This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food Araba-Vitoria (Spain)
The interviewee refers as a critical turning point in the history Slow Food Araba-Vitoria convivium the organisation of the “I Meeting on Civism & Food of Vitoria-Gasteiz” held in 2007 in the neighbourhood of Ibaiondo, the same place where also in 2007 Slow Food launched its first school garden. The Meeting on Civism & Food is both an educational and dissemination activity, organised in Vitoria Gasteiz but with a provincial scope. The CTP (turning point) has as antecedent the organisation of a market of both organic and local products, together with some exhibitions, conferences and talks which gathered together citizens around projects related to agroecology, conscious and responsible consumption, the local gastronomy and health. These Meetings facilitate dialogue between citizens from Álava and representatives of the agricultural sector of the region, those keeping the rural alive:
It is a meeting that has to do with land, with the production systems, with producers. We also bring scientists to share new ideas, who talk to us about the regenerative culture, about a lot of things we have heard of but we do not know in depth. For the more experienced farmers the meeting is useful for moving forward in this line of having and organic and sustainable production. For new people, these meetings are useful for start working differently. The meeting also puts together city-slickers and producers. We [Slow Food] organise Labs of Taste. And we do so jointly with other associations, as the Zahorra Foundation, which has disappeared and whose members have joined Slow Food now
This project has been referred as a turning point for Slow Food Araba for two main reasons. First, because it has served as a connection with others organizations within the city; those which also work on healthy and sustainable food and production. Since the 1st Meeting held in 2007, Slow Food has been increasingly incorporating many organisations from the city for the coordination of the meeting (public administrations, agrarian unions, citizen organisations), and have established trust relationships that would afterwards materialize in new projects, as the urban gardens of Vitoria-Gasteiz; the school gardens project, etc.
Second, the VII Meeting on Civism & Food of Vitoria-Gasteiz included already a round table for designing and promoting “the Food Strategy of Vitoria-Gasteiz”. The goal of Slow Food and the rest of initiatives involved was “the establishment of a more sustainable food system through the creation of production and consumption systems which were of proximity, sustainable and fair.”
From then on, the Council of Vitoria undertook the commitment to start a participatory process for designing the food strategy, and whose results would be presented in September, 2016, in the framework of the X Meeting on Civism & Food of Vitoria-Gasteiz. This initiative has allowed Slow Food to partially spread its discourse at the local level, it has increased their capacity for networking – with public but also private organisations- and it has fostered the social impact of the movement. The process of building the Strategy has raised high expectations; it is still ongoing, and the measures within it are expected to start being implemented within the next years.
The Meeting on Civism & Food was originally promoted by Slow Food Araba Vitoria in collaboration with a local, non-profit initiative -Foundation Zahorra- with extensive experience in the field of responsible consumption and ecological production. Throughout the nine editions the Meeting accounts, new organisations have been incorporated to the coordination of it, as it has been the case of the the union of farmers from Araba (UAGA) and the Municipal Environmental Education Center. Besides, little by little, the meeting has started to receive funding from entities such as the Provincial Council of Araba, the Basque Government, the City of Vitoria-Gasteiz or the IDF Foundation.
As explained in the interview, the aim of Slow Food and the Zahorra Foundation, when they planned the first meeting, was to create a space for debate and learning where different sectors related to food, as producers, consumers, public institutions, would meet and debate on the challenges of sustainable agriculture, on the experiences and innovations that could contribute to the sustainability of agriculture in Araba and doing so guided by scientists (experts) and producers themselves ("the land intellectuals").
You must create forums where you attract people and make them take part. In order to Meeting on Civism & Food in Vitoria we involved the City Council, the University of the Basque Country and we started working together. And in the end we elaborated a manifesto in which we stated what were our demands regarding food issues. We also had the support of political parties; of those in power now and which were before in the opposition and supported us then. And this also suits them
The spatial context of the meeting is mainly the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, where Slow Food Araba Vitoria is based. Therefore, the main institutions that promote or collaborate in the organization of the meeting are local. Among other things, one of the features that distinguish the citizens from Vitoria, their high level of environmental awareness, has contributed to the success of the event. The municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz has promoted for two decades a culture of sustainability, through the implementation of the Local Agenda 21 (1996).
The study of Slow Food Araba (Dumitru et al, 2016[1]) shows a high level of interest among the citizens regarding ecological consumption, as it is evidenced by their high levels of involvement in organizations responsible consumption (as Bioalai, Slow Food, etc.).
[1] Dumitru, A., Lema-Blanco, I., Kunze, I. & García-Mira, R. (2016). The Slow Food Movement, A case-study report. TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169.
The events related to this turning point are directly connected with the promotion of a culture of sustainable and healthy eating within the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The fact that the Meeting on Civism & Food is now a consolidated event within the city, with over 9 editions, and that was held in several neighbourhoods of the city, has allowed that more and more people and groups are now involved in the programming of the meeting activities. The training activities planned have allowed local producers to know innovations and experiences that have strengthened and encouraged his work when in the field, as well as it has brought the city and rural areas of Araba closer. Holding a farmers' market during the Civism & Food meeting has given way to the consolidation of a market for organic producers held on a weekly basis in the surroundings of the main Market in Vitoria-Gasteiz[1].
Also, the good experience of the Meeting on Civism & Food has enabled Slow Food Araba Vitoria gaining reputation and social influence. As a result, the institutions from Araba have delegated into Slow Food the responsivity for organizing the St. James Fair on July 25, in the city center. The first edition of the St. James Agriculture-Livestock Fair was held in July 2010. Slow Food has been the promoter of it, establishing a set of Slow criteria (organic production, proximity, giving priority to traditional products) for the food demonstrations and sale of food. Also, the activity received financial support from a local financial institution (Kutxa Bank).
The St. James Fair is a very important display screen for Slow Food Araba, where more than 20,000 people visit us. In a city of 280,000, it is a very important figure. Slow Food takes part in the fair, organizing the workshops. Producers bring the livestock, machinery, and people already know what Slow Food is. We have the main tent, which is 250 m², where only SF workshops, tastings, workshops for children, cooking workshops are organised. All the authorities visit our stand, even the Lehendakari [President of the Regional Government] In the end all this is disseminated by the media; it is disseminated by the people who were in these fairs. We have the support of the Kutxa Foundation
A direct consequence of the Meeting on Civism & Food is the participatory process - driven since 2015 by the City of Vitoria-Gasteiz- for the development of a Sustainable Agri-Food Strategy (coordinated by the Municipal Study Center for the Environment). This initiative, which aims to define, among different social agents of the city, a sustainable agri-food strategy, follows a proposal made in the framework of the Meeting on Civism & Food, as explained by the interviewee:
The Meeting on Civism & Food proposed initially to the City Council to create a platform for channelling sustainable food actions in our city and to establish their guidelines. Some of the work was finished last year and this year have returned to start meetings with all these sectors
Slow Food has participated in the discussion groups that have addressed these issues, trying to incorporate the Slow philosophy into public policy through the agri-food strategy for the city. The strategy includes better urban planning (rural soil protection); a more sustainable public management of food; promoting healthier consumption habits and which are in line with local food production pace; and the use of municipal rural properties for the launch of organic gardens. These objectives are reflected in the manifesto "I consume local" signed by 21 local organizations (dated 09/15/2015):
The Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz has recently developed a manifesto for the consumption and the local market, with 21 associations, traders, businessmen, and also Slow Food adhered. Of course, we also wanted to participate in all of this (...) The long-term goal is to have a tool at the local level encompassing not the local and sustainably grown or manufactured products but including also school feeding, nursing homes, hospitals. That somehow this tool sets the gastronomic and production guidelines for our territory
[1] In September, 2008 the first organic and proximity market in Araba, the “Earth Market”, with organic producers, in Álava.
The respondent has not perceived any objection or contestation against the work that has been developed regarding the turning point. In this sense, there is considerable internal consensus among partners and members of the convivium as well as regarding the activities developed and their relationship with institutions. At the annual Slow Food meetings, where many of the members are involved nor criticism of the work done is perceived.
From an external point of view, the respondent has not received criticism of the work of Slow Food neither has him undergone major disagreements. The press also has an important role, reporting regularly -and with a positive view- on the convivium activities. Slow Food attributes the positive image of the association to its conciliatory role - without a radical or dogmatic discourse- and its intermediary role, acting as a link between different social organizations working in the field of food or biodiversity conservation:
There are no criticisms, or at least these are not raised. When you become trendy, nobody criticizes you openly. In society there are people for and people against. We have brought together small groups. Associations, which were working on this line, such as environmental organizations and that somehow we managed to work together with. Here in Araba there are two environmental associations. They were initially together. They broke apart, I assume for ideological reasons. They had agreements with different institutions. They hardly spoke to each other. And we have achieved that both the president of the one and the president of the other are members of Slow Food. And we have all sat at the same table. We've achieved that some of the more radical positions that these associations have become softer. There is no need to change their goals, their principles. But they are more sympathetic with other associations like ours through which we are trying to reach more people and convince them
The Slow Food Araba Vitoria convivium has identified the organization of the I Meeting on Civism & Food as one of the highlights of the association and this is reflected when different respondents make a list of key moments in the history of the convivium. The respondent reflects on the extent and impact of the activity and distinguishes between the expected interest among the local agri-food initiatives and the influence it had finally at the local level. Thus the aim of the Meeting on Civism & Food was to create a space – non-existent up to that moment- for the promotion of local and organic farming, and which would serve as contact points between consumers and producers and which would also become a forum for debate and knowledge, with continuity over time.
The reception by the public of the first editions was not very good, but its popularity increased over time, as the association itself gained recognition and media presence. According to the respondent, the objectives of the activity have been met, as expected, given the previous experience that Slow Food Araba Vitoria had, for example, with the organization of the First Cultural Days in Defense of Food and Gastronomic Heritage (2006).
The meeting initially served for this. It currently serves for gathering all these associations and institutions in a forum that has nothing to do with the institution to discuss these issues and also to publicize all those experiences that a small association would have no ability to organize and that where them can present their projects, to make contacts, for knowing what they are doing; where they can have more information. And regarding civil society, the meeting gives them the opportunity to be in closer contact with the primary sector; with those associations that will end afterwards sitting at a table to do something more serious
However, the members of Slow Food had not anticipated the importance that the civism-food meetings have now, as spaces for discussion of a strategy for sustainable food within the city of Vitoria. In this sense, the interviewee describes the process – still ongoing- as slow and not without obstacles, and whose results will be known or perceived in a few years:
The long-term goal is to have a tool at the local level encompassing not the local and sustainably grown or manufactured products but including also school feeding, nursing homes, hospitals. That somehow, this tool sets the gastronomic and production guidelines for our territory. It seems this is possible. Inside the council there is a very important section, with qualified personnel, responsible for launching the project. But it will not be easy. And it will be hard making them do it in the way we want. But this is a good start. We really have to talk to lots of actors, in order to achieve it. The educational activity is competence of the regional government. The nursing homes are either competence of the provincial or local governments. But having a regulation that establishes the basic points may be feasible. Minimums, which are not so minimal that everyone does what he wants, as now
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