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| Ark of Taste |
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Manifesto
To protect the small purveyors of fine food from the deluge of industrial standardization; to ensure the survival of endangered animal breeds, cheeses, cold cuts, edible herbs - both spontaneous and cultivated - cereals and fruit; to promulgate taste education; to make a stand against obsessive worrying about hygienic matters, which kills the specific character of many kinds of production; to protect the right to pleasure.
As spokesmen for culture, the food and wine industry, scientific research, journalism, politics and the institutions, we hope to persuade like-minded people to join us in the pursuit of these objectives. By way of a response to the alarm raised by Slow Food, we are launching:
An Ark of Taste to Save the Universe of Flavors
The Ark of Taste is the result of an idea conceived by Slow Food. Today, thanks to support from representatives of the world of culture, scientific research, the food and wine industry, journalism and politics, this idea has turned into a project aimed at safeguarding and promoting small-scale fine food purveyors who are threatened by extinction. The project embraces both the scientific and the promotional sides of the issue.
From the scientific viewpoint we undertake to:
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define methods and criteria for research - in particular, outlining the very notion of gastronomic asset, typicality, tradition and endangered products |
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provide an ethno-botanical and historical characterization of cultivars, local breeds and products as a measure for the recognition of what is typical and/or traditional |
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promote scientific training of experts in the field at a national level |
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set up a networked data bank managed by a central body for collecting the data progressively obtained on cultivars, breeds, products, research, recipes, producers, restaurants and so on |
From a promotional viewpoint we undertake to:
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draw up and circulate a list of endangered products - known by the public at large and steeped in symbolic value - so that the struggle to defend them becomes as encompassing as possible |
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analyze these products from an organoleptic viewpoint, providing the names and addresses of the remaining producers, and advertise them through the mass-media and specialist publications so that the concept of protection goes hand in hand with that of economic return |
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invite consumers to purchase and eat these products, convinced as we are that extinction can be avoided only if they are fully reintroduced into the commercial/food circuit |
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dentify within each region a series of inns or taverns - to be awarded special recognition - that will become active regional promoters of the Ark products, using them on a daily basis in the preparation of their dishes |
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nvite major restaurants to select a specific Ark product as their "pet product", protecting and introducing it in certain dishes |
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launch a campaign throughout Italy so that each municipality "adopts" an endangered product, thus promoting its production and consumption |
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mplement in the near future a pilot project on a regional or sub-regional scale with a view to verifying and adjusting methods, schedules and procedures for the realization of the overall project |
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promote projects aimed at teaching taste to young people right from school age, with a view to developing people's organoleptic faculties so that they can recognize quality products and draw the utmost pleasure from them |
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prod national institutions into considering the safeguarding of these products - gastronomic assets in general, and not just those in danger - as a major goal for the economy and integral part of Italy's cultural identity |
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associate with similar projects throughout Europe, convinced as we are that protecting typical and/or traditional quality food and agricultural products must become a transnational operation, given the fact that markets and strategies are growing increasingly globalized and standardized. |
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