to the present we frequently eat simply as a response to hunger pangs or a need for energy.

This approach to food has been true for both humans and animals since the beginning of time. And fast food, food consumed on the run, has been a practice since we humans first roamed the earth.

However, throughout history, food has also served a social function. Most of our celebrations involve people coming together to share a meal. Food has always had the secondary function of bringing people together to bond.

Whether it be the custom of Bedouin nomads encountering strangers in the desert and sharing their meal with the stranger, a couple sharing a meal on a first date or businessmen discussing a deal over dinner, sharing a leisurely meal has always been a way for strangers to come together and get to know one another.

Also, unlike our animal cousins, we humans long ago learned to enjoy the different tastes and textures of food and have sought out both new foods and ways of preparing food for the pleasure they as well as the nourishment they provide.

While the ideals of the Slow Food Movement may be elitist and impractical as a way of life for most people, these ideals do stand as a reminder to all of us that the preparation and consumption of food can be enjoyable and satisfying acts in themselves as well as being a means of obtaining necessary nourishment and energy.

Despite busy lives and limited budgets, all of us can, at least occasionally, take time to indulge in the pleasures promised by the Slow Food Movement.