Slow Food in the Nordic Countries, or Slow Food i Norden, is a network of the Slow Food chapters (convivia) and communities through all the Nordic Countries and regions, including as well as the 5 Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) the Feroe Islands, Greenland, Åland and Sápmi.
Our story:
The first ideas of a Slow Food network in the Nordic Countries were born in 2009 where delegates of the different chapters met in Copenhagen, in the office of the Nordic Council of Ministers to present our activities, as a step following the Nordic meetings at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. (Picture group ) These meetings went on and showed that there was a real demand for a more active network in the region and Carlo Petrini met the delegates in 2010 during a visit to Copenhagen and Sweden where the first Indigenous People Terra Madre was hold in Jokkmokk in 2011. A board was elected in 2012 and Katrine Klinken from Denmark was the first Chairman – and Slow Food in the Nordic Countries was registered in Denmark in 2013 after a meeting in Ulvik (Norway) where the convivia of Slow Food Hardanger hosted Slow Food members of the region in the school of Hjeltnes, which was preparing to be a Slow Food Education Center.
The board met the following years and decided to send an application for funding to the Nordic Council of Ministers to hold Terra Madre Nordic for the first time in 2018, in Copenhagen. The application was successful and a large audience from all over the region came to Denmark in May 2018, producers, young people welcomed by Slow Food Youth, foodies joining at seminars, tastings, conferences and more. A Manifesto was published at a general meeting during Terra Madre Nordic, recalling our ideals, aims and the way to get them through. At the following Terra Madre in Torino, the delegates from the Nordic Countries met once again and agreed to hold the next Terra Madre Nordic in Stockholm in the fall of 2020. Then came Covid… Terra Madre Nordic is now planned to be during the fall 2022.
Our goals:
Our mail goal is to strengthen the Slow Food network in the Nordic Countries – „think global, act local“ for the priorities of Slow Food worldwise to be heard and applied in the Nordic region. These priorities are:
Biodiversity – with the Ark of Taste, the Presidia, the Cooks‘ Alliance, the Earth Markets and the communities throughout the region
Education – which is one of the most important chapter for Children as well as in Specialised and vocational schools, or Higher Education whether it is Universities (and the University of Gastronomic Sciences UNISG in Pollenzo)
Advocacy – being part of the evolution of the food systems throughout the worls: in Europe with Slow Food office in Brussels, in the USA with intervention at all levels, local, national, internationallike the UN, and everywhere else in all continents. The Nordic Countries are all an active partner in the think tasks concerning the „Future of Food“ and Slow Food should have a clear and strong voice, particularely in the projects within the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Slow Food Terminology.
What do we call Presidia? Ark of Taste? Slow Food Community? Terra Madre? Convivia?
Here are the main terms used by Slow Food all over the world with their explanation:
Slow Food terminology
Contacts:
Dominique Plédel Jónsson, chair (Jan. 2020) Iceland
dominique (at) simnet.is
Hilde Bergebakken Norway
hilde.bergebakken (at) roros.net
Minna Junttila Finland
minna.e.junttila (at) gmail.com
Pål Drønen cashier Norway
skrulen (at) gmail.com
Philip Linander Sweden
philip_linander (at) hotmail.com
Sunniva Mortensen Gudmundsson Feroe Islands
sunnivagm (at) gmail.com
Viola Capriola Denmark
capriola.viola (at) gmail.com