BEING the only provincial trade fair that has survived 31 years of annual displays, the Negros Trade Fair continues to surpass each year’s exhibit. Organized by the Association of Negros Producers, it promotes not only the latest hand made products from Negros, but it is also an approach to uphold the traditional. At the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City, where it is still ongoing, there is a section dedicated to Slow Food.
What is the Slow Food Philosophy?
Everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. It opposes the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture. The Slow Food association believes in the concept of neo-gastronomy – recognition of the strong connections between plate, planet, people, and culture.
Their vision is a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet and its mission is promoting good, clean and fair food for all.
Slow Food’s approach to agriculture, food production, and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles:
Good – a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture; Clean – food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; Fair – accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions, and pay for small-scale producers.
Slow food is the exact antithesis of fast food.
Doreen Gamboa-Fernandez on Slow Food, says: “Fast Food is a necessary adjunct to the fast life – where parents have jobs and no time to cook, when even children are in a rush. But losing Slow Food would be losing traditions, delicacies, peasant foods that “were brilliant strategies to stave off hunger and contain worlds of knowledge about intelligent use of the environment.”
So if you want to know more about Slow Food, visit the Negros Trade at the Glorietta. Also you get to see many interesting personalities and great finds!