You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement

Author(s): Bruce Pietrykowski

Source: Review of Social Economy , SEPTEMBER 2004, Vol. 62, No. 3, CONSUMING
SYMBOLIC GOODS: IDENTITY & COMMITMENT (SEPTEMBER 2004), pp. 307-321
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

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 |3 Routledge
REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, VOL. LXII, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2004 j?^^ Taylor & Francis Grot

You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of

the Slow Food Movement

Bruce Pietrykowski
University of Michigan-Dearborn

Abstract Recent work by Sehor revives concerns raised by Veblen and Hirsch
over the destructive consequences of competitive consumption. In contrast,
Twitchell argues that increased access to commodities as symbols of luxury
signals a democratization of class and social status. Rather than playing the
role of dupes, consumers are active co-conspirators in the creation and
maintenance of luxury goods markets. While flawed, each of these
perspectives has something important to offer to social economists interested
in understanding consumption. A key question for social economists is
whether material pleasure and the symbolic expression of identity through
consumer goods is compatible with a more politicized, socially conscious
consumption ethos. Food consumption offers a fruitful starting point for
pursuing this issue. I begin by examining food and its symbolic role in
identity formation. I then consider the Slow Food movement and explore the
ways in which it maintains a central role for material pleasure while
promoting a socially and environmentally conscious stance toward
consumption.
Keywords: consumer identity, cultural capital, food consumption, social
capital, slow food

Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are.
(Brillat-Savarin 1949 [1825]: 1)

The battle over minutes and seconds, over the pace and intensity of work schedules,
over the working life.. .over the working week and day (with rights to "free
time").. .has been, and continues to be, right royally fought.
(Harvey 1989: 231)

Review of Social Economy

ISSN 0034 6764 print/ISSN 1470-1162 online ? 2004 The Association for Social Economics
h ttp: / /www. tandf. co. uk/j ournals
DOI: 10.1080/0034676042000253927

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast
Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to
eat Fast Foods.. .So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.
(Slow Food International 1989)

INTRODUCTION

Consumption occupies a peculiar position in the field of economics. Analysis

of shoppers, homemakers, and consumers is neglected compared with the
extensive treatment given over to business investment, labor productivity, and
trade. Neoclassical economics largely refrains from analyzing the roots of
consumption behavior. Perhaps this has to do with the ways in which both
passions as well as interests drive consumer behavior (de Grazia 1996). By
contrast, social economics, attending to the social and cultural milieu
embedding economic life, appears better suited to investigating the inner
workings of the sphere of consumption.
Anthropologists, historians and sociologists have come to characterize
consumption as a complex relational activity (Featherstone 1991, Miller 1995,
Glickman 1999). Contrary to neoclassical theory (Stigler and Becker 1977),
much information is lost when consumption is portrayed merely as a function
of income and relative prices. Our consumption choices send messages to
others (Douglas and Isherwood 1979) and we, in turn, adapt our consumption
choices in light of others' perception of us (Co?gel 1994). For Veblen (1953
[1899]), conspicuous consumption requires novelty and scarcity in order to
maintain status differences. Similarly, for Hirsch (1976), "positional goods"
are commodities that signal one's rank in the social hierarchy. Attention to
the social and cultural aspects of consumption is acknowledged in recent
attempts to produce a critique of consumerism, most notably in the work of
Schor (1998).
Schor examines the rise of "competitive consumption". In countries in
which living standards are high, the objectives of consumption switch from
material subsistence to social signaling through material abundance.
Following Veblen and Hirsch, Schor argues that the acquisition and display
of positional goods maintains one's social standing only so long as those
goods are rationed. Competitive consumption becomes a race run on a
treadmill with the goal of superior social status lying just out of reach. Schor
concludes that the sensible thing to do is to "downshift", re-evaluate one's
values and drop out of the race. Only by doing so can we actually improve our
life situation and shift resources away from endeavors that promote wasteful

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

behavior unrelated to meeting real human needs. Similar calls for "voluntary
simplicity" maintain that the consumerist mentality stands in the way of a
more equitable division of resources and diverts us from achieving our full
human development (Etzioni 1998).
In response to Schor, Twitchell (2002) mounts a spirited defense of luxury.
For Twitchell, the desire for luxury is an indication of the democratization of
taste. Twitchell celebrates the desire for ostentatious, wasteful, and gaudy
consumer goods and connects this longing to the pursuit of the good life.
Twitchell argues that the desire for material pleasure is a basic part of human
nature and those who argue that consumers are duped or, at best, ill-informed
are puritanical scolds. However, Twitchell's defense remains solely at the level
of individual desire and does not examine the social consequences of
conspicuous consumption.
By contrast, Schor provides a valuable analysis of the macro-level effects of
competitive consumption. While consumer spending may sustain economic
growth it does so at the cost of a declining quality of social networks,
deterioration of environmental quality, and increasing exploitation of third
world labor. To the extent that consumerism deflects an individual's time and
energy away from maintaining social networks, shopping, like television
watching, reduces what sociologists and political scientists refer to as "social
capital" (Putnam 1995).
On the other hand, Twitchell points to the willing participation of
consumers from all socio-economic groups in the pursuit of luxury. Status
acquisition and emulation are activities that build and bind the culture. The
ability to evaluate an object's style, color, and texture - taste - reflects an
individual's stock of "cultural capital" (Bourdieu 1984). People engage in
"lifestyle" shopping where goods function as symbols that convey messages
and produce identities (Shields 1992). Furthermore, to the extent that some of
this desire for luxury is a desire for material pleasure, as opposed to the single
minded pursuit of social status (albeit acknowledging the interconnection
between status and material pleasure), the desire for pleasurable sensations,
novelty, or adventure is a compelling motivation for consumption.
Consumption is portrayed as a meaningful activity to which many people
are passionately committed.
A key question for social economists is whether material pleasure and the
symbolic expression of identity through consumer goods is compatible with a
more politicized, socially conscious consumption ethos. Food consumption
offers a fruitful starting point for pursuing this issue. Beginning by examining
food and its symbolic role in identity formation; I then consider the Slow
Food movement and explore the ways in which it maintains a central role for

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

material pleasure while promoting a socially and environmentally conscious

stance toward consumption.

FOOD, IDENTITY, AND THE RISE OF SLOW FOOD

The practice of buying, cooking, and eating food is a feature of everyday life
that reproduces bodies and identities. It is these taken-for-granted practices
that help us make sense of our world and our selves.1 Food nourishes but it
also signifies (Fischler 1988).
Identity is complex, multi-faceted and can be used to describe the relation
between food consumption and class, ethnicity, culture, or nation (Gabaccia
1998, Wilk 2002), "it transfers nutritional raw materials from the state of
Nature to the state of Culture" (Fischler 1988: 284). National identity is
linked to specific foods and drink. The specialty products of a nation are, in
turn, associated with the geology, soil, culture or some intangible attribute of
the local geography (Guy 2002).
When we speak of food as the material embodiment of cultural meaning it is
important to identify the ways meaning is manifested through space, race and
ethnicity, class, and gender. Local cuisine, ethnic foods and foods associated
with certain classes are produced within local, and increasingly global,
networks. Fischler (1988) notes that the trend toward industrialization of
agriculture threatens traditional cultural links between consumers and their
dinner plates by increasing the physical and social distance between the
producer and the consumer of food. "Quite literally, we know less and less what
we are really eating and this increased uncertainty has an effect on consumer
identity" (Fischler 1988: 289). The emergence of slow food can be understood
in light of this increasing sense of unease over the system of food production.
The seeds of the movement were sown in Italy during the late 1980s. The
name "slow food" is intentionally meant to contrast it with the likes of
McDonald's and other purveyors of quick, cheap comestibles. McDonald's
was planning to open a restaurant in the heart of Rome's historic Piazza de
Spagna - the catalyst for a nascent opposition movement (Petrini 2001a,
Kummer 2002, Pollan 2003). In December of 1989, Slow Food was officially
born as an international organization dedicated to preserving a world of
unique flavors, local food customs, and quality food and wine. At present, the
movement comprises 77,000 individual members representing 48 countries
and 700 local chapters or convivia (Slow Food International (SFI) (d)).

1 This does not deny that producers constrain consumer choices (Fine and Leopold 1993, Fine et al. 1996).
The intent here, however, is to foreground the consumer as an active agent.

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

The pace of consumption promoted by fast food establishments is not the

only object of criticism by Slow Food adherents. Supporters of the movement
are concerned that fast food will displace "local osterie and trattorie, the kinds
of places that serve local dishes and which have traditionally been frequented
by people of all classes" (Miele and Murdoch 2002: 317). Slow Food seeks to
position food as a key constituent in the development and maintenance of
community. It seeks to de-center the identification of food with its status as a
commodity.
In economics, as opposed to anthropology, the role of food in providing
material subsistence overshadows its other functions. Food reproduces labor
to be sure. But food consumption also communicates ethnicity, regional
affiliation, values, aspirations, gender, and care. According to Slow Food
principles, the production and consumption of food involves choices that
have significant consequences for individuals, communities, and the environ?
ment. "The movement understands that every set of genes on its Ark of Taste
encodes not only a set of biological traits but a set of cultural practices, as
well, and in some cases a way of life" (Pollan 2003: 76).

PLEASURE AND POLITICS IN THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

The movement evolved to encompass three primary objectives: (1) education

of taste; (2) defending the right to material pleasure and conviviality; and (3)
preserving the survival of endangered agricultural products and practices
through the Ark of Taste.

Education of Taste

Slow Food promotes local and regional cuisines, produce, and foodways by
arguing that taste is a sensation capable of development. An enduring goal of
the organization is "to explore, describe and improve the culture of food, to
develop a proper education of taste and smell from childhood and to safeguard
and defend the agroindustrial heritage while respecting the cuisines of each
single country" (SFI (b)). The official "manifesto" announces, "Let us
rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading
effects of Fast Food" (SFI (e)). This focus on cultivating taste carries a distinctly
aristocratic tone. Yet, Slow Food has its roots in radical politics.
The movement's founder, Carlo Petrini, was born in the Piedmont region
of northern Italy. In the 1970s, as a sociology student, Petrini became
involved in radical politics. A guiding principle for Petrini and his associates
was to imbue political action with song and pleasure. Eating was a communal

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

activity and a way to combine education with sensory pleasure. In 1980, he

helped open a restaurant that served local "peasant" foods at reasonable
prices (Kummer 2002). This sparked an interest to discover local and regional
foods, wine, and cuisines. In 1987, Petrini helped publish a guide to Italian
wine, Gambero Rosso (Red Shrimp), as a supplement to the Communist
newspaper 77 Manifesto (Stille 2001: 21). Now Italy's authoritative food and
wine guide, Gambero Rosso is published under the auspices of the Slow Food
movement. The guide rates wineries and restaurants and, as such, has become
a valued arbiter of gastronomic quality in Italy. It now acts as an institutional
embodiment of socio-cultural values (Dolfsma 2002) surrounding the
production and consumption of food and wine. It not only reflects but helps
to constitute individual taste and culinary preferences.
In terms of taste education, the movement conceives of individual taste as a
manifestation of culture and society. This is not to deny that the sensation of
taste involves both physiological and social dimensions. The intensity with
which people taste foods differs. Yet, taste involves more than the abundance
or scarcity of papillae (taste buds) on the tongue. In everyday situations, the
experience of taste is embedded within a social and cultural milieu involving
habits, norms, rituals, and taboos. But, as Korsmeyer notes, "While it is true
that humans [from different cultures and religions] eat radically different
foods, of equal interest is the ability to craft one's taste preferences away from
the habitual. We can and often do expand our tastes, and we learn to make
subtle discriminations among foods that once seemed all alike.. .The ability to
educate one's palate is an almost uniquely human trait" (1999: 93).
Proponents of slow food seek to educate taste through exposure to local
and regional foodstuffs and through an appreciation of the linkage between
food choices and biodiversity.
A formal manifestation of the Slow Food commitment to taste education is
the creation of a university dedicated to developing the academic field of "eco
gastronomy". The University of Gastronomic Sciences, established in Italy in
the fall of 2004, trains professionals in the fields of gastronomy and agro
ecology. Both undergraduate- and graduate-level degrees will be awarded.
For example, the undergraduate program includes courses in culinary history,
sensory evaluation, history and geography of agricultural food systems, food
technology, anthropology of food, semiotics, nutrition and dietetics,
sociology of consumption, catering systems, and gastronomic tourism.
Participating faculty include, among others, feminist philosopher and
scientist Vandana Shiva, social and cultural historian Victoria de Grazia,
Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, wine expert Jancis Robinson, and
chef Alice Waters.

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

The University intends to diffuse knowledge of local and regional cuisine,

ecology, and sustainable agricultural practices through formal training and
education.

In a world where "specialities" and "typical products" are increasingly important in

raising the standards of the market, gastronomes will be able to call on a wealth of
knowledge to follow new businesses, design distribution outlets and advise the
restaurant trade. These key figures are destined to become true protagonists of food
culture.
(SFI (g))

Formal education will result in the creation of knowledge experts able to

influence the direction of food trends, especially in the restaurant and food
marketing sectors of the economy.
The education of taste also takes place less formally through local chapter
meetings. These convivia convene regularly to sample new foods, listen to
guest speakers, socialize, and conduct the business of the movement. While
human capital formation takes place in this environment through tastings and
seminars, cultural capital is also being acquired in these settings devoted to
living the philosophy of the Slow Food movement. Bourdieu (1984) refers to
cultural capital as the knowledge, practices and familiarity with the rules and
norms governing everyday life - including consumption behavior - within a
given social class. Taste, therefore, is an expression of one's group affiliation
as well as an individual predilection (Lupton 1996).

Pleasure and Conviviality

The foundation of slow food rests upon the modifier "slow". For slow food
proponents, modern industrialization contains a dark side: the insidious
nature of "time-space compression" (Harvey 1989). Technological advances
allow commodities to circulate at a much greater speed over much greater
distances. In the food sector this allows for the virtual elimination of seasonal
produce. Food buying and consuming can be released from its dependence on
nature. This triumph of modern transport not only disconnects consumers
from the local conditions of agricultural production but also affects the way in
which resources are allocated in food production (Petrini 2001a).2

2 Borge (2001) finds that from 1970 to 1990 the German economy witnessed a doubling of the distance over
which food was shipped, with no corollary rise in food consumption.

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

In Opposition to this trend, slow food philosophy focuses on the pleasures

of the table. The table represents material culture - the culture of kitchens and
food - and serves a metaphor for shared community. Emphasis on the
leisurely, conscious enjoyment of food and drink expands the concept of
consumption beyond that of physiological reproduction. For instance,
Bourdieu finds that food consumption "remains one of the few areas in
which the working classes explicitly challenge the legitimate art of living. In
the face of the new ethic of sobriety for the sake of slimness.. .peasants and
especially industrial workers maintain an ethic of convivial indulgence" (1984:
179). For slow food proponents, the pleasure of the table is seen as a key
element in cultural reproduction. This extends to the pleasure of the
commercial table. Slow Food holds that commercial food provision is
governed by the need to increase turnover and serve more customers per unit
of time. As a result, pleasure and hospitality are compromised (SFI (f)). The
goal is to disrupt the practices upon which fast food culture is constructed.
The acquisition of a refined sense of taste and an appreciation of food are
attributes of cultural capital. Individuals acquire and display material goods
as part of their frame of reference, classification scheme, or habitus (Bourdieu
1984, Lee 1993: 32). Food consumption patterns and cuisines are a signal of
class and group identification. The desire to resist the dominant culture of fast
food, the quest for obscure local and regional foods and cuisines that evoke a
cultural heritage are part of the constitution of habitus. While Bourdieu
provides us with a useful set of concepts his insistence that food choices
primarily reflect class affiliation appears too restrictive to account for the
multiplicity of forces that shape identity. The cultural capital acquired by
participants in the Slow Food movement signals that one has a rather
sophisticated palate, a love of food, and a respect for local cultures and
farming techniques that are light on the earth. Yet, in this regard, several
criticisms can be leveled against the movement: (1) adopting cultural capital
normally associated with upper-income or highly educated individuals
conveys elitism and an aesthetic sensibility that privileges symbolic use value
over material use value (Guthman 2002: 300); (2) the pleasure of the table
abstracts from the gendered division of household labor; (3) the quest for
artisan-produced, regional foods and support for antique varieties of corn,
apples, turkeys and other products can easily slip into a discourse of
authenticity bent on preserving peasant traditions (Fine et al. 1996, deCerteau
et al. 1998).
Southerton (2001) proposes that Simmel's notion of "taste communities"
be used to supplement Bourdieu. Taste communities reflect local, persona?
lized expressions of food preferences and desires that may deviate from class

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

based norms (Ferguson 1998). Cultural capital is a way of understanding and

appreciating certain foods, cuisines and local production methods without
reducing culture to class. A Slow Food convivium can be characterized as a
taste community in which individual taste is socially recognized and validated
through the elaboration of shared values (Dolfsma 2002). While one can
appreciate food as a solitary diner, the communal meal contributes to the
pleasure and enjoyment of the individual through the interplay of
individualism and solidarity (Simmel 1997[1910]). A set of social values -
respect for the integrity of the land and the local producer, sustainable use of
resources, diversity of agricultural produce and diverse ways of life,
conviviality, pride in one's craft - comes to be articulated through institutions
such as convivia, osteria, and producer-consumer networks.
As a producer of human and cultural capital, the Slow Food movement
presents us with a way of thinking about how consumption choices made by
an individual form part of an interdependent network within a social
economy. Individuals gain identity through their consumption of food. Slow
Food advances a philosophy in which taste can be developed as a form of
human capital and common consumption practices allow one to acquire a
form of cultural capital. However, the form of cultural capital acquired is not
simply the habitus of the aristocratic, wealthy, elite gourmand. Since 1996, the
defense of pleasure and the education of taste have been joined by a third,
more avowedly political, objective: the preservation of biodiversity through
the support of eco-agricultural practices - an Ark of Taste.

Ark of Taste: Eco-Agriculture and Craft Production

In 1996, Slow Food organized a conference in Turin, Italy entitled: "An Ark
of Taste to Save the Universe of Savors". The object was to find a way to
catalogue animal breeds, cheeses, meats, fruits, grains, and herbs threatened
with extinction due to consumer substitution with lower priced, standardized
products. The Ark is a direct challenge to the neutrality of the marketplace.
Slow Food President, Petrini, declares that, "It is our view that, rather than
pay homage to the logic of macroeconomics, we should operate within a
regional framework and promote new forms of'slow' production and supply"
(Petrini 2001b: 2). Petrini argues that the movement needs to persuade
consumers to value higher quality products and to "put an end to the
demagogy of price" (Petrini 2001b: 3).
The movement attempts to create a social economy around the
preservation of food as both a bearer of cultural heritage and an embodiment
of material pleasure. It proposes a plan for documenting a region's stock of

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

gastronomic assets. This includes the development of a rubric for identifying

foods typical or traditional of a particular region or locale. Endangered
products can be identified and their consumption promoted. A presidium
provides resources to assist with marketing, technical support, apprenticeship
training, and assistance in navigating governmental regulatory systems
(Kummer 2002). Endangered products can then be produced and marketed
to consumers. Restaurants are encouraged to adopt an endangered product
for inclusion on their menu (SFI (a)).
The goal is to create regional networks of agricultural production and
consumption. This would allow small-scale producers to continue to maintain
traditional production methods, methods that would otherwise be seen as
antiquated and inefficient. The older production methods comprise a cultural
heritage and while there is the danger of idealizing the toiling of laborers past,
to the extent that unique tastes and products can be produced only through
craft production techniques, Slow Food attempts to provide a market
rationale for the continued use of such technologies.
This network of producer-consumer relations relies on particular social
and cultural values that define the social economy envisioned by the Slow
Food movement. Take, for example, the need to develop trust as an element in
the successful establishment of local markets for endangered products (Portes
and Mooney 2002). A vexing problem for small-scale agriculture is the need to
conform to health and sanitation regulations. Some regulations were written
with large-scale producers in mind. As a result, compliance imposes large
financial burdens on small producers (e.g. Gintis 1989). Slow Food opposes
food regulations that favor large industrial producers (SFI (c)). Yet, this
introduces an added element of risk into food consumption. To ameliorate the
risk the Slow Food movement needs to build up trust between consumers and
producers. By promoting social contact between producers and consumers,
and making knowledge of the producer and production process as important
as knowledge of the food itself, Slow Food establishes a connection between
buying food and understanding and valuing the conditions under which it was
made.
In the slow food social economy, loyalty is used as a buffer against
vacillations in price and supply. Consumers who are committed to the
preservation of a local product or traditional cuisine are less likely to decrease
their demand when prices rise. A form of gift exchange develops between
buyer and seller (Offer 1997). Similarly, the producer will not likely switch
production or adopt industrial production techniques if either of these
strategies will adversely affect the quality of the food being produced and,
therefore, their reputation. But more than reputation may be involved.

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

Commitment and social bonds rooted in community loyalties may also be at

work. Commitment and loyalty are brought into the economic decision
making calculus in ways that may not be captured by utility maximization
(Etzioni 1986), voice, or exit strategies (Hirshman 1970). Compared with past
counter-cultural food movements (Belasco 1989) or the contemporary
organic milk market (Dupuis 2000), trust, bonds of community, commitment,
and solidarity - hallmarks of social capital - could make Slow Food less
susceptible to co-optation by industrial producers.
Table 1 illustrates the relationship between the forms of capital3 and Slow
Food initiatives. Particularly noteworthy is that the Slow Food has been able
to take an attribute normally associated with cultural capital - culinary taste -
and insert it into a social economy built around the preservation of unique
food, local cuisine, and cultural heritage. Cultural capital then comes to
encompass more than a signaling device for social status.
The Slow Food movement seeks to transform cultural capital into a form
of social capital. Knowledge and appreciation of food can be used to engage
in consumption practices that promote sustainable craft production within an
agricultural region representing a unique cultural heritage (Hendrickson and
Heffernan 2002: 364).
Table 1 does not indicate how Slow Food objectives are inter-related. For
example, human capital and cultural capital are closely related to one another
(Bourdieu 1984). Human capital and social capital are connected through the
interplay between education, employment, and community development.

Table 1: Social and Economic Manifestations of Slow Food Initiatives

Form of Asset Institutional Context Slow Food Initiative

Human Capital University of Gastronomic Taste Education
Sciences

Cultural Capital Convivia, Restaurants, Conviviality, Hospitality, Taste

Farm Markets Education

Social Capital Presidia, Ark of Taste Sustainable Agriculture,

Consumption Districts

3 While cognizant of the debate over the meaning of "social capital," I use it to foreground the social
relations that embed economic activity (Dolfsma 2001, Robison et ah 2002).

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 REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMY

Taste education that takes place informally through convivia, workshops, and
in Slow Food restaurants imparts knowledge of cuisine, local production
techniques, local producers, and unique, sometimes endangered, foods. But
this informal knowledge production can only go so far. Field et al. (2000) note
that informal, local knowledge may limit "access to a wide variety of global
knowledge sources and formally certified possession of codified skills" (Field
et al. 2000: 262). University education of gastronomic experts can help to
advance the slow food agenda through the preservation of knowledge about
food production techniques and local cuisines by embedding knowledge of
local systems of food production into a global framework. This knowledge
can be used to revitalize, develop, and sustain communities of producer
consumer networks. As Brown and Lauder (2000) argue, "Whereas the
emphasis on human capital leads to issues of investment in education,
training, and life-long learning, the emphasis on social capital extends the
policy framework to include urban regeneration and community networks"
(Brown and Lauder 2000: 228). Evidence of the social capital generated by
Slow Food can be seen in the recent advent of Slow Cities. Slow Cities are
municipalities that formally adopt economic development plans, transport
policies, and social reforms that are consistent with the philosophy of the
Slow Food movement ("Slow Cities" 2000). As such, Slow Cities demonstrate
the ways in which the Slow Food Movement can actively engage with a wider
community of alternative economic and social movements.

CONCLUSION

The Slow Food movement seeks the preservation of local foods and cuisines by
creating and strengthening networks of social relations between consumers and
producers. Slow food proponents argue for the radical rejection of fast-paced,
standardized food production embedded in systems of large-scale industrial
agriculture. The movement advances a claim to material pleasure through
consumption while simultaneously advocating a politics of eco-agriculture. It
offers a way to think about the dual role that both desire and resistance can play
in creating a politically active consumer movement. Through a case study of the
Slow Food movement I argue that this dual process of pleasure-seeking and
politicization is able to transform cultural capital - a taste for food and wine
usually associated with class, status, and conspicuous consumption - into
social capital. By embedding taste education in a social movement aimed at
creating local and regional networks of mutually sustaining producers and
consumers, the pleasures of the table become a form of resistance to corporate,
standardized, mass produced foods. In this case study we can see that while

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 THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT

food sustains physical bodies, shapes identities, and marks the boundaries of
taste communities, it can also form the basis for social and political movements
that seek to come to terms with desire and pleasure of consumption.
Furthermore, by attending to the complex social and cultural relations within
which consumption takes place, social economics helps us to identify those
spaces of consumption that can promote diverse, human-scale, and envir?
onmentally sustainable forms of economic life.

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