Some Thoughts on Slow Food
HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales
Constant Harvest • Volume 4 Number 2 • Autumn 2005 Updated: 04/11/06
“I believe you are in a better position to answer the question than me, but for what it’s worth, I do believe that simply coming together and sharing ideas, and above all joining the international Slow Food Movement and to create, by the extraordinary process of cross-fertilization and invigoration which takes place at gatherings like these, an ever more influential and powerful association that cannot be so easily ignored, the answers will emerge organically. As the old saying goes, there is safety in number and people tend to listen to organizations with a very large membership. They do!(….) And the importance of your Movement cannot be overstated. That is after all, why I am here Ð to try and help draw attention to the fact that in certain circumstances “small will always be beautiful”, and to remind people, as John Ruskin in the nineteenth century did, back in England, that industry without art is brutality”. After all, the food you produce is far more than just food, for it represents an entire culture Ð the culture of the family farm. It represents the ancient tapestry of rural life: the dedicated animal husbandry, the struggle with the natural elements, the love of landscape, the childhood memories, the knowledge and wisdom learnt form parents and grandparents, the intimate understanding of local climate and conditions, the hopes and fears of succeeding generations. Ladies and gentlemen, all of you represent genuinely sustainable agriculture and I salute you.”