|
|
|
| Ark of Taste |
|
The story
Slow Food founded the Ark of Taste in 1996 for the first Salone del Gusto in Turin. A year later the project's objectives were drawn up in the Ark of Taste Manifesto.
The idea of borrowing this Biblical metaphor and introducing it to the world of food dates from 1996, when a handful of intellectuals drafted the Ark's official Manifesto, in the midst of the Nebbiolo and Barbera vineyards at Serralunga d’Alba, a winemaking town in Piedmont.
The first list of products was compiled in an episodic, almost random fashion. "As there is a long, stormy voyage ahead of us,"wrote Carlo Petrini at the time, "there's a certain amount of confusion about this floating edifice. Some speak of selection criteria, some humbly bring a single cheese that is especially dear, while others extend the discussion to include the natural order itself, modified genes and their depraved engineers".
In winter 1999, the newly created Scientific Ark Commission for the Italian Ark identified the criteria for selection and inclusion in the Slow Food Ark of Taste. With these criteria, the work began, and the Italian Ark soon swelled to include nearly 500 products. Commissions were set up in many other countries and began to seek out and catalog new products. First off the mark were the Americans and Germans, followed by the Swiss, the Dutch, the French and others.
On October 26, 2002, all these experiences fused together at the Salone del Gusto in the founding meeting for the International Ark Commission.
At this meeting, the criteria for Slow Food Arks around the world were approved, marking a new phase. The Ark of Taste is ever more an international project, and a resource for agricultural biodiversity around the world. |
|
|
|
|
