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Cittaslow / Slow Food Movement

Rete Internazionale delle città del buon vivere

image by Ivan Sache, 29 December 2009

About Cittaslow
Slow Food flag

See also:

International Organizations

About Cittaslow

The official spelling of the association's name is "Cittaslow", the short form of "Cittaslow - Rete Internazionale delle città del buon vivere" (Cittaslow - International network of towns where quality of life is important"). Its official presentation is: "The Movement of cittaslow was born in 1999 through the Paolo Saturnini’s brilliant intuition, past Mayor of Greve in Chianti, a little town of Tuscany.

The new idea of considering the town itself and thinking of a different way of development, based on the improving of life quality, moved him to spread his thoughts all over our country. Firstly his ideals were endorsed by Mayors of towns of Bra (Francesco Guida), Orvieto (Stefano Cimicchi) and Positano (Domenico Marrone) as well as they met later the president of slow food Carlo Petrini’s support. The main goal of cittaslow was, and still is today, to enlarge the philosophy of Slow Food to local communities and to government of towns, applying the concepts of ecogastronomy at practice of everyday life.

Municipalities which join the association are motivated by curious people of a recovered time, where man is still protagonist of the slow and healthy succession of seasons, respectful of citizens’ health, the authenticity of products and good food, rich of fascinating craft traditions of valuable works of art, squares, theaters, shops, cafés, restaurants, places of the spirit and unspoiled landscapes, characterized by spontaneity of religious rites, respect of traditions through the joy of a slow and quiet living."
http://www.cittaslow.net/index.php?method=section&id=2012&title=Association

The preamble of the association's international charter says: "The Association will adopt its own trademark portraying “an orange coloured snail bearing a crown of modern and historical buildings” (as per Attachment C to the present Charter): integral part of the trademark will be the wording “Cittaslow Rete Internazionale delle città del buon vivere."
http://www.cittaslow.net/download/DocumentiUfficiali/2009/newcharter[1].pdf

The flag of the association, as presented in Wolfville, is white with the building-crowned snail and the short name of the association, its complete name being omitted. The mother association "Slow Food" also uses an orange snail on its logo.
http://www.slowfood.it

Ivan Sache, 29 December 2009

Slow Food flag

image by Jan Mertens, 30 December 2009

I found a similar flag last year at http://www.valsesianinelmondo.it/dblog/storico.asp?s=Appuntamenti+enogastronomici. Direct link to white flag with red snail and copyrighted name “Slow Food” in black: http://www.valsesianinelmondo.it/public/file/bandiera%20Slow%20Food.jpg. This apparently older (2007) variant was also sighted at http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01362/lady_slow_food_1362716c.jpg.
Jan Mertens, 30 December 2009

"Slow Food" emerged in 1986 as "Arcigola", founded by 62 people from Bra, Serralunga d'Alba and Barolo (Piedmont, Italy). In 1989, delegates from 15 countries gathered in Paris and signed the Slow Food Manifesto. The first international Slow Food Congress was held the next year at Venice (Italy), while Slow Food was constituted a legal entity in 1996. The International Statutes of Slow Food were approved by the 5th International Congress of the organization, held at Puebla (Mexico), 8-11 November 2007. Slow Food has today more than 100,000 members grouped in over 1,000 local chapters called "convivia" (defined in Articles 21-30 of the Statutes).

The mission of Slow Food is (see more details in Article 3 of the Statutes): " to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives." Slow Food is defined as: "Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work."
http://www.slowfood.com
http://www.slowfood.com/slowftp/eng/STATUTE_ENG.pdf - International Statutes (official translation of the Italian original text)

According to the rules of uses of the logo, "The shape of the snail and the proportions between the script and the snail cannot be changed. There are no restrictions on the color of the snail. The font of the "Slow Food" name is Roman Bauer Bodoni. The use of this logo must be always be authorized by the International Board of Directors." Therefore, the flag with the red snail is not an "early variant" but an acceptable variant. The logo shown on the top of the organization's statutes indeed portrays the red snail.
http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/logo_use.lasso

Additional additional sighting, the flag, with red snail, hoisted at Bra, the cradle town of the organization: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jan-tore/2989084149 (photo taken by Jan-Torre Egge on 22 October 2008, contributed to Flickr on 31 October 2008)
Ivan Sache, 31 December 2009