Slow Food’s Ark of Taste has cataloged hundreds of extraordinary
products from around the world. This project has made an important
contribution to the documentation of the existence of diverse
traditional foods, but it was not enough to guarantee their
survival. For this reason, Slow Food has created the Presidia,
the working arm of the 'Ark of Taste.’
If Ark products can have an economic impact, they can be saved
from extinction. This is the simple reasoning behind the Presidia;
small projects to assist groups of artisan producers. Sometimes,
it takes just a little to save an artisan food; it’s
enough to bring together producers, help them coordinate marketing
and promotion, and establish quality and authenticity standards
for their product. Other times, when the production of an
artisan food is closer to the brink, it takes more: building
a slaughterhouse, an oven, or reconstructing crumbling farmhouse
walls. Slow Food Presidia work in different ways, but the
goals remain constant: to promote artisan products; to stabilize
production techniques; to establish stringent production standards
and, above all, to guarantee a viable future for traditional
foods.
The Presidia products have not only conquered cooks and gourmets,
but have won over everyday consumers as well. The success
of the Presidia has been highly esteemed, but the most important
result of the project is that it has proven that consumers
are willing to pay fair prices for Ark products, and that
their production can be an economically viable activity.