This post is shared in my capacity as the social media manager for Farms Not Factories. Farms Not Factories does not currently have its own Substack, and because Slow Food UK does, I’m sharing this month’s featured film here so Shane Holland’s work, and the work happening through Slow Food and Borough Market, reaches more people. Any views expressed in the film belong to the speakers, and I’m sharing it because I think it deserves to be seen.
Shane Holland grew up on the clifftops of Cornwall in a food and farming community, then went to London as a student to study medicine. In London, he noticed what he’d lost, the quality and taste of real local food.
Reflecting on the quality and taste of the food he had left behind in Cornwall, compared to what he was eating in London, he decided to abandon medicine and devote his life to improving the way we think of food, to value local, seasonal vegetables, grains, fruits, meat and seafood from local producers. Shane’s wish to connect people with artisan farmers and producers led him to the Slow Food movement which was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 in the aftermath of a campaign against the opening of a McDonalds near the Spanish Steps in Rome, and it has since spread worldwide. Its message is simple, food should be hugely valued, grown by farmers who are closely connected with their land, soils and animals, and prepared with care and respect for the local food heritage.
He is now the Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK and Chairman of Borough Market where many of the stallholders trade under the Slow Food Snail emblem which guarantees ethical, agro-ecological and high animal welfare food produced by small-scale, artisan farmers.
“So often we think of food as being about calories or macronutrients. They’re important, but there’s so much more to be gained from sharing food around the table, sharing food with someone that we love and thinking about where our food comes from. What we really need to do is to get back to actually supporting our farmers, and we do that by eating genuinely local, genuinely seasonal food. If we do that, it’s going to be better for our health, it’s going to be better for the planet.”
On 22 May Slow Food announced that Carlo Petrini had passed away at his home in Bra, Piedmont, Northern Italy, the ancient market town surrounded by small farms, terraces and wooded hillsides where he was born and from where he inspired the Slow Food Movement into a worldwide campaign for locally produced, healthy and traditionally prepared food.
Watch and share the film. Join the Slow Food movement - Seek out local, seasonal food from farm shops, farmers’ markets or online hubs. Choose a connection with your food while keeping money in local communities.
