University of Iowa

Iowa Research Online

Theses and Dissertations

2011

Savoring ideology: an ethnography of production and consumption in Slow Food's Italy

Rachel Anne Horner Brackett
University of Iowa

Copyright 2011 Rachel Anne Horner Brackett This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2715 Recommended Citation
Horner Brackett, Rachel Anne. "Savoring ideology: an ethnography of production and consumption in Slow Food's Italy." dissertation, University of Iowa, 2011. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2715.

Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons

SAVORING IDEOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN SLOW FOOD'S ITALY

by Rachel Anne Horner Brackett

An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa December 2011 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Erica S. Prussing

ABSTRACT With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Foods rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer, complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement. This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo (farm-based tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at conferencesand sometimes even at the tablebut it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms. Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Foods rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of societys relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change.

2 Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date

SAVORING IDEOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN SLOW FOOD'S ITALY

by Rachel Anne Horner Brackett

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa December 2011 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Erica S. Prussing

Copyright by RACHEL ANNE HORNER BRACKETT 2011 All Rights Reserved

Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL _______________________ PH.D. THESIS _______________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Rachel Anne Horner Brackett has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology at the December 2011 graduation. Thesis Committee: ___________________________________ Erica S. Prussing, Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Mac Marshall ___________________________________ Rudolf Colloredo-Mansfeld ___________________________________ Margaret Beck ___________________________________ Doris Witt

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was made possible with the support of numerous individuals and organizations. First, I am indebted to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, which made my research in Italy financially feasible. Additional funding for various stages of this research came from several sources at the University of Iowa, including the Graduate College Summer Fellowship, the T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship, the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research Graduate Student Travel Grant, and the Department of Anthropology Summer Research Fellowship. I was also fortunate to receive a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship from the United States Department of Education to fine tune my Italian language skills. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to conduct research at the Tenuta di Spannocchia, the most beautiful field site on earth. I am beholden to the Spannocchia Foundation for cooperation on this project . To Spannocchias employees, interns, guests, volunteers, and proprietors: thank you for welcoming me, for sharing meals and stories with me, and for being the wonderful individuals you are. I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with. Thank you to my advisor and mentor, Erica Prussing, for pushing me onward through this intellectual journey. I am grateful to my entire committee for providing valuable feedback on my work. Special thanks go to Mac Marshall, who first encouraged my interest in food and agriculture as a thesis topic. I also recognize Beverly Poduska and Shari Knight for their ongoing administrative support. My colleagues and friends at the University of Iowa (in anthropology, public health, and beyond) provided encouraging words and inestimable advice over the past ten years. I am particularly grateful for the long-term friendship and support of Kenda Stewart, my confidante and travel companion, who stood by me since day one of graduate school.

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Last but certainly not least, I am humbled by the love and support of my family. In particular, I am amazed by the unwavering support of my parents, Mark and Michele Horner, in all of my academic endeavors over the years. Thank you for your love and encouragement. Equally astounding is the boundless love and enthusiasm of my children, Arys and Dell Brackett. Thank you for reminding me, every day, what is truly important in life. Finally, I acknowledge my husband, Kelcey Brackett, who had no idea what he was getting into when he married an academic. Thank you, Kelcey, for your steadfast support of my work (both economic and psychological), your patience with me as a human being, and your ability to direct me toward humor and joy in all things.

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ABSTRACT With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Foods rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer, complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement. This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo (farm-based tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at conferencesand sometimes even at the tablebut it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms. Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Foods rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of societys relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 The Rise of Slow Food .................................................................................. 4 Situating Slow Food ...................................................................................... 8 Slow Food Ideology ...................................................................................... 9 Consumption and New Social Movements .................................................. 11 Chapter Outlines ......................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER ONE: SITUATING SLOW FOOD .............................................................. 18 Portrait One: Sofias perspective on Slow Food........................................... 18 Framing Consumer Distinction .................................................................... 20 False Dichotomies ....................................................................................... 24 Locating Slow Food .................................................................................... 26 Spannocchia ................................................................................................ 28 Why Tuscany? ............................................................................................ 31 Local Nostalgia, Global Identity .................................................................. 33 CHAPTER TWO: INFORMING TASTE ...................................................................... 41 Salone del Gusto ......................................................................................... 41 A Brief History of Salone del Gusto ............................................................ 42 Navigating the Slow network ...................................................................... 45 The Halls of Taste ....................................................................................... 47 The Case of Lardo....................................................................................... 50 Taste Re-education ...................................................................................... 53 Retraining the Senses: Biodynamic Wine ............................................. 55 Rethinking Terroir via Prosciutto ......................................................... 57 Corporate Co-Producers? ............................................................................ 59 Corporate Sponsors .............................................................................. 61 Negotiating Sponsorship ...................................................................... 65 Making a Pig Smell Like a Rose........................................................... 67 Beyond Greenwashing: Alternative Explanations ..................................... 69 CHAPTER THREE: CREATING FOOD IN TUSCANY .............................................. 72 Portrait Two: Brynn .................................................................................... 72 Locating Slow Food Producers .................................................................... 74 The History of Spannocchia ........................................................................ 80 Translating Tradition: The Cookbook .......................................................... 85 Cooking with Loredana ............................................................................... 88 Saperi e Sapori (Knowledge and Taste) ...................................................... 91 Nostra Cena (Our Dinner) ........................................................................... 94 Slow Food at Spannocchia .......................................................................... 96 The Most Italian of Meals ........................................................................... 99

CHAPTER FOUR: (CO-) PRODUCTION AT SPANNOCCHIA ................................ 102 Portrait Three: Gavin the Intern ................................................................. 102 Internships at Spannocchia ........................................................................ 106 Organizing Labor ...................................................................................... 108 Everyday Work ......................................................................................... 110 Realities of Co-Production ........................................................................ 113 Portrait Four: Giuseppe, the farmhand ....................................................... 114 The Anthropologist as Co-Producer .......................................................... 116 A Word of Warning .................................................................................. 119 The Transformation Kitchen ..................................................................... 120 Butchering ................................................................................................ 124 Salumi versus Salame ................................................................................ 127 Le Muffe (The Molds) ............................................................................... 132 CHAPTER FIVE: THE CINTA SENESE.................................................................... 136 Eat It to Save It ......................................................................................... 136 A Truly Tuscan Pig ................................................................................... 138 Emphasizing Locality Through EU Standards ........................................... 143 The Trouble with Labels ........................................................................... 147 The Ark of Taste ....................................................................................... 152 CHAPTER SIX: PRODUCERS IN THE MARKET .................................................... 157 Portrait Five: Riccio .................................................................................. 157 The Sovicille Market ................................................................................. 160 The Casino di Roma.................................................................................. 166 Shifting Roles of Production ..................................................................... 173 A Return to Turin: Terra Madre ................................................................ 175 Fetishizing Cultural Diversity.................................................................... 180 Finding a Middle Ground .......................................................................... 186 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 188 Pleasure and Politics ................................................................................. 189 Shifting Fields ........................................................................................... 191 Future Directions ...................................................................................... 193 APPENDIX A: SALUMI PROCESSING AT SPANNOCCHIA.................................. 197 APPENDIX B: ARK OF TASTE GUIDELINES......................................................... 200 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 203

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 San Francisco Victory Garden ......................................................................... 19 Figure 2 Postcard image; Image courtesy of Instituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani .................................................................................................................. 38 Figure 3 "Map" of the Slow Food network .................................................................... 45 Figure 4 Buono, Pulito e Guisto: Good, Clean and Fair ................................................. 47 Figure 5 Selling salumi products from Sicily ................................................................ 52 Figure 6 Slow Food branded items for sale at Salone del Gusto 2004; Image courtesy of Slow Food International ...................................................................... 60 Figure 7 2006 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth ................................................................... 62 Figure 8 2008 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth ................................................................... 62 Figure 9 2006 Lavazza coffee booth ............................................................................. 63 Figure 10 2006 Prosciutto di San Daniele stand ............................................................ 66 Figure 11 2006 Rosa handout; Image courtesy of Prosciutto Rosa ................................ 68 Figure 12 Aerial view of Spannocchia; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation............................................................................................................ 76 Figure 13 Spannocchia's 12th Century tower ................................................................ 81 Figure 14 Delfino Cinelli and Frances Hartz; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation............................................................................................................ 84 Figure 15 Young Loredana at Spannocchia, circa 1950; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation ....................................................................................... 89 Figure 16 Graziella at work in the kitchen..................................................................... 92 Figure 17 Publicity photo with Slow Food Siena convivium leaders, Spannocchia estate managers and workers. All of the foods pictured were produced on the estate; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation. ......................................... 97 Figure 18 Unloading a slaughtered hog ....................................................................... 117 Figure 19 Making salame in the Transformation Kitchen ............................................ 123 Figure 20 Piero stirs the cauldron................................................................................ 129 Figure 21 Straining meat and bones from the brine in the cauldron ............................. 130 Figure 22 Slicing meat for sopressata.......................................................................... 130 vii

Figure 23 Putting the spiced meat mixture into casings ............................................... 131 Figure 24 Gelatin forms on the exterior of freshly packaged sopressata ...................... 131 Figure 25 Sliced buristo .............................................................................................. 132 Figure 26 Racks of curing salame in the Stagionatura, with more aged products covered in the desirable white muffa hanging on the lower racks ........................ 133 Figure 27 Cinta Senese breeding sows ........................................................................ 138 Figure 28 Detail of Lorenzetti fresco; Image courtesy of www.cintasenese.blogspot.com........................................................................... 141 Figure 29 The red Consortium labels contain serial numbers for traceability to the point of origin. The brown paper labels from Spannocchia list the ingredients and date of production, as well as contact information for the estate. ................... 148 Figure 30 Labeling for Presidia products .................................................................... 153 Figure 31 Cinta Senese producer at Salone del Gusto .................................................. 154 Figure 32 Cinta Senese statue in Sovicille ................................................................... 160 Figure 33 Riccio slicing salumi products at market ..................................................... 163 Figure 34 Delegate check-in ....................................................................................... 177 Figure 35 Peruvian delegates at Terra Madre .............................................................. 180 Figure 36 African delegate in "traditional" attire, Image courtesy of Slow Food International........................................................................................................ 183 Figure 37 Terra Madre sign at Turin subway stop ....................................................... 185

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INTRODUCTION Slow Food reconceptualizes everyday food choices as subversive political actionsone does not simply eat Slow, he or she imbues food with meanings that express resistance to fast food, life and culture. Founded in Italy in 1989, the Slow Food Movement instigated a case for tastea politically-aware reevaluation of the role of food, conviviality, and localized culinary traditionto a primarily Western European audience concerned with increasing gustatory homogenization. Over the past two decades, however, Slow Foods message expanded to encompass a broad spectrum of ecological, culinary, and social justice concerns surrounding food production and consumption. Slow Food targets issues such as sustainability, loss of culinary tradition, unethical rural development, and vanishing biodiversity. Today, according to a prominent banner on the organizations website, Slow food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots associationthat links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.1 With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, Slow Food emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of ecologically aware consumerism. Such consumer-based political acts, or reflexive consumption, literally embody the Slow Food ideology. However, this heavy rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement by overlooking the parallel role of the food producer. In 2008, Slow Food introduced the concept of a co-producer a responsible consumer who chooses to enjoy quality food produced in harmony with the environment and local cultures. The most recent Slow Food Manifesto for Quality goes on to clarify:
1 Accessed online at www.slowfood.com on October 8, 2011.

2 [If] eating is an agricultural act, 2 it follows that producing food must be considered a gastronomic act . The consumer orients the market and production with his or her choices and, growing aware of these processes, he or she assumes a new role. Consumption becomes part of the productive act and the consumer thus becomes a co-producer. The producer plays a key role in this process, working to achieve quality, making his or her experience available and welcoming the knowledge and knowhow of others. (Slow Food International 2010) Slow Food frames co -producers as potentially powerful politica l and social actors in reformulating the marketplace. The producer, however, bears the responsibility for making quality food available, with no explicit mechanism for creating social or economic change beyond that of educating potential consumers. As such, the rhetoric of co-production obscures the farmers position in the chain of Slow Food supply and demand, and overlooks the myriad social, economic and political challenges faced by small-scale food producers today. This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. To what extent does Slow Foods concept of a co -producer translate into actions that promote social justice for food producers? Current scholarly work on the scope of alternative food networks emphasizes the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politicallyconscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Foods rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers (and co-producers) in Italy. In the chapters that follow I present data gathered from two related but distinct sites: 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo (farm-based tourism estate) called Spannocchia. These sites provide multiple perspectives from which to examine the concept of co-production.
2 This phrase comes from the work of farmer/author Wendell Berry (1990).

Slow Food coordinates conferences, markets and other events to facilitate engagement between food producers and consumers, in ways that highlight the movements ideological investment in the power of socially-conscious capitalist consumers to institute social change. At Spannocchia, links between food consumers and food producers develop (both tacitly and overtly) through gastronomic tourism and onsite educational programs based on agricultural and cultural sustainability. The directors of Spannocchia actively engage with Slow Food ideologies and participate in activities sponsored by a regional Slow Food chapter, or convivia. Food producers at the estate breed, raise, and butcher Cinta Senese hogs, a heritage breed celebrated by regional authorities in Italy and gastronomes alike. Additionally, the Cinta Senese is aboard Slow Foods international Ark of Taste, a project working to promote forgotten food products, endangered livestock breeds, and plant varieties in danger of disappearing. Activities at both research sites attempt to create channels through which individuals on each end of the productionconsumption continuum can work toward a mutually beneficial goal: delicious food that is sustainably produced by fairly-paid farmers and artisans who take pride in their work. But does the notion of transforming educated consumers into full-fledged coproducers play out in meaningful ways? How do localized cultural practices, particularly those enacted through the organizational conduits of social movements like Slow Food, act as a force for political, social, and economic transformations? An emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of societys relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change. Multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 reveals that the relationship between ideology and practice is often tenuous at best. Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow Foods restructuring of the consumer/producer

relationship may play out on paper and at conferencesand sometimes even at the tablebut it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms. The Rise of Slow Food The creation stories of a social movement operate as a common reference point for those involved by forging a collective formative identity. Characterizing the rise of the feminist health movement in the United States, Morgen states: Once the ideas and actions behind a movement begin to stir, there will at some point be a moment when it beginsthis is where historical construction beginsand the movement is now a significant actor in the future. The foundational story is a functional scaffold for remembered history and for the articulation of shared goals. When they are told and retold, by specific people at specific times, in the context of particular agendas or political goals, these stories embody the discursive process of movement making. (2002:14) For Slow Food, the 1986 protest against a new McDonalds restaurant at the fo ot of the Roman Spanish Steps constitutes this functional scaffold. Rome holds a reputation as an epicenter of Italian cuisine for locals and tourists alike. The presence of the American fast food chain, synonymous with globalization and homogenized culinary fare, alongside this historic al fresco staircase led to local outcry. It was not the first McDonalds in Europe, but the juxtaposition of the Golden Arches and one of Romes most famous piazzas spawned an organized protest. A group of leftist wine and food aficionados from Italys Piedmont region, led by a cult of personality wrapped up in the form of Carlo Petrini, embodied the outrage many Italians felt. Armed only with bowls of homemade pasta and slices of artisanal pizza, these food connoisseurs transformed into activists as they converged around the McDonalds restaurant.3 These acts, and the
3 It is interesting to note that the most stereotypical Italian foodspizza and pastaare specific to southern areas of Italy such as Rome, yet many consider these foods typical of the entire country. Helstosky (2004) argues that this is largely due to the fact that most immigrants to the U.S. hailed from southern Italy. Nevertheless, one can now enjoy a pizza Napolitano (Pizza in the Naples style) anywhere in Italy, showing how food traditions created in a transnational arena come full circle to shape the modern Italian palateand politicsas well.

philosophies underlying them, spawned the Slow Food movement, which took its name from the dialectical opposite of fast food.4 Slow Food emerged as a counter-initiative to the third world of taste (Paolini 2003: 287) embodied by McDonalds and its globalized, standardized fare. In Italy and elsewhere, McDonalds has attracted rhetorical attention as a symbol of industrialized, imperial food expansion (cf. Ritzer 1993), but the key to Slow Food's success is not that it offers a nostalgic backward glance at a world of vanishing pleasures or local identities tied to eating. Rather, emphasizing everyday cultural practices as a force for political action, Slo w Food creates a politics of aesthetics by linking the pleasures of food with a neo-Marxist standpoint, examining the historical and social implications of food production and consumption through a critical lens (Miele and Murdoch 2002). As a social movement, Slow Food aims to restructure post-industrial foodways by changing the ways in which co-producers think about consumption and production. As Mintz characterizes these foodways: The cumulative, selective process of modernity in actionwhether of food, cooking method, cooking medium, plant variety, animal breed, or tastehas repeatedly picked as criteria such things as standardization, efficiency, preservability, convenience of packing and shipping, and underlying it all, the desire for profit. (2006:3) Slow Food explicitly attacks these outcomes of globalized modernity, offering a fundamental critique of what constitutes quality of life on both a personal and a societal level. It is also a critique of unlimited growth, unrestricted consumption, and unrelenting economic rationality. The first Slow Food Manifesto, penned by Carlo Petrini in 1989, directly addresses these dimensions of industrial civilization in its opening statements: Our Century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.
4 Although the movement began in Italy, among Italian speakers, the name Slow Food has appeared since the movements inception (Sc hneider 2008).

6 We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods. To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction. A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life. (2001:xxiii) The early rhetoric of the movement works out a politically-thick vision of taste refinement: its idealized consumer is an eco -gastronome, someone who adds ecological concerns onto a continuously trained aesthetic appreciation of food (Sassetti and Davolio 2010:202). By understanding where food comes from, how it was produced and by whom, individuals learn how to combine pleasure and responsibility in daily choices and to appreciate the cultural and social importance of food. Petrinis 1989 Manifesto goes on to call for a Slow Food revolution, in which the value of taste and pleasure is imbued with political and ethical significance: May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, longlasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency. Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food. In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer. (2001:xxiii-xxiv) The manifesto encompasses environmentalism and the protection of gustatory tradition and pleasure, while taking a conscious step away from the frenzied pace of the modern world. It addresses both conservative desires to preserve traditional local communities, as well as alternative, progressive solutions to industrialization (Andrews 2008). The unlikely connection between gustatory pleasure, social justice and sustainability delivers a holistic critique that challenges many underlying philosophies and outcomes of globalization. Slow Food moves within (and beyond) anti-neoliberal epistemologies founded on critiques of industrial agriculture, nutritional science, or the

ethics of development to examine the placement of value as it is related to the production, labor, and consumption of particularly marked types of Slow food. The movement continued to grow in size and scope, but it was not until 2006 that Slow Food publications intensified the rhetoric of social justice by coining the term coproducer. Highlighting the power of the consumer to enact political change, a revised mission statement clarifies and emphasizes a more comprehensive, cohesive movement: We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet. Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work. We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process. (Slow Food International 2006) The firm defense of quiet material pleasure and guaranteed sensual pleasure offered by the 1989 Manifesto shift to clearly explicated goals of Good, Clean and Fair. In Italy and abroad, Slow Food now operates in three central channels reflecting those goals: taste education, defense of biodiversity and interaction between food consumers and producers. This eco-gastronomy aims to preserve culinary traditions threatened with extinction from mass production and globalization through in situ efforts, and simultaneously works to educate consumers about the importance of good, clean, and fair foods through widespread media and public relations campaigns. It is not simply a matter of boycotting McDonalds. The articulation of shared goals shifted over time, but the overarching paradigm of Slow Foodthat a culture of biodiversity will in turn foster human, civil, and demographic growthcontinues to provide an umbrella over a kaleidoscope of activities and goals addressed through practices of food and eating.

Situating Slow Food The shared reference points outlined in the Slow Food creation story and subsequent manifestosall of which are available in some form on the internet enable followers to navigate the movement from multiple geographic spaces. Although Slow Food operates on a global scale institutionally, the local, grassroots conviva (chapters) are the true heart of the movement, problematizing clear local/global dichotomies. As the movement spreads worldwide, its institutional discourses are translated through a milieu of diverse local histories and locally defined values surrounding food. The array of participantsboth producers and consumers, food activists and culinary tourists spreads across multiple arenas, both public and private. In many cases it is difficult to separate the goals of the movement from the goals of its participants, especially because Slow Food is an amalgamation of private entrepreneurs, volunteers, activists, and commercial sponsors, and these roles often overlap and change over time. As described above, Slow Food offers a holistic critique of the industrialization of food and develops new discourses surrounding food production and consumption. However, some argue that Slow Food goes beyond this to present a critique of an entire way of living, offering an alternative set of values that draw it into diverse political avenues (c.f. Andrews 2008; Honore 2004; Parkins and Craig 2006). From this perspective, Slow Food critically engages with the nature of globalization and cannot be reduced to only one of its many programs, messages, or goals. Here, the field of the Slow Food movement is unbounded and complex, presenting a challenge for traditional ethnographic research. As Appadurai puts it, globalization issues a fundamental challenge to the mutually constitutive relationship between anthropology and locality (1996: 178). Slow Food eludes a conventional heuristic method of investigation, and its analysis exemplifies the awkward scale of contemporary ethnography that attempts to tap into local and global discursive flows while simultaneously tending to the empirical phenomena of the material, lived world (Comaroff and Comaroff 2003). In globalized

social movements like Slow Food, local actions develop within transnational public spheres through the relationships existing between members of multiple localities (Guidry, et al. 2000; see also Hannerz 2003a). In other words, specific actions continue to be realized in concrete locales, but the organization of these actions often occurs within a transnational context. Edelman (2001) argues that ethnographic analyses of social movements are most successful when they examine the broad scope of political and social fields wherein mobilizations occur. To study Slow Food, I conducted participant observation research in two primary sites, one emphasizing the sweeping international character of the movement and one pinpointing highly localized food production and consumption. In this study, I attempt to rejoin the politics and ideologies of a globalized Slow Food with the everyday lived experiences of food producers who (often subconsciously) embody those ideologies. In so doing, I centrally rely on the research methods of discourse analysis and participant observation. Slow Food Ideology In this dissertation I first attempt to pin down the roles of producers and coproducers through discursive analysis of Slow Food events. In order to study the evolution of Slow Food discourse it is useful to analyze the factors sustaining the unity of this discourse. For example, although they were written almost twenty years apart, the manifestos described above share rules about food consumption and production that form the core of Slow ideology. Foods, foodways, and producers identified by Slow Food as worthy of attention (and consumption) are part of a broad discourse that extensively contextualizes the meanings and motivations that underlie these acts. Appadurai (1981) argues that food itself is a powerful semiotic device and form of collective representation. His model of Gastro-Politics refers to the conflict or competition over specific cultural or economic resources as it emerges in social transactions around food (1981:495). For

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Slow Foods co-producer, food is the symbolic medium that regulates roles and signifies privileges. The evolving rhetoric of the Slow Food movement can likewise be read as part of a larger discourse of changing ideologies about food. If we understand discourse as the dialogical process through which social action, cultural knowledge, and social institutions are achieved and enacted (Graham and Farnell 1996), it is possible to critically engage with Slow Food discourse as a means of understanding the connections between social structure and individual agency. Such an analysis encompasses both written and spoken forms of discourse as well as other expressive signifying acts. In the case of Slow Food, such signifying acts include quotidian practices of the habitus (everyday cooking, food selection) and public performance (Slow Food events on local, regional, national and international scales). The very practice of eating Slow, or purchasing Good, Clean and Fair foods, embodies in embryonic form the changes the movement seeks (Edelman 2001:289), regardless of any variety of social or political motivations that underlie the act. Here, Slownessbecomes a metaphor for the politics of place: a philosophy complexly concerned with the defense of local cultural heritage, regional landscapes, and idiosyncratic material cultures of production, as well as international biodiversity and cosmopolitanism. (Leitch 2003: 454) However, Leitch (2003) argues that the Slow Food movement is less about the support of local traditions and foodways, and more about the commoditization of specific places and producers. The cultural politics of marketing nostalgia to an audience eager for foods considered traditional, rural, and Slow further problematizes notion of a coproducer effacing social inequality. Do these politics promote fetishizing cultural diversity and sentimentalizing struggles for cultural or economic survival (Donati 2005: 227)? My ethnographic findings about how consumers and producers actually interact in different Slow Food settings highlight these tensions within Slow Foods ideological claims, expanding upon existing academic critiques.

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Consumption and New Social Movements A variety of scholars have offered critical analyses of Slow Food, most drawing upon how Slow Foods consumer-based action at a distance draws attention to conventional divisions between individual agency and structure (Lockie 2002). As economist Bruce Pietrykowsi puts it, the key issue here is whether mat erial pleasure and the symbolic expression of identity through consumer goods is compatible with a more politicized, socially conscious consumption ethos (2004:309). The clearly defined marketing orientation of the Slow Food movement, developed in response to consumer demands, stands at odds with the movements broad agenda to challenge national and international agricultural and industrial corporations (Jones, et al. 2003). As consumers who operate as international political activists by virtue of market choice (Leitch 2003: 457) and effect checkbook environmentalism (McWilliams 2009), Slow Food co producers address social and political issues in highly circumspect ways. Yet to date, such critiques have not directly examined the actual impact of participation in Slow Food on small-scale producers. By focusing on producers, my research illustrates the need for creative approaches to the study of New Social Movements that operate on both local and global dimensions. New Social Movements such as Slow Food focus on the struggle over symbolic, informational, and cultural resources and rights, which produce new social subjects with multiple identities existing in a range of social positions. There are usually multiple points of contention that New Social Movements are working to address, often in a seemingly diffuse manner (Edelman 2001). Bourdieu (2001) outlines the common features shared by such movements. By rejecting the formulas of traditional union- or class-based revolutions, New Social Movements emphasize self-management and the direct participation of all members. Such a shift requires that goals are Concretized in exemplary actions, directly linked to the particular problem concerned and requiring a high level of personal commitment on the part of activists and leaders, most of whom

12 have mastered the art of creating events, of dramatizing a condition so as to focus media attentionand, consequently, political attentionon them. (Bourdieu 2001:40) For Slow Food, a redefinition of the consumer as co-producer fundamentally alters the capitalist consumer/producer dyad. The movement encourages co-producers to seek information about the food they purchase directly from the local farmers, fishermen, and breeders themselves. For example, Slow Food views the connections forged through farmers' markets, direct farm sales and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes as the ideal medium in which to ask questions about the origin, cultivation and production techniques that go into everyday food items. In other words, it is often not enough to simply make informed purchases. There is an added responsibility to physically and intellectually connect with the producers themselves. The socioeconomic relations that people have to production in a specific time and placeMarxs relations of productionshift as people formally and informally reconfigure their roles in the realm of food production. Unlike the stereotypical supermarket shopper, a slave to commodity fetishism even on diet, the emancipated co-producer shows up at the farm doorstep with questions about food production. Yet as I argue here, this imagery is underwritten by unseen demands placed upon producers. Chapter Outlines This dissertation addresses the connections between Slow Foods discur sive production of ideology and information for consumers, the subsequent consumptionbased activities that constitute co-production, and the ways in which these actions relate to rural and agricultural sustainability in Italy. In chapter one I situate my research methods and field sites within larger discussions of the Slow Food movement. The official rhetoric of Slow Food underscores its emphasis on sensory pleasure and gustatory license with a politically motivated critique of global inequality on sociocultural, economic and ecological scales. Here, taste becomes inherently political due to the effects of globalization and industrialization on the palates of ordinary people. In chapter

13

one I describe how the aesthetic considerations central to Slow Food tend to generate critiques of the movements Nostalgic view of the past, its festishized view of pleasure, its paternalism, its imperial encounters with exoticized others (framed by its own heritage of privilege), and its culinary Luddism. (Andrews 2008:172). Yet through the consumption of foods deemed Good, Clean and Fair by the movement, the reflexive Slow Food consumer may transcend charges of elitism. While recognizing that cultural diversity plays a role in determining taste preferences and choices, the aesthetic considerations central to Slow Food are increasingly underscored by highly politicized efforts to rejoin production and consumption in meaningful ways. In chapter two I draw from my observations at a range of Slow Food events, particularly the Salone del Gusto exhibitions of 2006 and 2008 held in Turin, Italy, to explore the ways in which Slow Food functions as an international actor for the global promotion of t he local (Sassatelli 2007:183). Here, a critical examination of the discourse presented by Slow Food at its defining events offers an analysis of the dissemination of information, symbols, and food commodities among transnational participants. My analysis of the 2006 and 2008 editions of Salone del Gusto reveals that a singular objective of Slow Food is slippery to locate, and even its most representative event is rife with complexity and, at times, contradiction. As the largest promotional and educational event hosted by Slow Food, Salone del Gusto has the capacity and authority to inspire a profound reflection on food and the global community it represents. The official, evolving discourse produced by Slow Food for each Salone del Gusto reveals scattershot efforts to reach the broadest audience possible. In some cases, these efforts appear to directly undermine the stated goals of the movement. Here I describe the ways in which Slow Food directly articulates its politics through food samplings, taste education programs, and promotional materials, and also via thinly-veiled corporate messages and commercial sponsorship. For example, Taste re-education prepares the consumer palate and consciousness to sample a wide range of Slow food products

14

available at the event. Fetishized in Slow Food promotions, the producers of these foods present at the event may or may not be able to fully engage with the dialogic processes encouraged by the movement. Moreover, the simultaneous presence of small-scale producers idealized and heralded by the movement and the rhetorically villianized corporate entities that provide the bulk of finanical support for the event underscore tensions about modern food production. While improving social justice is an explicit goal in Slow Food rhetoric, what impact does participation in Slow Food have on actual small-scale producers? In chapter three I turn to ethnographic research conducted at the Tenuta di Spannocchia, where I surveyed the ways in which the enactment of Slow Foods current focus on co-production of food is linked to invented traditions drawn from Tuscan agricultural heritage on the estate. Drawing upon the historical elements emphasized by the estates directors, I examine the role of authenticity relate d to food and rural life in the production of agricultural tourism today. The commodification of recipes and cooking styles, for example, offers guests the opportunity to very literally consume an idealized version of Tuscany. Additionally, the ongoing presence of Americans and other guests introduces new culinary conventions that coexist with traditional Italian foods. More than a binary between global and local gastronomies, food-related activities at Spannocchia are also variably interpreted by members of a local Slow Food convivium, demonstrating that idealizations of tradition extend to multiple audiences. Here, Slow Foods concept of the co -producer plays out for tourists, residents, and producers in both implicit and explicit ways. How do the efforts at the estate connect to larger socioeconomic issues related to food production and consumption in Italy today? The nature of participant observation research led to my own involvement with food production at Spannocchia, both in the fields and in seasonal butchering activities. In chapter four I present data from my experiences working as a de facto farm volunteer alongside full-time Italian food producers and seasonal interns. I describe the small

15

number of interns working to produce food at Spannocchia as Slow Food co-producers par excellence. Acting neither as residents nor as tourists, the interns occupy a unique position on the estate, where food remains at the center of the experience. Competitive selection for internship positions reveals a widespread interest in sustainable agricultural production in Italy, even when the realities of farm work prove to be labor intensive and variably rewarding. Here I connect my own farm work experiences with those of Spannocchias intern volunteers, with whom I wrangled and butchered pigs, prepared and served meals, and experienced everyday life in rural Tuscany. How are the interns construed as co-producers, and how do they differ from the other tourists visiting the estate? In chapter five I continue my discussion of food production at Spannocchia, presenting detailed information about the Cinta Senese hog. The production and consumption of this pig embodies the symbolic meaning of food and culture in Tuscany, and its increasing popularity via Slow Food and other, more localized channels reflects shifting patterns of consumption. Drawing from ethnographic data gathered while co producing Cinta Senese cured pork products, I argue that consumer demand for this particular meat is based not only on political or economic conditions favorable to an expanding alternative food market , but also on the pigs symbolic ties to the region of Tuscany. However, the economic viability of raising Cinta Senese pigs for artisanal salumi products depends on the ability and capacity of various organizations to educate potential consumers. Here I discuss the role of local efforts spearheaded by a Cinta Senese breeding consortium, the EU-wide Denomination of Origin program, and the globalized platforms of Slow Foods Ark of Taste and Presidia programs. Producers of Cinta Senese pigs navigate between the requirements and constraints of these various programs, all of which on some level operate for the purpose of consumer education and market expansion, rather than to support producers on an everyday basis.

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In chapter six I examine the pressures placed on producers involved in Slow Food through two examples that reconnect the Italian context with the global scope of the Slow Food movement. First, I describe the challenges of marketing of Spannocchias salumi products in local and national venues. I highlight my experiences with Spannocchias farm manager, Riccio, whose everyday labor best demonstrates the numerous expectations and tensions placed on Slow Food producers. His shifting performances in both the marketplace and on the estate point to the challenges faced by food producers obliged to operate not only as agriculturalists, but as educators and marketers. I then connect his experiences with those of Slow Foods Terra Madre delegates, who present not only the foods they produce but perform various aspects of ethnicity and identity at the Terra Madre event held concurrently with Salone del Gusto. At Terra Madre, delegates from developing nations symbolically represent Slow Foods efforts at Virtuous Globalization. Although delegates performances of ethnicity at Terra Madre may enhance their commercial success at the event, it is unclear if these performances are voluntary or part of a larger marketing strategy coordinated by Slow Food. As I describe in chapter six, the movement employs representations of producers that are not necessarily based upon the lived daily realities and challenges of food production, and these discrepancies are particularly problematic for producers in the developing world. Nevertheless, Slow Food consumers adopt these representations, and build them into the symbolic politics of the movement. Here, symbolic politics refer to ideas and images, not common identity or economic interests, [which] mobilize political actions across wide gulfs of distance, language, and culture (Conklin and Graham 1995: 696). As discussed above, these politics emerge in Slow Foods concept of the co producer. Through the lens of Slow Food, the labor and social lives of food producers (or at least the performances thereof) become visible to the engaged consumer. As such, concerns with unequal relations of production are largely subsumed by an emphasis on relations of consumption, despite the fact that massive inequalities persist in food

17

production, particularly between large scale corporate food producers and locally-based small-scale producers. In the concluding chapter, I consider the overarching question: Can the connections forged at Slow Food events, or in agricultural settings like Spannocchia, with their ideological emphasis on supporting small-scale food production, translate into reallife changes in the daily lives of food producers around the world? I discuss the role of anthropology within the larger arena of food studies, and address the disciplines potential contribution to studies of food production and consumption.

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CHAPTER ONE: SITUATING SLOW FOOD Portrait One: Sofias perspective on Slow Food Sofia5 worked as an intern in the orto (vegetable garden) at Spannocchia. Her family lives in Bangladesh, and she first heard about Spannocchias programs from a visiting former intern there. Before arriving at Spannocchia, Sofia served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for two years in Berkeley, California, where she helped to build school gardens. I interviewed her about her experiences there, and whether or not they coincided with Slow Food. Her job dovetailed on the success of the Edible Schoolyard project spearheaded by Alice Waters, the founder of the highly regarded restaurant Chez Panisse and then-president of Slow Food USA. The Edible Schoolyard is a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom for urban public school students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. In programs like this, students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce as a part of regular curriculum. However, despite her regular, engaged involvement with the food politics of the area, Sofia was not formally involved with Slow Food. As she put it: I was really interested in Slow Food. It was weird, because when I got out there [to San Francisco] I really wanted to be part of it. And I thought I would somehow see information for it. You know, I was on all these email list serves, and Id find out about all this stuff going on, but I never heard anything about Slow Food. So I was kind of like, what is this Slow Food? (laughs) What are they doing? Because I never heard about any events. And then I had a friend that I met who was a member, and he said that you have to be a Slow Food member to get emails about the events. And he would just forward me the emails, and then if I ever wanted to go, I could go. So then he was forwarding me these emails and they were for all these dinners that were, like, $200. I was making less than $200 a week! (laughs) So I actually never
5 Individuals quoted in this thesis received pseudonyms upon request. English language pseudonyms come from the U.S. governments 2010 list of the most popular baby names (http://ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi). Italian pseudonyms come from a list of the most popular baby names in Italy in the year 2008 (http://www.nomix.it/nomi-per-bambini-piu-usatiin-italia.php).

19 went to a Slow Food event. My impression of it in California was that it sounds cool, as an idea, but its very exclusive a nd kind of secret society-ish. This experience soured her to Slow Food, but her brief involvement in Slow Food Nation, the inaugural U.S.-based version of Salone del Gusto, made things worse. Slow Food Nation took place in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend 2008. Foodies across the country deemed it the debutante ball of Slow Food in the United States, which, after Italy, is the country with the most Slow Food members. Physically and ideologically central to the event was the Victory Garden, a massive planting on the lawn of the city courthouse building (see Figure 1).6 In addition to raising awareness about how food is grown and how plants can possess both form and function, food banks received all of the gardens produce. Plopped down into the middle of a grimy area of town, the Victory Garden was a green jewel that grew quite literally in the shadow of City Hall. American civic life, government, and food symbolically united in this space.

Figure 1 San Francisco Victory Garden

6 Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in this thesis were taken by Rachel Horner Brackett.

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Due to her bosss connection with Alice Waters, Sofia and her coworkers helped to install the plants. Shockingly, the entire garden was complete in a matter of hours. Professional landscapers developed the layout an artful mix of flowers, vegetables, and herbs in raised bedsand volunteers placed large greenhouse transplants into the correct spots. The mayor of the city was there, along with Alice Waters and other food luminaries, to promote the garden. In Sofias words: It was kind of silly. There were 500 volunteers for 200 plantsYou put in your one plant, they make you pose for a lot of pictures, and then you get fed this really amazing catered gourmet meal. That day a New York Times photographer took a picture of Sofia and a friend moving a large potted plant. The next morning she woke up to find that her face was on the cover of the Times, something that she was not at all comfortable with. After working on community-based garden projects for two years with little to no recognition, the massive publicity afforded to Slow Food Nation came as a shock. Worse, it confirmed Sofias suspicions of Slow Food as an inaccessible group that is somewhat insincere about its efforts to improve local communities. Framing Consumer Distinction Sofias experiences with Slow Food highlight an oft -repeated criticism of the movement: that it is little more than an inefficient assembly of elitist gourmands. Anthropologist Adrian Peace distills this viewpoint: Bluntly expressed, Slow Food continues to be stereotyped as an indulgence of the Wests middle classes as they seek out new sources of postmodern identity. It is caricatured as a class strategy, in line with Pierre Bourdieus approach, identifying the immediate pleasures of high taste in the culinary sense with the steady accumulation of taste in the cultural one. (2008:31) Utilizing Bourdieus (1984) approach to taste, which describes aesthetics as learned practices that serve to reinforce and materialize social str uctures, Slow Food functions as yet another structure that naturalizes social inequality. Taste is class culture

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turned into nature (Bourdieu 1984:190), and the food selections of the upper classes are the practical affirmation of an inevitable differe nce (1984:56). Carefully refined aesthetic preferences thus serve to bolster and reproduce social inequality. Thus, Bourdieu shifts the focus of the body as a means of expression and source of symbolism to the body as a locus of social practice (Csordas 2002). Following this, Watson and Caldwell posit that the key to successful food politics is the ability to transform private worries about body and diet into an organized, worldwide movement linked via the internet to allied groups that promote organic foods and/or oppose fast foods (2005:3) Here, individual taste becomes a manifestation of culture and society on both local and global sales. Pietrykowski states: Slow Food has been able to take an attribute normally associated with cultural capitalculinary tasteand insert it into a social economy built around the preservation of unique food, local cuisine, and cultural heritage. Cultural capital then comes to encompass more than a signaling device for social status. The Slow Food Movement seeks to transform cultural capital into a form of social capital. (2004:317) Slow Food claims to be democratic and based on the voluntary membership of those with shared cultural and gastronomic interest. However, some argue that this consumer democracy remains available only to those with the social and economic capital to join in. The upper echelons of Slow Food are primarily composed of highly educated idealists with ambitions beyond the local economy. Certain cultural phenomena qualify as good taste not by random, but through dominant class functions that legitimate their tastes as superior. In the case of Slow Food, do these classifications still apply, or have traditional divides between high and low status foodsand their consumerseroded? If highbrow tastes displayed an intellectualized appreciation pitted against the seemingly unreflective consumption of the lower classes in the past, Peterson and Kern (1996) argue that today the cultural omnivore marks a qualitative shift in the ways that elite status is marked. Rather than display a snobbish exclusion, the cultural omnivore

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claims to have an appreciation for all forms of culture, including those created by socially marginal groups (e.g., isolated rural people, racial minorities, and youth). Whereas the privileged classes of Bourdieus France would learn to appreciate caviar and champagne, todays omnivorous, socially-conscious eater seeks out authentic hand-rolled tortillas, locally grown heirloom vegetables, or sausages made from sustainably raised, antibioticfree pigs. This omnivorous cultural consumption strategy includes multiple genres of food and drink, but does not discriminate against those that may be considered high- or low-class. This strategy does not discriminate against foods considered high- or lowstatus; the discriminating omnivore appears to reject an elitist, ethnocentric form of gastronomy for culinary cultural relativism (or faux populism, depending on ones perception). From this perspective, alternative food mo vements like Slow Food appear to replace snobbery or exclusion with omnivorous appropriation and gentrification in a quest for new forms of distinction. This begs the question: is Slow Food a transformative social movement, or a new form of social capital for the affluent classes? Anthropologist Janet Chrzan, who worked for the national board of Slow Food USA for a several years, found that although many Slow Members in the U.S. are committed in principle to sustainability and food-production equity, they are primarily involved in meeting other interesting food lovers, learning about the local areas food resources, and having really wonderful meals with congenial people (2004:123). In cases like Sofias, the democratic accessibility of Slow Food membership remains clouded by a lack of economic or social capital. In the United States convivia, these forms of capital map onto larger issues of race, gender and ethnicity. Hayes-Conroy and Hayes-Conroy (2010) reveal the social indexing of Slow Food in the following quote: Slow Food has spread in the US through a certain gastronomic society, which is basically white. It has only spread in one category, white and wealthy, and has done so through volunteersit was just whomever asked to be a part of the movement, and so the message reached only those who were there and ready to hear it. This [process] revealed the organization, and [being] organized this way organically generates problems. It

23 doesnt guarantee diversity. (interview with a Slow Food leader, 2010:2956) The Hayes-Conroys research exposes not only an awareness of the primarily white and middle-to-upper class basis of the Slow Food movement in the United States, but suggests that embodied experiences of eating Slow foods are coded as whit e practices that inhibit the participation of other groups. Yet despite the implications of the research cited here, Slow Food founder and director Carlo Petrini maintains that Slow Food is an inclusive elite, able to provide greater bargaining power fo r underdeveloped markets, boosting knowledge and international contacts for these producers (Van Der Meulen 2008:234). Regardless of whether or not one views Slow Food as elitist or democratic, underscoring debates about omnivorous consumption is a knot of discourse that continues to define particular foods and consumers primarily through socioeconomic strictures and Bourdieuian Distinction. Sociologists Johnston and Baumann (2010) present a particularly useful means of untangling this rhetoric through their exploration of foodie discourse (2010). Many of the individuals they interviewed expressed ambivalence toward the term foodieparadoxically, some argued that they couldnt be foodies, since they lacked any interest in gourmet food, while others self-identified as foodies, as they were willing to try anything, even if it was not gourmet. The term nonetheless operates as a powerful descriptor of gastronomic identity. Johnston and Baumann identify the tension between two ideological poles that frame the activities of foodies: 1) a democratic pole that eschews cultural elite standards by valorizing the cultural products of everyday non-elite people, and 2), a pole that valorizes rare, difficult to access, and often economically inaccessible foods that represent possession of high cultural capital. In other words: Foodies commonly seek out the food of the common people, at the same time they frequently idealize foods, meals and restaurantsthat are inaccessible for the majority of the population with less cultural and economic capital. (Johnston and Baumann 2010:61)

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Using this framework, it is possible to think about Slow Food followers as Slow Foodies. Here, participants emphasize the qualities of Good, Clean and Fair in assessing the relative value of food and its production. Food quality is a multidimensional conceptin addition to sensory valuations it encompasses attributes of morality and aesthetics, as well as connotations with particular geographies, organizations and institutions (Harvey, et al. 2004). However, until recently, most studies of consumerbased social movements like Slow Food overlooked these non-sensory attributes, focusing instead on the rhetorical juxtaposition of Fast and Slow elements. False Dichotomies Anthropologist Sidney Mintz argues that between ideal types of Fast food (which unapologetically destroys the health of bodies and ecologies while simultaneously extinguishing local food cultures) and Slow food (which only permits those with the economic and cultural capital to enjoy gastronomic freedom), there is room for a Moderate pace, where healthy and meaningful food is available to everyone (2006). Wilk connects this concept to a larger discussion of food politics today: The extremes of slow and fast, local and global, artisanal and industrial, are ideal types; at some level they may be good intellectual tools, but all the real action takes place in between, in the complex and interconnected highways where Mintzs food of moderate speed is travelingFrom a global scale, what looks like a linear long-term trend begins to resolve into processes that are full of contradictions, the contingencies of culture and human agency, and unexpected cycles, rehearsals, reversals, and reprises. (Wilk 2006a:15-16) Several anthropological examples of this trend discuss the variable incorporation of McDonalds-style fast food chains in various cultural spaces, such as across Asia (Watson 1998), Mexico (Pilcher 2006), and the city of Beijing (Yan 2000). Similarly, in his discussion of fast food in France, sociologist Rick Fantasia shows that although France possesses a culinary patrimony that would appear to diametrically oppose restaurants like McDonalds, some middle-class French citizens eat there as a means of

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transgressing traditional cultural forms and embracing American cultural ideologies (1995:219). The franchise system reflects economic changes in France, embodying a timely ideological message of individualism, free enterprise, and entrepreneurial capitalism ( Fantasia 1995:208). Moreover, Fantasia points out that so-called pure French food is actually the result of several centuries of cultural change, appropriation, expansion, and colonialism, a progression analogous to Englands traditional consumption of tea and sugar (Mintz 1985). In each case, ethnographic inquiry illustrates the ways in which consumers incorporate a seemingly overriding paradigm of fast food into culturally situated and locally-based gastronomic structures. The rhetorical extremes of Fast and Slow also apply to discussions of agricultural production. Kloppenburg, et al. (2000) argue that the conceptual framings of alternative food systems created by academics and policy specialists do not reflect the full range of understandings (or agency) of producers and consumers. For example, organic food, often rhetorically contrasted with the products of industrial agriculture, has expanded far beyond what Belasco (1989) calls the counter -cuisine. This health-based approach to food emerged out of 1960s counter culture movements, and emphasized unprocessed foods and a connection to the agrarian environment. Today, it is easy to locate heavily processedyet organicsnack foods in most supermarkets, and as Guthman (2003; 2004) points out in her study of the organic food industry in California, organic food is rarely produced by small-scale family farmers working in opposition to "industrial" agriculture. This example reflects the capacity of capitalist enterprises to recognize market shifts, and to co-opt or even subvert the original moral economies that underscore them (see also DeLind 2000). At the same time, it is also possible for social movements like Slow Food to borrow tactics from these enterprises in order to spread information and ideologies about alternative food systems. For Slow Food, the positioning of Slow Food branded Presidia products in the ubiquitous COOP Italia supermarkets (Fonte 2006), and the presence of state agricultural

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ministers and corporate agri-food giants at Salone del Gusto further supports the theory of interpenetration. The concept of the co-producer is also a form of interpenetration between categories, wherein even the production and subsequent purchase of food is undivided in the purview of Slow Food. Locating Slow Food My first ethnographic field encompasses the ephemeral sites of Slow Food events like Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, where my role was as both a tourist and an official academic observer. I researched Slow Food events longitudinally over three years, beginning in October 2006 and continuing through April 2009. As Hannerz notes in regards to studies of transnational organizations: Conferences show up as important occasions in one study after the other. Actually, it is often precisely these kinds of temporary meeting places, where participants are only briefly present together, which contribute critically to the formation and enduring cohesion of translocal networks. (2003b:27-28) During this period, the core ideology of Slow Food began to change in dramatic ways, shifting its focus from that of a relatively elite gastronomic club to that of a focused, highly-politicized food institution. My analysis derives from participantobservation data collected during the 2006 and 2008 editions of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, as well as from Slow Food Nation (held in San Franscisco, CA in 2008), Terra Madre Toscana (Orbetello, Italy 2008), and Slow Fish (Genoa, Italy 2009). At these events my presence was largely anonymous. I attended as many talks, presentations, and colloquia as possible during each event, taking copious notes throughout. I collected massive amounts of paper leaflets, flyers, informational brochures, newspaper articles, magazine clippings, and event programs. During these Slow Food events I also took approximately 300 photographs. During my subsequent examination of these images and clippings, I began to realize that some of the

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information and sponsorship of major Slow Food events contradicted the stated ideology of the movement in very significant ways. In the fall of 2006, following a week at Salone del Gusto in Turin, I conducted preliminary field research in the nearby small city of Bra, where the international headquarters, communication offices, and publishing centers of Slow Food are located. Here I attempted to locate Slow Food at the site of its institutional headquarters. Pietrykowski (2004) argues that with its commercial publications, educational programs, structured tourism, and formally affiliated University of Gastronomic Sciences, Slow Food is not a social movement but rather an institution that formalizes the knowledge of various other movements (e.g., anti-GMO/organic/Green movements). During this time I collected sacks of printed materials, talked with administrators at the nearby University of Gastronomic Sciences, and enjoyed numerous and extended conversations with my roommate and neighbors, all of whom were employed by Slow Food. Although I never saw him during my two months in Bra, Carlo Petrini also lives in the citys outskirts. The Slow Food employees I got to know talked excitedly about rare sightings of Il Re (The King) in local restaurants and in the office. Petrini remains steadfastly dedicated to this area of Italy, where his proto-Slow Food organization Gambero Rosso, a group of local wine enthusiasts with communist affiliations, first emerged (Parasecoli 2003). In the introduction to his 2005 book Buono, Pulito e Giusto,7 Petrini describes his disappointment upon discovering that the farmers who previously raised a local variety of pepper in the outskirts of Bra had turned, for economic reasons, to tulip bulb production. Soon after, he learned that the flavorless peppers served to him a local restaurant were imported from the Netherlands, and his outrage launched a renewed attack upon the illogical nature of neoliberal food production. The rhetorical
7 The title translates to Good, Clean and Fair, but was inexplicably changed to Slow Food Nation for its 2006 translation and release in the United States.

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and historical significance of Bra and the surrounding region seemed paramount to my study of Slow Food. Initially, I had hoped to compare data gleaned from my fieldwork in Bra and its surrounds with ethnographic data from Slow Food sites in the United States, highlighting the international scope of the movement. However, despite my best efforts to situate Slo w Food in its hometown of Bra, I repeatedly found that the data I collected did not answer my questions about the relationship between Slow Foods philosophies and the activities of its adherents. Furthermore, preliminary data collection in the United States also failed to connect with my core inquiries about the connection between Slow Food producers and consumers. At this point, I chose to focus my attention on Italian food producers and the global Slow Food consumers with whom they interact. The question was where to locate these food producers. Prior to travelling to Turin for Salone del Gusto, I spent the summer months of 2006 living in the medieval Tuscan city of Siena, where I took advanced Italian language courses in preparation for my fieldwork. During that time, my language school offered several field trips into the Tuscan countryside to visit wineries and estates focusing on small-scale agriculture. I knew that several of these agritourism estates offered lodging for tourists, and I began ask Italian friends in Bra and Siena if they knew of a place that might host an anthropologist as well. Spannocchia In the end, I discovered my field site of Spannocchia through a Google search. Spannocchia is a roughly 1000 acre estate located approximately 30 kilometers southwest of Siena. With its 800-year old stone tower at the top of a forested hill, an active rare breed animal husbandry program, and a range of tourist activities spanning from wild herb collection to open-air painting, Spannocchias scope provided me with multiple avenues of investigation. The estate is also unique in that it hosts three 3-month competitive internship programs each year, attracting groups of primarily North

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American young people to complete much of the unskilled labor required on the farm. As such, my ideas about producers expanded to include highly localized actors as well as international contributors. I initially arrived at Spannocchia as a tourist outsider and gradually gained access to insider status through sustained daily work with the individuals who live and work at the estate. Prior to my arrival at Spannocchia I worked out an agreement with the foundation director in which I would pay a substantially reduced rate for my room and board in exchange for work on the farm each week. At the time I had no idea of what this work would entail. The directors at Spannocchia knew about my interest in the Cinta Senese hog and in Slow Food, so I assumed that I would be working outdoors with the pigs in some capacity. After a few days of settling in and wandering the estate, I joined the interns first thing in the morning to receive my first work assignment. I had already spent a few afternoons that week informally picking olives with other visiting volunteers, and I expected to continue with that task as long as the rain held off. Each group went off to a respective job until only I remained, standing in front of the farm manager, Riccio. He said, Okay. You come with me. Glancing down at my work boots, alread y caked with reddish Tuscan mud, he added, Put on clean shoes first. Riccio led me to the transformation kitchen, a space that I first encountered on a tour of the estate few days prior. Unexpectedly, I quickly became a de facto butchering intern at Spannocchia, carrying out all manner of tasks in the name of participant observation. I describe my experiences in the transformation kitchen in Chapter 4. I also took part in a wide variety of everyday tasks on the estate. Day-to-day operations at Spannocchia focus on tourist education, food production in the garden and fields, and a never-ending list of maintenance tasks on the vineyards, olive groves, fences, woodpiles, stone walls and animal housing. In addition to providing relatively uninterrupted access to the Italian food producers living and working on the estate, working at Spannocchia allowed me to become a co -producer myself.

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Spannocchia is moderately difficult to access. Even for those with a car, the estate is located several kilometers up a steep hillside off of a winding, rural road. With only one internet-accessible computer, a handful of telephones, and no television to speak of, the Spannocchia bubble physically created a bounded anthropological fieldsite. With the exception of going to market or tagging along on field trips into Siena, I was literally in the field at all times. Unlike the anonymity I experienced at Slow Food events, my time at Spannocchia was thickly woven with interactions with others. I spent endless hours talking, eating, and working with not only with the estate owners and staff, but with their families, the office secretary, program interns, visiting volunteers, and many others. I was also able to spend a significant amount of time interacting with guests visiting Spannocchia. During my time at Spannocchia I conducted approximately 30 formal and informal interviews with residents at Spannocchia in addition to dozens of extended conversations with tourists, visiting volunteer workers, and other area food producers during market events and farm visits. This research was approved by the University of Iowa Institutional Review Board as low risk. I conducted interviews in English and Italian; in some cases, it was possible to audio record these interviews, particularly those conducted with the interns and staff. Each day I took detailed field notes on any conversations and events that took place while working at the estate, and spent my evenings typing up field notes. I carried an audio recorder on several of the Spannocchia tours in order to capture the details of the farms education program, collected historical information about the estate from the villas small library, sorted through current and past promotional materials, and read intern newsletters and blogs. Spannocchias involvement in the Slow Food movement emerged alongside its revitalization as a destination for agritourism, which has in turn been bolstered by a resurgence of interest in Tuscany. Of the roughly 1,300 Slow Food convivia worldwide, 287 are in Italyand 37 Slow Food convivia operate in the region of Tuscany alone.

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This concentration of activity in the region highlights it as a gastronomic destination, and Spannocchia hosts numerous Slow Food events for Italian groups and visiting groups alike. Its remote rural setting and agricultural emphasis align closely with the goals of both agritourism and Slow Food. Why Tuscany? I first heard of agritourism while studying abroad as an undergraduate in Florence, Italy in 2000. At the time I was amused by the concept growing up on a Midwestern hog and cattle farm, the notion of paying money to vacation with livestock sounded less than appealing. Nevertheless, I was impressed by the innovation on the part of the farmers themselves. What better way to capitalize on popular imaginations of the rural countryside? Agritourism offers farmers opportunities to diversify and complement traditional economic activities on individual farms. At the time, Frances Mayes 1997 book Under the Tuscan Sun, an autobiographical account of restoring a crumbling villa and the sensual pleasures of life therein, seemed to be in the hands of every tourist in Tuscany. The success of this book (and its adaptation to film several years later) opened the gates for a flood of memoirs and novelsalways peppered with recipes from the regionrelated to discovering authentic life in rural Toscana (cf. de Blasi 2004; Elon 2009; Mt 1998; Tucker 2007). This literary trope continues to lay the foundation for gastronomic tourism in the region. Unfortunately, such authors often present local Italian inhabitants as cultural Others living, working and eating in a mythologized or essentialized peasant past (Ross 2010). Such stereotyping results in an imprudent version of the realities of rural Tuscan life. Anthropologist Anne Meneley worked with olive producers in Tuscany, who reported that they found Under the Tuscan Sun often saccharine, inaccurate and boring, [but] they argued that it had had a positive impact o n the tourist trade (2004:167). Tuscany is a field where numerous outsiderstourists, students, and researchers among

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themflock to participate in authentic Italian culture through consumption of the art, architecture, local traditions and food of the region. Meneley posits that the commodification of Tuscany itself depends on foreign imaginings of it as a desirable place (2004:167). Here, political and economic interactions with a place are not accidental, but shaped by various forms of discourse. Meneley describes this positive discursive production as reverse orientalism, or the inverse of Saids (1979) formulation regarding the negative discursive productions and social stereotypes of the Middle East. As such, Tuscany offers a rich context for the expression and pursuit of cultural capital by outsiders, although local residents and producers may exists far outside of the idealized mythology of the region. This is often the case for Slow Food producers as well. For example, in his discussion of a Slow Food convivium, Peace describes the idealization of an Australian wine region as follows: [The convivium] promulgated the image that here was a discrete physical region populated by an identifiable community committed to a whole food culture. In reality, however, those involved in mounting the occasion comprised a small and self-selected network of residents, while the majority of the regions population remained uninvolved and, one suspects, for the most part indifferent, precisely because this was a privilegedeven elite event, in no sense a mass, popular one. (2006:57-58) The situation of many Tuscans working outside of the tourist economy is similar. As a case in point, the majority of residents in the village near Spannocchia are employed at a small Bayer pharmaceutical factory, and few see agriculture as a wise career move. For example, one of Spannocchias neighbors, a middle-aged couple raising sheep for specialty cheeses, has several adult sons. To their parents despair, not one o f these sons wanted to carry on the family operation, or even to remain in the region. As Capo (1995) points out, very few of the residents in rural areas of Italy continue to participate in agriculture. At this time, less than 2% of the GDP in Tuscany comes from agriculture. On the other hand, over 42 million visitors arrive in Tuscany each year, accounting for about 12% of the areas GDP, and the region boasts over 4,000 registered agritourism

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sites (Regione Toscana 2011). However, not all farmers want to, or have the capacity to, participate in agritourism. Sonnino (2004) argues that even for those who may succeed financially through agritourism, the preservation of an agricultural lifestyle, with its associated values of freedom and independence, is not addressed for most. The bucolic rural society imagined by tourists is simply not populated by food producers. Furthermore, as Sonnino (1999) points out, the majority of the tourists who romanticize Tuscany have no idea that the historic preservation seen in rural towns is directly linked to the collapse of local agricultural economies in the post war period. Impoverished farmers and sharecroppers in the region abandoned many of the stone houses (which are now remodeled as vacation homes) and migrated to urban areas during the years of the Economic Miracle of industrialization. This rural outmigration left behind several outbuildings that now serve as guesthouses at Spannocchia, at prices upwards of 800 euros per week. These economic and social inequalities also play out in Italian food histories. Local Nostalgia, Global Identity Throughout Italy, reification of an authentic agricultural past plays a central role in the ideology of food. Yet this agricultural past, largely based on the mezzadria sharecropping system, was marked by extremes in poverty. Many dishes formerly associated with monotony and poor nutrition now form the basis for Italian cuisine. Counihans (2004) work on food and memory in Tuscany reve als that the diet of these sharecroppers was largely one of bread and thin minestrone soups, with very little meat, cheese, or variety. The mezzadria system continued throughout the first half of the last century, and a 1922 survey showed that Tuscan sharecroppers labored 300 days a year for approximately 14 hours a day (Counihan 2004). Existing conditions of undernourishment exacerbated by Fascist food policies and the World Wars led to massive urban migration following WWII. This migration led to a reconceptualization of

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the rural on multiple levels. Horn (1991) discusses the ways in which the Italian government propagated the rural as a natural and healthy landscape in the face of falling urban fertility. He points out that the regimes appeals to abstract rural values, and its calls for the ruralization of everyday life, were at odds with the values of a great many Italiansthat is, with their own constructions of the u rban and the rural (Horn 1991:590). Nevertheless, this rural-urban migration, as well as the transatlantic emigration to the Americas (Heltosky 2004), led to a re-imagining of food and traditional life for subsequent generations. Coupled with the rise in American-style supermarkets, new patterns of consumption and different relationships with food products emerged (Scarpellini 2004). Counihan (2004) relates that her older Florentine informants focused on three major changes in the Italian diet food is now far more abundant, consumption is taken for granted, and excess leads to a loss of desire for certain items. Whereas people once had little to eat but focused on quality (poco ma buono), now there is expansive quantity with dubious quality. This gastronomic shift is not unique to Italy. In his discussion of food and memory in Greece, Sutton (2001) showed that an understanding of peoples subjective perceptions of the foods of the past is central to conceptualizing their modern identity politics. The framing of food within an idealized past creates structural nostalgia (Herzfeld 1997) that orients everyday social practices. For example, in 1891, Pellegrino Artusi codified, classified, and created a national cuisine in the first pan-Italian cookbook, La Scienza in Cucine e LArte di Mangiare Bene (Helstosky 2004:27). Artusis book, directly primarily to a newly emerging middle class, emphasized simplicity and attention to regional difference, linking the residents of disparate areas

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together through the medium of food.8 Meanwhile, the majority of people living in Italy during the 19th century existed under conditions of poverty and hunger. This kind of idealization of the diet continues to mask social inequalities in Italian agriculture today. Yet for Slow Food in Italy, the importance of authenticityand the cultural politics of identity encapsulated thereinremains intrinsically associated with food quality. Idealized constructions of Italian-ness can also obscure the transnational pressures that influence the structural position of contemporary agricultural producers in Italy, and the ways in which social movements to restructure food production and consumption affect them. Dalla Costa and De Bortoli point out that when compared to the political movements related to agriculture in France: In Italy the situation has been noticeably different, with scant attention paid to farmers, little interest in their demands for a dignified life, serious impoverishments of the countryside and a strong tendency to use agricultural areas as a source of an emigrant labour force. (2005: np) In other words, blindness to the poverty of the sharecropping system in centuries past extends to overlooking the reality of farming in Italy today. 9 Globalization restructures the meaning of rural production and work, agriculturalists relationship to the state and other domains of power, and the ways in which science and technology are utilized (Long 1996), and peasant movements have restructured in kind. Global networks of neo-peasant and small farmer organizations such as Via Campesina focus on mass
8 See also Appadurai for a discussion of the ways in which cookbooks transmit recipes, but also serve as representations not only of structures of production and distribution and of social and cosmological schemes, but of class and hierarchy (1988: 3). Cookbooks capture regional inflection as well as national standardization, and serve as a lens through which to view larger patterns of cultural formation. 9 Strong divisions continue to exist between the industrial northern and agricultural southern regions of Italy, a concept that Schneider (1998) describes as the Italian version of Orientalism. This division is further exacerbated by recent news revealing the abysmal working conditions and violent racialized attacks on African migrant workers in southern Italy (cf. Human Rights Watch 2010). Such news further obfuscates the romanticized image of farming in Italy.

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mobilization while simultaneously focusing on the local, national, or international locations that will permit them to exert effective political pressure (Edelman 2005). The Via Campesina promotes the concept of food sovereignty, or t he right to produce food on ones own territory, and addresses threats to regional identity and traditions associated with food and regional economy. Local issues and local activism drive the Via Campesinas global interventions, and Desmarais states that : The ability of the Via Campesina to remain firmly grounded in the local while being propelled into the global is perhaps one of the most significant contributions to our understanding of the nature, extent, and complexity of current agrarian activism. (2002:109) This political positioning of agrarian activism reflects Becks (1998) Cosmopolitan Manifesto. Moving beyond Marxs Communist Manifesto, Beck posits that the cosmopolitan world we live in today is at once global, individualistic and more moral than we suppose (Beck 2002:41). As such, a new dialectic of global and loca l questions, which do not t into national politics, must be addressed on a transnational scale. Here, Small-farmer opposition actions and transnational organizing flourished in areas where regional economic integration and supranational governance were making their weight felt on the local level (Edelman 2001:304). In opposing neoliberal policies and corporate agriculture, small farmersformerly deemed peasantsare at the center of a variety of movements to reclaim the authenticity of food and preserve local heritage. Moreover, rather than serve as nostalgic remnants of an agriculturalist past, these peasants maneuver in broad politico -economic arenas and play a dynamic role in shaping food policies. Movements like the Via Campesina, and in some ways Slow Food, offer a lens through which to examine this emergent dialogue. 10
10 In his discussion of neo-peasant movements in France, Lebovics (2005) argued that unlike the Via Campesina, which takes a politically organized, confrontational stance against neoliberal organizations such as the WTO, Slow Food is not a movement of social activists. Rather, he described Slow Food as a Marxist plot by Piedmont leftists attempting to authenticate Italian regionalism.

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Neo-peasant movements elucidate the changing conceptions of what it means to be agrarian, rural, and global. Slow Food producers are not traditional subsistenceoriented peasants (Wolf 1969) or workers struggling to merge pre-capitalist and capitalist modes of production (Painter 1984). Wolf (1969) described peasants as populations existentially involved in, and making autonomous decisions about, cultivationpeasants were primarily agriculturalists, held effective control of the land, and oriented their work toward subsistence rather than reinvestment. Kearney (1995) argues that emergent discourses of history, consciousness, society and self now supersede these anachronistic images of the peasant. Rather than romanticize or essentialize peasants as a social category, Kearney contends that anthropologists must understand the post -peasant subject within transnational contexts of contemporary global processes of food production. Today's producers are subjects within transnational contexts of contemporary global processes of food production (Long 1996; Murcott 2001). Whereas essentialized peasants occupy a primordial connection to the land, actual rural politics are concerned with human rights, ecopolitics, and ethnicity (Kearney 1995:8). Following this line of argument, Goodman (2004) posits that the emerging rural developments in Europe encapsulate a process of re-peasantisation, wherein efforts to rebuild culturalterritorial identity, rurality, and sustainability are central to development itself. In the Italian context, wherein nostalgic longings for the authentically rural shape the nationalist ideologies and cultural constructions described earlier, agriculturalists remain in a less than ideal position. Krause argues, Nostalgia covers up the hierarchical, asymmetrical peasant-patron relationships under which sharecroppers, perhaps their grandparents, labored, produced, consumed, and reproduce. This romanticizing of the peasant pastproduces a myth in which the peasant status as debased internal Other is easily forgotten. (2005:609) In other words, social memory is selective. Although the mezzadria system is long gone, Krause shows that Italians (and those seeking to define their culture) continue

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to draw upon the peasant as a social category and as a representation for all that is fresh and healthy about the countryside (2005:604). Foods that are culturally defined as Italian operate as both material and symbolic products. One example of this valorization of peasant images in the context of globalized marketing structures is can be seen in with the Instituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani (IVSI- Institute for the Promotion of Italian Salumi). The institute works with regional development centers and the Italian Trade Commission to promote Italian agro-food heritage worldwide via a campaign called Made in Italy (a tagline that remains in English, rather than Italian). The IVSI also works with various Italian health offices on food safety and nutrition initiatives. At Salone del Gusto, I picked up a promotional postcard promoting the gusto e cultura del Made in Italy (taste and culture of Made in Italy) at the IVSI stand (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 Postcard image; Image courtesy of Instituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani

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Framed like artwork, the card depicts a classic image of an Italian peasant woman wearing provocatively draped clothing while serving an enormous platter of sliced salumi. On the back, the card encourages consumers to stop by the stand for daily free tastings of several varieties of salumi products paired with Italian wines, where Salone visitors can incontri con gli scrittori del gusto (meet with the writers of taste). Presumably, these writers of taste are the producers themselves, although this is not specified; even less clear is the role of the woman depicted. Harper and Faccioli call the utilization of nostalgia a commodification of cultural memory (2009:157). Here, commodity fetishism may be viewed as a kind of purposeful forgetting of the pasts that went into the making of the present. Italian foods have become global commodities that operate as cultural signs as well as products in their own right. The question is who gets to control the symbolic dimension of Italian food, as well as the commodities that they represent. In most cases producers remain deeply ensconced in a rural reality dominated by industrial agriculture. Slow Food appears to operate in opposition to conventional agriculture, but as Lotti (2010) argues, it utilizes the means of industrial agriculture (e.g., standardization of products, labeling) in order to create consumer support. The context in which these individuals labor may be at odds with many aspect of the alternative frameworks highlighted by Slow Food and others. As such, producers are caught in a binary wherein it takes modern means to do things in a traditional way (Hirtz 2003:889). Large scale Slow Food events constitute one arena in which these tensions become apparent. One way to think about these events is through the concept of a middle ground. This concept draws upon historian Richard White, who argues: Diverse peoples adjust their differences through what amounts to a process of creative, and often expedient, misunderstandings. People try to persuade others who are different from themselves by appealing to what they perceive to be the values and practices of those others. They often misinterpret and distort both the values and practices of those they deal with, but from these misunderstandings arise new meanings and through them new

40 practicesthe shared meanings and practices of the middle ground. (2001:x) The events of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre serve as a rich middle ground, an environment that allows for creative constructions of mutual understanding between producers and consumers. Here, an army of individuals dedicated to the creation of Good, Clean and Fair foods constitute an imagined community on a global scale, wherein all participants hold images and ideas of other group members that connect them to one another (Anderson 1983). The core values of Slow Fo ods imagined community are embodied by producers, who perform these values at middle ground events like Salone del Gusto or Slow Food Nation.

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CHAPTER TWO: INFORMING TASTE Salone del Gusto Every two years, Slow Food and the city of Turin host Salone del Gusto (Halls of Taste), an exposition of specialty Slow Food products and producers geared toward educating consumers, and Terra Madre (Mother Earth), a conference made up of rural agriculturalists, chefs, and educators striving to restructure the current agricultural system. These concurrent world meetings of food communities take place over five days in October, and continue to grow in size and scope with every edition. Hosted in a complex of stadiums constructed for the 2006 Winter Olympics, the eighth biennial meetings in 2010 counted over 200,000 people in attendance. The two events represent two very different angles of Slow Food International. While Terra Madre works to connect small-scale food producers from around the globe, Salone del Gusto highlights Slow Food ideology and consumer practices, drawing gastronomic tourists to the Piedmont for a crash course in taste education. Attendees, 70% of whom hail from Italy, can sample hundreds of food and drink items, meet farmers, and purchase artisanal products not readily available elsewhere. Since 1996, the Salone del Gusto food festival has showcased quality, small-scale producers from around the world. Moreover, from its inception, the Salone del Gusto served as the primary locale for promoting the official agenda of the movement. As the largest promotional and educational event hosted by Slow Food, Salone del Gusto aims to inspire a profound reflection on food and the global community it represents. The organizers and participants at events like Salone del Gusto encapsulate the direction and shape of Slow Food as a global movement. At these culinary and cultural showcases, Slow Food actively produces discourse encouraging consumers to connect taste and gustatory pleasure with the preservation of cultural and biological diversity offered by small producers worldwide. For example, the Good, Clean & Fair campaign

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introduced in Turin in 2006, based on charismatic Slow Food founder Petrinis 2005 eponymous book, provides a cohesive framework in which consumers can make everyday food selections. However, my ethnographic data reveal economic and political tensions underwriting the organizations broad endeavor to connect producers and consumers in meaningful ways. How does Salone del Gusto encourage producer and consumer interaction on a daily basis, outside of the pomp and circumstance of the carefully constructed atmosphere of conviviality in Turin and other venues? Can connections forged at Slow Food events, and their ideological emphasis on supporting small-scale food production, translate into real-life changes in the daily lives of food producers around the world? In this chapter I primarily draw from participant-observation data collected during the 2006 and 2008 editions of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, and also from a range of related international events: Slow Food Nation (held in San Franscisco, CA in 2008), Terra Madre Toscana (Orbetello, Italy 2008), and Slow Fish (Genoa, Italy 2009). My analysis here is based on personal experiences attending these events, as well as the many conversations (both extended and ephemeral) I shared with fellow attendees, delegates and Slow Food employees. Additionally, I was able to collect Slow Food publications, attendance data, and Presidia pamphlets from the Slow Food Communications office in Bra, Italy during my stay there in October-November 2006. The quotations used in this chapter come from Slow Food press releases, producer brochures, event fliers, magazine and newspaper articles, and the translation services made available to Terra Madre delegates and lecture attendees. A Brief History of Salone del Gusto The first Salone, held in 1996, occurred in a space of only 5,000 square meters. Thirty-two thousand food aficionados and Slow Food members, primarily from Italy, gathered to sample valorized products and network with food producers and other

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gastronomes. Although Slow Food was already seven years old at this point, it was viewed simply as one of many extant Italian food and wine organization, albeit one renowned for the excellent Italian wine and restaurant guides that it published annually. The political and cultural underpinnings of the movement were not central to its public growth. The first Salone del Gusto, however, represented a much larger shift in the political strategy of the Slow Food Movement. In addition to growing in scope, the first Salone marked the increasingly global nature of the movement. According to founder Carlo Petrini: The main theme of the new cultural policy was the training of individual taste, mainly through the taste workshops that had already appeared at previous events and were here the featured attraction, with places booked well in advance. Essentially the workshop consisted of the supervised tasting of wines and food products, with the aim of learning how these commodities were produced and how to analyze their flavor profiles. The main ideas of the movement were also presented and debated, and the campaign for an Ark was launched: for the first time, Slow Food had the chance to speak, from an important media platform, about protecting local products, and to make its position official through an ambitious project intended to open new pathways of production, marketing, and consumption. (2001:60) Two years later, in 1998, the Salone del Gusto incorporated a food market and attracted 120,000 visitors to Turin. To quote a 2008 Slow Food pamphlet, [This event] turned the elitist approach to quality gastronomy upside down. It transformed into pleasure and rights and interest that until then had been the preserve of an elect few. By 2000, ninety Presidia projects from Italy were introduced to the public. The Presidia constitute a network of small-scale artisanal producers who share the same environmental and cultural project to recover and protect tradition. With the economic and organizational assistance of Slow Food, Presidia producers, who often live in marginalized communities, are connected to niche markets interested in purchasing their goods. The Presidia project spread worldwide and now includes over 300 food communities in fifty nations. These communities include Tibetan yak cheese makers,

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Anishinaabeg wild rice producers from the American Great Lakes, sea salt collectors near Ravenna, Italy, and many others. The Presidia are coordinated by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, a non-profit organization which coordinates numerous projects in support of Terra Madre communities, providing them with technical and financial assistance. Operating worldwide, it develops projects to defend local food traditions, protect local biodiversity and promote small-scale quality products, with an increasing focus on investments in countries of the Global South (Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity 2011). By 2002 the Foundation for Biodiversity was a fully operative arm of the Slow Food movement. The Foundation developed clear guidelines for an Ark of Taste at this time, in which endangered foods and their producers were defined and supported by the organization. In 2004 the first Terra Madre meeting brought Presidia and Ark producers together in Turin. As the Salone grew increasingly commercial, seeing upwards of 140,000 visitors, Terra Madre focused entirely on the political implications of maintaining cultural traditions surrounding food. By 2006, over 5000 farmers, breeders, fishers, and food artisans from 150 nations, 1000 cooks, 500 teachers and representatives from 225 universities, 2300 observers and guests, and 800 volunteers attended Terra Madre (Terra Madre Foundation 2011). The event moved to the Lingottos Oval building, a space originally built for the ice skating rinks of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. In 2008 the numbers jumped to 7,000 small-scale food producers, and the event does not appear to be losing momentum. These events serve as key sites for illuminating how the Slow Food movement makes claims about linking consumption and production in new ways. The sheer volume of attendees at Salone del Gusto many of whom are not official Slow Food members presents an unmatched opportunity for the movement to accomplish its goal of educating consumers. In addition to the direct links forged between producers and a captive audience of consumers, Slow Food uses this venue to present key information about the ideology of the movement.

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Navigating the Slow network Framed as a showcase for the Slow Food Foundations projects, particularly the Presidia and Ark of Taste, events like Salone del Gusto attempt to connect the multiple arms of the Slow Food movement as a whole. At the 2009 Slow Fish event in Genoa, a wall-sized diagram mimicking a subway map depicted the momentum and intersection of Slow Food projects along the central tracks of Buono, Pulito and Giusto (Good, Clean and Fair) (Figure 3).

Figure 3 "Map" of the Slow Food network

The Slow Food Network image, which covered most of a wall and served primarily as a design feature, was largely ignored by passersby at Slow Fish. It is difficult for a casual observer to navigate this complex network, and it is unlikely that most attendees at Slow Food events fully graspor perhaps even want to grasp the entire scope of the movement. In any case, I was the only person photographing the map;

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the other attendees were far more interested in the enormous sculptures of shimmering fish, artfully curated arrangements of seafood, and informational booths operated by fishermen. Images like this one show efforts made by Slow Food to convey the multiple layers of the organization to consumers, but upon closer examination there are few clear connections to be drawn from this map. The yellow line highlights Slow Food Promuove (Promotions), the blue Educa (Education), and the red Tutela (Protection). While all routes eventually intersect with Good, Clean and Fair, and with one another, the stops along the tracks do not necessarily correlate to a specific position on the map or within the movement. (Although, for the purposes of this dissertation, it is perhaps telling that Giusto (Fair), the Slow Food line most clearly connected to food producers, is also the farthest away from the majority of other intersections!) Instead, this map presents a laundry list of Slow Food programs and guiding themes, and highlights the movements efforts to pull together a disparate range of ideologies and activities. This type of intentional ambiguity reflects the ability of New Social Movements like Slow Food to present a range of issues to a loosely organized social network of supporters traveling on its various lines. Rather than address a singular social or political issue, New Social Movements have the capacity to traverse multiple agendas. In some cases this approach appears to be, as Byrne (1997) argues, relatively disorganized. While the Slow Food map may not reflect an overarching structural framework for the movement, it encourages Slow Food participants to climb aboard the movement at places that hold personal significance. However, as the movement continues to expand, communicating its ever-growing political endeavors becomes both more difficult and more critical. For example, connecting consumers to the international development goals of the Foundation for Biodiversity and the national agendas of Slow Food branches remains a central challenge for the movement. While a diffuse and personalized basis for participation typical of New Social Movements attracts Slow Food members, it does not always ensure meaningful connections with core ideologies.

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Figure 4 Buono, Pulito e Guisto: Good, Clean and Fair

In response, enormous efforts are made at Salone del Gusto to educate visitors about the central tenets of Slow Food. The entrance to the stadium is decorated with colossal banners encouraging visitors to join the Slow Food Movement. Inside, displays and abundant printed materials educate consumers about the significance of Good, Clean & Fair, the Foundation for Biodiversity, Presidia, and the Terra Madre network. In 2008, a walkway through the Lingotto dubbed the The Virtuous Way meandered through the Taste Pavilion marketplace. Flanked with massive displays such as the Buono, Pulito & Giusto triad surrounding a copy of Petrinis eponymous book (Figure 4), the Virtuous Way provided detailed visual reinforcements for the movements central ideologies. However, although Slow Food takes enormous creative effort to concoct displays educating consumers about its missives, most visitors bypass them quickly on their way to the main eventthe food. The Halls of Taste The Taste Pavilion marketplaces are the highlight of Salone del Gusto. Each pavilion is made up of dozens of booths containing foods endorsed by Slow Food. Staffed primarily by the producers themselves, these stands are pivotal to the Salone experience. In 2008 there were 620 booths; by 2010 this number expanded to 910. The

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booths flank relatively narrow walking spaces in which throngs of visitors wrangle for space. Wandering through the halls of taste is an exercise in navigating a crowd of thousandsbaby strollers compete for space with wide-eyed tourists, school groups elbow a path to the free samples, and families jostle to stay together. A majority of the stands offer their products for sale, and the spaces are crammed with merchandise, decorative objects, and glossy informational brochures printed by Slow Food. Many of the producers offer free samples of their wares; many more offer a sample platter for a few euros. In the popular meat and cheese aisles sampling is relatively straightforward. A toothpick pierced morsel is easy to enjoy on the go. Other products present more of a challenge. For example, when a Sicilian salt producer offered me a pinch of his sea salt I was unsure of the protocolshould I put it all in my mouth? Sample a few grains? A Moroccan saffron producer cleverly constructed a system in which Salone del Gusto attendees could smell his product. An olfactory sample of the exotic herb enticed some individuals to purchase a small jar. Meandering through the Halls of Taste can be an overwhelming sensory experience. In 2006 Slow Food devoted an entire section of the exhibition to Presidia products and the Foundation for Biodiversity for the first time. By 2008, around one third of the stalls were allocated to 182 Italian and 106 international Slow Food Presidia. Each stall is staffed by at least one representative from the Presidia community who is able to speak about production methods. In many cases the representative is a producer, although language barriers and time constrains often prevent in-depth communications. To assuage this issue, all Presidia products have glossy trifold brochures with photographs and descriptive text developed by Slow Foods communication offices in Bra, Italy. Always available in Italian, these brochures are sometimes also printed in another major language (English, Spanish, French, etc.), particularly if the producers hail from a region speaking that tongue. Importantly, the brochures list phone numbers and addresses for

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individual producers of the Presidia product, as well as contact information for the Presidia coordinator. If applicable, icons depicting the major financial and organizational supporters of the project are also listed. I collected dozens of these brochures at Salone del Gusto in 2006 and 2008, and the communications offices in Bra stored boxes of brochures dating back to 2000. Consumers can receive a great deal of information about a particular product from these handouts. For example, the brochure for the Salame delle Valli Tortonesi, a specialty cured meat product from the easternmost tip of the Piedmont region of Italy, describes the production process in detail. An image of a butcher separating lean meats from fattier cuts corresponds to textual descriptions of the constitution of the product. The brochure also reveals that Il segreto la stagionatura(the secret is the aging process). What makes this product unique, and worthy of safeguarding with a Presidia status, is the fact that it is cured by a small number of butchers utilizing completely natural aging processes. The microclimate of the region allows them to age their meat products without the use of any refrigeration or artificial preservatives, a process that lasts anywhere from 3-18 months. At Salone del Gusto, consumers can meet with the producers described in the brochure, sample their wares, learn more about the production process, and access information about how to purchase the salame. One of the seven producers featured on the brochure is part of an agritourism estate, so it may even be possible to stay at the farm where the pigs are raised, adding another link to the chain of consumer-producer relations. It is unlikely that a product like the Salame delle Valli Tortonesi would ever receive this volume of market exposure without the aid of Slow Food. And, indeed, this is one of the central goals of the Presidia programto organize producer groups in order to seek out new markets for their products. Through the promotion and valorization of flavors unique to a particular locality, the Salone del Gusto provides attendees with

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access to hundreds of rare products. Yet in some cases, this may lead to unintended results for producers themselves. The Case of Lardo In 2006 I found myself squeezed into a large crowd surrounding a stall offering samples of Lardo di Colonnata. Lardo is produced by salting slabs of pork fat which are then pressed between slabs of marble from the mines of Colonnata, where they cure for several months. Lardo is exactly what it sounds likethe fat that is typically rendered into lard is instead cured and salted. In the past, Lardo was deemed unhygienic, unhealthy, and symbolic of backwards thinking in the face of modernization. It was primarily the foodstuff of impoverished marble miners, who would eat the creamy, salty product between slices of thick bread for lunch. Unable to afford choice cuts of meat, the miners ate this small bit of protein created from the cheapest remnants of a hog. Those who consumed lardo were both united through its consumption and distinguished from those who did not; as Gewertz and Errington point out, eaters of undesirable cuts of meat know that they are eating what others reject because they have decidedly less efficacy in the world (2010: 26). In a stunning reversal of market position, the lardo once utilized as a proletarian hunger-killer is currently marketed to gourmands as an exotic delicacy. Utterly reinvented, lardo is no longer a stigmatized peasant foodrather, a producer of lardo is now viewed as the quintessential modern subject, a holder par excellence of national heritage (Leitch 2003: 447). Branded as a Presidia specialty product, lardo experienced a surge in popularity that actually made it difficult for small-scale producers to meet consumer demand. The Presidia projects commercial and media success also led to another unintended consequence: Presidia producers began to see competition from fakes (similar products using the same name) or products presented as Presidia which had nothing to do with the Slow Food project. There is a definite brand recognition for

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Presidia products in Italy that I witnessed during my own research (e.g., while vending Cinta Senese pork products with the Tuscan agritourismo that I will describe in Chapter Three, I was regularly asked if our lardo was Lardo di Colonnata). As such, the commodification of this particular regional product boosted the popularity of all types of lardo, whether or not they were produced using the artisanal methods developed and valorized in Colonnata (e.g., seasonal processing, the areas microclimate, the marble of the aging tanks, and the extensive variety of local aromatic herbs and spices). Despite the fact that Colonnata is located in an entirely different region of Italy, consumers at our Tuscan market knew about lardo primarily in the context of Slow Food or other specialty food advertising. For producers across Tuscany, the market valorization of a traditional pork product translated into increased sales of an otherwise difficult to sell item. Prior to the revaluation of lardo as a unique product symbolic of local heritage, it was indexical of poverty or the health risks associated with consumption of saturated fatsneither of which are particularly good for sales. In a marketplace where all sorts of meat products jostle for attention and acceptance, lardo is a Slow Food success story. The Lardo stand was just one of many in the Halls of Taste. When I searched through my photographs for an image of the stand, I found only one. Blurred with people in motion, the view of the Lardo itself is almost entirely blocked off by a crowd of people waiting for a sample. In all honesty, this is a very representative image of what the Slow Food consumer experiences at Salone del Gusto. Embarking upon a day of food education and sampling is both enjoyable and exhausting for the culinary tourist. Wandering from space to space, jostling with the crowds, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by people, information, smells, and tastes. It is simply not possible to have in-depth, detailed conversations with food producers from around the world in this context. From the perspective of the producers, who arrive early in the day to prepare their booths and then work through the long hours of the event, sometimes with very little assistance, it is obviously an exhausting venture. It bears repeating that food producers are typically not

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professional marketers, and the demands of the Salone are very different from those of a typical farmers market or local food fair. I recall watching a physically tiny Sicilian woman and her son running a salami stall (see Figure 5). In addition to selling various types of salami, the booth offered simple panini (sandwiches) made with hard white rolls and slices of their meat. The woman rushed about taking money, cutting meat, and taking orders from customers, but saying very little. When I purchased a panino I attempted to ask her a few questions about their products, which were delicious.

Figure 5 Selling salumi products from Sicily

She smiled when I asked which type of salami was her favorite, revealing several missing teeth. I had difficulty understanding her response, and it took me a moment to realize that she was speaking in a Sicilian dialect that, particularly to my non-native ears,

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was almost incomprehensible. She tried to direct me to her son, who spoke standard Italian, but I began to feel as though I was imposing on them when they were obviously very busy. Faced with thousands of visitors who are literally and figuratively hungry for Slow Food, the demands of maintaining a stall for five days must be intense. While Slow Food rhetorically emphasizes the importance of producers at Salone del Gusto (and throughout the Slow Food system), producers and consumers clearly experience the event in vastly different ways. In the staged social interactions at Taste Pavilions, producers perform face-to-face interactions with consumers thousands of times per day, with limited control over the setting, appearance and manner of the interaction (cf. Goffman 1959). Producers must remain on stage during Salone, continuously projecting a positive image of an authentic food producer. In addition to the sheer volume of consumers present at the event, this framing does not provide spaces for meaningful discussions about the everyday challenges of food production or the underlying strategies of producers participation at Salone. At the end of each Salone, I left wondering what the producers in the Halls of Taste gained from their experiences. What ideas and images (Conklin & Graham 1995) had these producers portrayed to consumers at the event, and in what situations and to what ends did producers creatively perform their roles? Taste Re-education If the Taste Pavillions are the heart of Salone, numerous other agendas complete the body of the experience. For example, various Italian regions individually support an Island of Taste, which offers renowned foods and other specialty products from that area. In addition to regional fare, La Banca del Vino (The Wine Bank) offers workshops and tastings to present 2,500 different wine labels from around the world. Workshops organized by students from Slow Foods University of Gastronomic Science cover a range of topics, and the Theatre of Tastea 60-seat auditorium with a kitchen and big

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screen projectorexhibits Italian and foreign chefs as they make their trademark dishes. Add in twenty different dinner dates organized in upscale restaurants and castles in the region, scholarly lectures on biodiversity and food security, and a Slow Food on Film festival, and the range of potential Slow Food activities during this five-day festival rapidly expands. In terms of consumer education, however, the hundreds of Taste Workshops that run continuously during Salone del Gusto are of particular interest. According to a 2008 Salone pamphlet, taste education is based on reawakening and training of the senses and the study of food production techniques. In an effort to formalize its goal of Taste Education, Slow Food hosts numerous Taste Workshops that highlight specific wines and food products during Salone del Gusto. Redefining how value is placed on consumer goods and distinguishing the difference between quality and luxury are recurring themes in Taste Workshops. Typically, several food producers in a specific genre (cured meats, chocolate, distilled liquors, etc.) present their goods, and a moderator directs the tasting experience. The 2006 Salone del Gusto program notes that: To fully appreciate a quality food product, its not enough just to taste it. You have to find out about its geographic context, production phases and ingredients. This way you can give due recognition to environmental sustainability and cultural and social significance inseparable basics for protecting biodiversity. Taste workshops constitute one arena of Slow Foods explicit attempts to connect producers and consumers. In 2006 and 2008 workshops ranged in price from 12 for a session on various Arabic-style coffees to 45 for a tasting of Rhone Valley wines. Seats could be reserved online with the purchase of Salone tickets or at a special booking area at the event. There are nearly 200 workshops to choose from; those featuring popular food items or producers are booked months in advance. Workshops are held in the language of the producers or moderators leading the discussion, and simultaneous translation is available in English and Italian via UN-style headsets.

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Retraining the Senses: Biodynamic Wine The difficulties that accompany efforts to connect ideologies with the aesthetics of taste were especially evident in an October 2008 workshop I attended entitled La Natura del Vino (The Nature of Wine). It was organized by students from Slow Food s Universit degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche (University of Gastronomic Sciences, or UNISG) in Pollenzo. To earn a masters degree at the institution, students take graduate level courses on topics such as biodiversity, environmentally sustainable food production, food ethics, cultural geography, food technology, and sensory analysis. Drawing from this formalized training, the organizers paired six wines (3 red, 3 white) from conventional, biodynamic or organic vineyards in Italy and presented the wines as a flight of tastings. Rather than rank the wines according to a predefined set of gustatory principles, workshop attendees were encouraged to examine the unique, localized flavor (terroir) of the different wines. The workshop began with a discussion of the differences in conventional, organic, and biodynamic wine production. 11 The use of industrial nitrogen in the production of conventional wines was contrasted with organic methods, which bypass chemical fertilizers and pesticides in favor of building healthy soil. The moderators referred to conventional vineyards as production machines that go against the common sense of agriculture. Each workshop participant received photocopies of the microscopic crystallization testing conducted by UNISG students on each wine. According to biodynamic theory, crystallization analysis reveals the vitality of the soil in which the grapes are grownit illustrates an ethereal quality of plants, and the

11 Biodynamic agriculture was developed in the 1930s by Rudolf Steiner, who argued that plants mirror the environmental macrocosm. This macrocosm is made up of air, water, soil, and astral elements, all of which affect the vibrations and flavors in food. Biodynamic agriculture attracts a fair amount of attention in Italy, where producers that follow the method plant and harvest according to astrological schedules, carefully select companion plants, and feed the soil in specific ways at specific times.

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difference between conventional and biodynamic wines in the photographs was clearly discernible. Following the presentation on wine production methods, workshop attendees tasted each wine and many made notes on the paper provided. Rather than conform to a standard 100-point objective scale of wine tasting, the workshop re-educated our tongues and noses to seek out the soul and energy of each wine. I know relatively little about wine, and after sipping from each glass I was rather embarrassed to admit that I found the organic and biodynamic white wines to be less than stellar. Initially I chalked my opinion up to a naive palate, but many of the other workshop participants confessed that they preferred the conventional wines, calling them more balanced and exact. The biodynamic wine producers at the workshop responded to this critique with an interesting tactic. One producer countered that most consumers taste wine in a very specific way, seeking out particular flavor sensations and aromatic notes that are shaped by our culture. He described a strong version of gastronomic determinism (albeit not in those terms), arguing that culture shapes the physiology of taste, or at least our perceptions of it. Taste, however, can be transformed: for example, he argued that consumers gradually adjusted to the flavor and texture of free-range chickens. Originally considered somewhat unpalatable, free-range chickens are now esteemed for their complex taste. Similarly, biodynamic wines possess a unique flavor and energy that most consumers are not yet accustomed to. As our culture shifts to appreciate different dimensions of terroir, he argued, our taste buds will respond in kind. This reconfiguration of taste, and the cultural politics involved in the sensory perceptions of Slow products, highlights some interesting tensions that can accompany the creation of co-producers. At Taste Workshops Slow Food consumers gain insider knowledge about specific products, but what happens in cases where certain Clean and Fair foods do not necessarily taste very Good? In this case, the biodynamic wine producers framed gastronomic pleasure as something that can be directly shaped by the

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political and economic structures of food and beverage markets. Augmenting the UNISG students attack on industrial agriculture with a critique of the limited palates it subsequently creates, the producers challenged participants subjective experiences of the wine. While the microscopic crystallization photographs lent a degree of scientific credibility to the purity of the wine and the biodynamic process, the producers dictated what Good entails in this context. Here, the Slow Food version of gustatory pleasure is dictated through the education of taste, wherein particular social values are attached to sensory perceptions, as well as the creation of a desire for that taste. Rethinking Terroir via Prosciutto Other taste workshops I attended in 2006 and 2008 revealed additional discursive tactics of taste re-education within Slow Food. Workshop organizers and food producers at Taste Education events I attended consistently highlighted terroir, or the relationship between food, taste, and place, as a form of cultural knowledge. According to Trubek (2009), this taste of place holds a set of values, practices, and aspirations that offer consumers a way to navigate agriculture, cooking, and eating in the 21 st century. Food is localized for economic, political, and aesthetic reasons. For Slow Food, the alternative set of cultural values outlined by the concept of terroir builds upon the framework of Good, Clean and Fair. Framing food through these channels offers coproducers a response to the unknowns of the interdependent global food system (Trubek 2009: 12). In 2008 I attended a workshop at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco, CA entitled The Apple in the Pigs Mouth. Held at the seaside Fort Mason Center, this tasting focused on artisanal ciders and prosciutto from the organic, critically acclaimed La Quercia charcuterie in Iowa. Participants were provided with a printed sheet of tasting notes. To properly taste each of the three dry-cured prosciutto samples, the sheet asked us to undertake four steps: Know it, Look at it, Smell it, and Taste it. Slow eaters are

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first encouraged to Know the product what kind of hog did the pork come from? How was it raised, slaughtered, and cured? The workshop brought several important features of the pork from La Quercia to consumers attention. First, none of the pigs come from CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or co nfinement factory farms), the meat is antibiotic free, and all of the animals had access to pasture. Participants learned about the various breeds of pigs used, and the production systems utilized by Iowa farmers to raise them. A spokesman from La Quercia mentioned that the pigs feed primarily on corn and soybeans, as these are part of the Iowa terroir. A French expression used to denote a sense of place, terroir references the ways that the geography, geology and climate of a certain area bestow unique flavors on its food products. Although Iowa is certainly known for mass industrial production of corn and soy, it is not typically referenced in terms of terroir (see also Qazi and Selfa 2005 for a discussion of alternative production in regions of Washington dominated by conventional industrial farming). Here, corn and soy regain a local identity outside of corporate manufacturing. Normally, the highly commercialized Big Ag companies and associated corporate farms are depicted as villains who destroy the local ecosystem, push patented genetically modified seeds, and crush small family farm operations (cf. Simon 2006, Patel 2007). It is interesting that the producer references terrior here, when La Quercias products derive from an agricultural and culinary history far-removed from the Midwest. Hinrichs (2003) argues that the emergent and inclusive definitions of local food, especially in areas dominated by conventional agriculture like Iowa, challenge the meaning of concepts like terroir. La Quercia is owned and operated by Americans (and, in some areas of production, Mexican immigrants), and the curing process involves sea salt and temperature controlled buildings (neither of which are mentioned as a component of the unique flavor of the pork). Yet in a reification of locality, or perhaps the application of a gastronomic buzzword, terrior is employed in Knowing the prosciutto.

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Indeed, this taste workshop centered on understanding the production of the pigs. The sensory aspects of consumption (looking, smelling, and tasting) occupied considerably less of the workshops time. Slow Food posits that increased knowledge about modes of food production underscore the pleasure in physical acts of eating. Highlighting the philosophy and labor involved in the production of food helps the consumer to index the unique qualities of a product as well as the identity of the producer. Reconceptualizing the locality of food production further emphasizes Slow Foods attempts to overcome what Marx described as the severance of the connection between producer and consumer, which he argued was characteristic of capitalist production. Taste workshop activities explicitly aim to highlight the relations of production, further enriching the notion of a co -producer. However, while my observations at Taste Workshops suggest that important ambiguities underlie Slow Foods claims to restructure relationships between consumers and producers, the contradictions at hand in the movements efforts to construct co producers were even more visible in the presence and activities of corporate capitalis t producers at Salone del Gusto. Corporate Co-Producers? In addition to the Taste Pavillions and Taste Workshop spaces described above, the Salone del Gusto includes sizable kiosks where it is possible to purchase an array of books published by the Slow Food Editore, Slow Food apparel demarcated with the snail symbol, and other goods branded by the organization (see Figure 6). Slow Food International publishes a number of well- regarded books, pamphlets, and websites that are widely distributed and influential among Slow Food members and related organizations. In addition to the epistemological tomes written and edited by Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food Editore releases annual guides for wine, food, and tourism. These books are prominently stamped with the snail logo, which bestows symbolic capital and a

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certain cultural authority to the information within. This immediately recognizable symbol also demarcates particular foods and beverages in grocery stores, and is seen in the windows of restaurants and cafes bestowed with positive Slow Food reviews. The overt marketing of the organization is powerfully expressed in these spaces.

Figure 6 Slow Food branded items for sale at Salone del Gusto 2004; Image courtesy of Slow Food International

However, sales of mugs emblazoned with snails and regional restaurant guides cannot financially shoulder the cost of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre. At a cost of 20 for a daily entrance ticketnot including admission fees for the numerous Taste Workshops, organized dinners, or wine tastingsattending the Salone can become expensive. Although ticket sales offset some of the expense of the event, a large portion of the bill is subsidized by several major corporate sponsors, the largest including Lurisa bottled water, San Daniele prosciutto, Lavazza espresso, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Asti D.O.C.G. wines, the bank of Intesa San Paolo, and the COOP Italia grocery chain.

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These companies have much to gain from creating positive affiliations with the Slow Food Movement. Their role in funding Salone del Gusto goes beyond the prominent advertising that they receive at the event. With the exception of the banking chain, all of these corporations could be defined as industrial food producersand at the Salone, they situate their products down the hall from small-scale artisans. Indeed, one of the busiest vendors at Salone del Gusto was Lurisa, which sold bottled water (complete with a specially designed label showing the Salone insignia) for .50 apiece. 12 In sharp contrast to the individualized focus and tiny booths of the producers in the Taste Pavilions, the sponsoring corporations create enormous, technologically-savvy stations clearly developed by professional marketers. Corporate Sponsors The position of corporate sponsors at Salone del Gusto reflects incongruity in Slow Foods rhetoric against large-scale, industrial food producers. As a case in point, several major food corporations erected booths at Salone, offering food tastings and gastronomic workshops focused on their products. In 2006, the Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium space constructed a seating area built to resemble a wheel of the companys legendary cheese. By 2008 the space transformed into a wall of cheese, occupied by corporate representatives wearing designer suits (see Figures 7 and 8). In addition to daily tastings and workshops, the Parmigiano-Reggiano consortium offered free, glossy recipe books and beautifully photographed booklets describing the cheese production process. Emphasizing the regionalism and history of the product,

12 A bottled water company would not have found support at the U.S. based event Slow Food Nation, held in San Francisco, CA over the Labor Day weekend of 2008. At that event, large signs declaring Take Back the Tap! surrounded huge water urns providing free canteen refills. Slow Food USA urged attendees to the event to avoid creating plastic bottle waste, and even offered low cost refillable metal canteens. Clearly, the politics of corporate sponsorship differed at the two events.

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which is often mistakenly synonymous with parmesan cheese made anywhere, the consortium promoted the brand itself as opposed to individual milk producers. Although the raw milk for true Parmigiano -Reggiano cheese must come from the EmiliaRomagna region, the agricultural traditions and current conditions faced by dairy producers are barely mentioned. When they are, it is largely in the context of what the cattle are fed.

Figure 7 2006 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth

Figure 8 2008 Parmigiano-Reggiano booth

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Another sponsor, Lavazza coffee, is a major retailer of coffee served in cafes and homes throughout Italy. Linking producers and consumers through a brand name, Lavazza coffee created a wall of screens flashing exotic images of coffee producers from around the world (Figure 9). In lieu of bringing actual coffee farmers to the event, Lavazza virtually (re)presented the labor involved in creating the prefect espresso. Coffee consumers were digitally connected to idealized producers.

Figure 9 2006 Lavazza coffee booth

In a 2008 press release, Lavazza stated: In tandem with the Slow Food movement and its founder Carlo Petrini, the Turin-based company is championing the shared idea that is accomplished by safeguarding cultural identities related to food and culinary traditions. However, it is unclear if the cultural identities and traditions mentioned here are those of Italian espresso drinkers or those of the primarily Latin America and African coffee producers. By artificially linking the two disparate groups, Lavazza claims to shape a new kind of coffee co -producer, presumably one who

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supported fair trade. At their 2008 caf stand, Lavazza proudly promoted Good Karma, Great Coffee, and encouraged the consumer to espress yourself. However, when consumers are envisaged as international political activists by virtue of market choice (Leitch 2003:457), there can be no guaranteed ideological outcome. According to the rhetoric of Slow Food, when co-producers learn about the lives and challenges faced by food producers, this information will lead to new relations of production that encompass an obligation to Fair production. Similarly, Fisher (2007) notes that Fair Trade appears to combat commodity fetishization within the market system by revealing the human relationships involved in commodity production and exchange. On the other hand, she points out that Rather than seeing this as the decommodification of commerce, we could just as easily see this mediation of personal connection as a strong increase in commodification (Fisher 2007: 81). From this perspective, morality itself is commodified through co-production. What remains overlooked is the substantial power gap that continues to exist between northern and southern participants in Lavazzas Fair exc hange. Friedberg (2003) argues that the fetishism of ethical standards obscures extraordinarily uneven supply chain power relations, and worse, the fetishism of such standards means imposing them on far away producers who may or may not be capable of carrying them out. She states that Fair trade began as a market -based political movement that, to the extent that it raised consumer consciousness, paved the way for ethical trade to become a politically savvy marketing strategy (Friedberg 2003:7). The consumer is sold by the idea of freedom to choose an ethical product, but as Roseberry (2005) argues, consumer agency is little more than an illusion within this kind of marketing strategy. Could the same be said of Slow Foods connections with industrial fo od retailers? Although Lavazza creates a relationship between its virtual producers and the gastronomic tourists at Salone, I believe that Lavazzas stand offers little more than a symbolic appeal to the conscience of co-producers. Its presence is neither fully

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oppositional nor alternative, but it raises important questions about Slow Foods ideological claims against neoliberal economies. From this perspective it appears that Slow Foods focus is not on the establishment of a new structural configuration of the dominant system, but on the more modest goal of eroding the edges of that system through consumer-based initiatives. Negotiating Sponsorship Although it apparently does not closely regulate corporate activities at Salone del Gusto, Slow Food does produce explicit critiques about industrial-scale corporate producers. For example, in his 2001 book, Carlo Petrini bemoans the loss of gastronomic roots that define a place, and disparages advertisers who foist industrial products on to the public with messages evoking naturalness, genuineness, the link with tradition, and local specificity (2001:28). Yet in many ways, this is exactly what these corporate sponsors do at Salone del Gusto, and hardly in a subtle fashion. The Slow Food consumer may or may not be fully cognizant of the contradictions at hand in the underlying structures that enable Slow Food to herald small producers. In order to better understand the tensions between corporate funding, regionalism, and small producers, I return my focus to another Italian pork product showcased at Salone del Gusto: Prosciutto di San Daniele. Unlike the small-scale of Lardo or Salame delle Valli Tortonesi, Prosciutto di San Daniele is well known throughout Europe and beyond. It holds DOP status (Denominazione dOrigine Protetta, Protected Designations of Origin), a European Union designation of geographical origin for traditional specialties. The San Daniele consortium oversees the production of over 3,000,000 prosciutto hams per year, or about 14% of the total production of Italy. 13 There are 29 Italian charcuterie products that have either the DOP or IGP recognition, and these
13 http://www.prosciuttosandaniele.it/home_prosciuttosandaniele.php?

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constitute roughly 45% of all European meat products certified as such. In her work with northern Italian salumi makers, Cavanaugh (2007) found that many producers believe these labels end up homogenizing and commodifying the foods. In the promotion of a regional typicality, the DOP labels demand standardized production, something that only a handful of producersespecially large ones like Prosciutto di San Daniele are financially capable of doing. Moreover, small producers believe that this standardization negates the unique characteristics that define local meats. Reflecting this, the Prosciutto di San Daniele showcase at Salone del Gusto 2006 maneuvered in stark contrast to the pork producers in the Taste Pavillions (Figure 10). Here, homogenous legs of prosciutto dangled from antiseptic wooden racks. Samples were not taken from the display prosciutti, which were for visual rather than gustatory consumption. Rather, organized tastings were arranged at specific times under the guidance of trained representatives.

Figure 10 2006 Prosciutto di San Daniele stand

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Information about the production of the meat, which comes primarily from industrially-raised hogs fed a standardized diet to ensure uniformity, hung on a podium at the center of the space. Despite the fact that the creation of indistinguishable legs of prosciutto is a key to the brands success, information about the highly regulated, technological procedures used to create this prosciutto remained invisible. Moreover, producers themselves were utterly absent from the presentation. In a carefully phrased publicity statement released by the Slow Food Movement, the President of the San Daniele Prosciutto Consortium explained the philosophy behind the associations participation at the 2008 edition as follows: For the Consortium, supporting the Salone is a concrete way to offer its experience in protecting and safeguarding a food identity par excellence. Despite having attained worldwide fame, San Daniele Prosciutto has in fact managed to preserve its own highquality production features, which Slow Food is responsible for protecting and preserving as a symbol of our [Italian] cultural heritage. (Slow Food press release 2008). Here, links to cultural identity and the Italian foodscape override concerns about industrial production. The link forged between the San Daniele consortium and Slow Food is hardly hiddenalong with the other major corporate sponsors, the consortium has a full-page advertisement in the Salone del Gusto guidebook. The ad states: When the prosciutto is San Daniele, you dont need anything else. Making a Pig Smell Like a Rose One display at the 2006 Salone incorporated a particularly striking way of omitting the producer from its promotional materials. At this stand, I picked up a strange postcard depicting a rose with delicate petals formed from cooked, thinly sliced ham. The postcard asks, Perch accontentarsi? Scegli Rosa: Il prosciutto cotto di alta qualit. (Why settle? Chose Rosa: The high quality cooked prosciutto.) Unbelievably, the postcard asks the bearer to Scratch here and discover the scent of

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Rosa (Figure 11). While I was hesitant to scratch-and-sniff a meat flower, I was even more surprised when the circle revealed a floral rose scent.

Figure 11 2006 Rosa handout; Image courtesy of Prosciutto Rosa

Juxtaposed with the Slow Food taste training that emphasizes the appearance, smell, and taste of a quality product, the Rosa company completely removes any trace of the origins of its product. Even the smell of prosciutto, an essential point of its valuation, is replaced by floral perfumes. Rosa meat is available at supermarkets, where it is hermetically sealed in colorful packaging and cannot be assessed via any of the sensory

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frameworks promoted by Slow Food. Here, the pig, the hog producer, and the butcher are removed from the picture entirely. However, Rosa the Flower of Salumi is produced outside of Turin, in a factory that utilizes advanced technologies to maintain the traditional characteristics of Piedmontese salumi makers.14 The city of Turin provides an incredible amount of support (financial and otherwise) for the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre events. Even though Rosa salumi is not a product that would otherwise qualify for inclusion in this event, and even appears to go against many of its central tenets, Rosas locality brings it to the Halls of Taste. Moreover, Rosa documents its partnership with Slow Food on the company website, and states that it has operated a stand at the Salone since the first edition of the event. Does a regional food corporation supporting the goals of a gastronomic social movement born in the same region have a place at events like Salone del Gusto? Beyond Greenwashing: Alternative Explanations The presence of industrial producers like Lavazza and Prosciutto di Rosa may raise critical hackles and lead to accusations of corporate greenwashing. After all, at events like Salone del Gusto most consumers anticipate foods stamped with a Good, Clean & Fair seal of approval. Signifiers such as local, organic, sustainable, environmentally-conscious, natural, and the like resonate throughout the event, permeating the humblest of foodstuffs. Salone provides alternative producers operating at the margins of the mainstream industrial food circuits access to an international market of consumers. Slow Food adherents do not flock to Turin for the Lurisa bottled water they come to meet small-scale, artisanal, quality producers. Does the presence of

14 Accessed online at www.prosciuttoirosa.it on May 25, 2011.

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corporate sponsorship or less-than-artisanal quality products (whatever that may mean) diminish Slow Foods mission to create Good, Clean and Fair co -producers? Critical examinations of Salone del Gusto reveal unequal power relationships between consumers, producers, and global markets. However, such a critique may be an artifice of scholarly literature. Goodman (2002) posits that scholars in the United States tend to take a markedly different approach than Europeans when attempting to decipher the growth, development, and applications of alternative food networks such as Slow Food. In the U.S., research focuses primarily on the capacity of alternative networks to take control of food production away from the hegemonic techo-scientific complex that currently dominates American agriculture. The quality turn of small scale production is seen as a material and symbolic expression of eco -social imaginaries that attempt to create a domestic, sustainable, and egalitarian food system (Goodman 2002:271). However, these alternative production methods are hardly monolithic; in most cases, there are multiple layers of unique elements, meanings, and politics operating at once. Goodman argues that European researchers, on the other hand, view alternative networks largely as a dynamic, innovative expression of rural development and as sources of resistance to globalization. By embedding food in regional eco-social relations, alternative food networks are oriented in research pertaining to policy debates, particularly those related to European CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) issues. Changing notions of rurality and food quality mark a major shift in the ways Europeans as a whole consider food. These notions are closely tied to production methods and the perceived safety of consumable items, particularly in light of concerns about Mad Cow disease, Foot and Mouth disease, and the biological effects of transgenic agriculture (Ferrires 2006). European research on the quality turn thus tends to focus on public debates about food safety, agricultural policy reform, and the contested trajectories of rural economy and society. Are Europeans and American studying empirically different

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things? Or is this broad differentiation by Goodman a residual byproduct of research traditions on the two continents? It is beyond my scope to resolve such debates here, but my observations at Salone del Gusto illuminate how Slow Food engages conventional technologies and institutions at events that aim to promote its forms of consumption to a global audience, even though its rhetoric criticizes these same elements of globalization in other forums. Do similar contradictions and ambivalences also appear in how Slow Food operates in localized contexts?

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CHAPTER THREE: CREATING FOOD IN TUSCANY Portrait Two: Brynn Brynn arrived at Spannocchia in the spring of 2009 to assume the position of the Intern Program Director. Originally from New York, she completed her masters degree at Slow Foods University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) the year before. Brynn learned about the Spannocchia positionwhich required her to live on site and work with the interns and farm volunteers on a daily basisfrom a colleague at UNISG. Slow Food created the university, located outside of Bra, Italy, to offer a multidisciplinary academic program in the science and culture of food. According to the Slow Food website, UNISG is another way in which Slow Food brings together the innovations and research of the academic and scientific world and the traditional knowledge of farmers and food producers.15 Her degree, formally titled Food Culture: Communicating Quality Products, included coursework in the anthropology, geography, journalism, and communication of food. Students at UNISG also take part in numerous guided tastings and field trips across Italy and the EU to gain knowledge of both high-quality artisanal and industrial food products. During my preliminary fieldwork in Bra I met several UNISG students, and I was curious about the ways in which the university connects ideologically with the movement as a whole. During our interview, I asked Brynn more about her experiences at the school. Her interests in food production and marketing connected neatly to the curriculum, but she explained that not all students shared this experience: If you read a lot about the school, on the website, its pretty clear about what youre getting into. I think some people were, I dont know how they did it, but they came with very different

15 Accessed online at www.slowfood.com on March 1, 2010.

73 expectations. There was one girl who was really interested in international development and policy. And like, UNISG, not so much. We definitely discussed it, and it is political at a certain level, but UNISG is not putting out people who are going to change the world. At all. I told her that I was surprised by this, given Slow Foods emphasis on political organization and social justice for agriculturalists. She replied, You cant talk about food without talking about food politics. But a lot of the food issues that we talked about were focused smallscale. Like, nobody wants to farm anymore, and distribution is a problem and that kind of thing, rather than large-scale issuesIts something that is very present, but its not something that is focused on so much. She described UNISG as the brain child of Carlo Petrini. Although the school is technically a separate entity, it is inextricably linked to Slow Food. She continued, Carlo Petrini is the president, the trustees are people who are involved with Slow Fo od. Alice Waters, Vandana Shiva. We go to all the Slow Food events. The social networks forged between Slow Food staff and UNISG students also provided an opportunity to work at Salone del Gusto. In the fall of 2008, Brynn was in charge of the international (i.e., non-Italian) exhibitors from Western Europe. She described the experience to me in detail: It was a lot of logistical organization. It was for Salone, so it was all [small scale] commercial producers They had to get there, and there was all this set up work with their stands. You had to rent the stand and then you had to outfit it. I got there two months before Salone, and nothing had been disseminated to these people. Nothing. They didnt know that they had to order water connections, they had to order refrigerators if they needed them. They had to do sanitation paperwork, bureaucratic, classic Italian red-tape paperwork stuff. All of this stuff had to be done for Pavilion One. It was so classic Slow Food. I needed to be there six months earlier. If I had been there earlier, I could have gotten so many more exhibitors. In addition to check-in, I was the point person for all of the international exhibitors. Well, obviously nothing worked when they got there. They ordered a fridgeno fridge. There was no parking. They load in everything the day before [Salone] at 7:00 a.m., so there was a line of trucks. Apparently the organization was one of the worst for Salone ever. I dont think Ive ever been under more stress in my life.

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This backstage view of Salone del Gusto further speaks to the challenges faced by vendors in the Taste Pavilions. Although the booths in the Halls of Taste appear to be meticulously produced, Brynns revelation of incomplete paperwork, traffic jams, and mad dashes to locate power cords and other necessary items spoke to the contrary. This classic Italian model of bureaucratic disorganizationwherein multiple zones of responsibility are mutually dependent but unable to communicate efficientlycrept into Slow Foods premier event. Despite the stresses of working at Salone, she enjoyed the experience of working with food producers one-on-one. I loved my job, because a lot of what I did, once it calmed down, was just walking around and hanging out with the producers. I talked with them, ate with them, drank with them. I loved it. Her experiences with producers further shaped her interest in European smallscale agriculture. The job at Spannocchia, with its emphasis on organizing schedules, developing educational tours, and living in a rural space, seemed tailor-made for her. When I asked Brynn if she thought her education at UNISG prepared her for this job, she laughed and replied I feel like it prepared me for almost nothing else! She continued: The thing you learn about the most, you spend a lot of time with small food producers. And you understand food production on a small-scale in Europe. So coming here, I was really familiar with the model. Its a different community, but the model of sma llscale food production is very familiar and I know a lot about how it generally works. I feel like it was good, coming in with a baseI dont ever see myself being a full-time farmer, I dont think. But I like being near it. I like being this close to food production. Its really important to me. Slow Food is about enjoying what you eat, and enjoying what you eat is about understanding why youre eating it. And understanding why youre eating it is understanding the process [of food production], that, you know, your food isnt from a feedlot. Part of Slow Food is that so many people now are interested in the process. Locating Slow Food Producers In many of Slow Foods discussions regarding the transformative capacity of co producers, the voices of food producers are largely silent. In order for the system to work in the way that official Slow Food rhetoric describes, all farmers, fishermen, cheese

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makers and herders must take on new roles as educators. If the consumer is willing to make the effort, the producer must at least tacitly concur. While co-production holds the potential to increase economic returns for small-scale food producers, such a system demands new forms of labor from those producers, primarily in the form of marketing and education. The experience of food producers at Salone del Gusto described above by Brynn speaks to the challenges of this undertaking at major Slow Food events. But what kinds of challenges do these Slow producers face on a quotidian level? Does the ideology of the movement, particularly in the context of co -producer relationships, play out for the people Slow Food claims to support? In order to more fully conceptualize the challenges and potential benefits afforded to producers working with Slow Food either directly through its food-based initiatives or tacitly through shared ideology with consumersI conducted ethnographic fieldwork at the Tenuta di Spannocchia (Spannocchia Estate) from October 2008 through May 2009. Through farm-based education, sustainable agriculture and forestry, and an emphasis on traditional local cultures, the estate seeks to encourage global dialogue about sustaining cultural landscapes for future generations through the example of the Tenuta di Spannocchia.16 Comprised of 435 hectares (about 1,100 acres) in the Montagnola Senese area of Tuscany, the estate is located approximately 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) west of Siena. As part of the Tuscan Riserva Naturale Alto Merse (Natural Reserve of the High Merse River), Spannocchias land contains 925 acres of woodlands that provide refuge for many species of wildlife, including the iconic cinghiale (wild boar). Certified organic farmland, including 14.5 acres of olive groves, vineyards, and orchards and 113 acres of cultivated fields, gardens, and animal pasture, comprise the rest of the land. The Spannocchia mission statement emphasizes that agriculture and

16 Accessed online at http://www.spannocchia.com/ on September 12, 2011.

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ecological sustainability are key means to preserve the architectural and cultural integrity of the estate. Although agriculture and forestry traditionally supported the estate, today the primary financial support comes from agritourism. Hundreds of people visit Spannocchia each year, with the expectation of an authentic experience of rural Tuscany. A central component of this experience is food and agriculture. Hence, food producers at Spannocchia must attend not only to locally situated economic and ecologic concerns, but also to the expectations and demands of an increasingly international audience.

Figure 12 Aerial view of Spannocchia; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation

At Spannocchia I encountered an extensive range of food producerscooks, butchers, gardeners, bakers, bee-keepers, animal husbandry experts, hired farm hands, viticulturists, wild game sharpshooters, and more. Roughly one dozen permanent

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residents, including both native Italians and the Italian-American owners of the estate, oversee daily operations on the farm. Much of the manual labor, however, comes from participants in Spannocchias thriving internship program, a competitive three -month curriculum that includes room, board, and educational programming in exchange for approximately thirty hours of work per week under Italian supervisors. Numerous itinerant WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) 17 workers also labor at Spannocchia in exchange for room and board. The interns and the WWOOFers, as they are called, are primarily highly-educated, well-traveled young Americans and Canadians with a vested interest in sustainable agriculture and organic food production. Ironically, at Spannocchia the individuals who carry out muc h of the peasant labor of Italian food productionthe endless weeding of gardens, feeding animals, mending fences, trimming grape vines, and so onare not venerable Italians, but enthusiastic and idealistic young people from North America. Adding to this complexity, Spannocchia generates a sensuous portrait of authentic Tuscan rural life for its tourists. This perception of authenticity is central to Spannocchias success as an agritourism estate. For example, the tower that overlooks the property, originally built in the late 1200s, provides an unmatched panorama of the Tuscan countryside. However, from the backstage standpoint, the fairytale image of Spannocchia is hardly accidental or effortless. Here I am reminded of one intern, who

17 WWOOF is a 35 year old international organization that coordinates about 35,000-40,000 volunteer farm workers each year. The founders of WWOOF, whom I met in at Spannocchia in February 2009, view the organization as a means to promote cultural exchange. They believe that the organic mindset fosters activities ra nging from organic farming to other sustainable enterprises. Its not a program to teach people how to farm, per se, but rather to encourage the sharing of knowledge and cross-cultural communication. The founders believe that the reason WWOOF continues to enjoy success is because it gives people a sense of real fulfillment unlike the sedentary work of many modern, urban jobs, the physical labor and psychological benefits derived from working toward a tangible, physical objective become key.

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repeated to himself I am the unseen hand of fairy magic while scraping a seemingly endless mountain of pigeon scat from the sloped roof of the villa under the tower. In all respects, it requires an enormous amount of labor to maintain the estate, and even more effort to create a financially solvent agritourism business based on idealizations of rural life and cuisine in Tuscany. Agriculture currently accounts for less than 2% of Italys GDP and 4% of its workforce (CIA World Factbook 2011), figures that may come as a surprise to those who equate the country with quality food production. Of that percentage, a sizeable portion derives from industrial wine and olive oil giants. Agriculture in and of itself would never be lucrative enough to keep Spannocchia in operation. Tourism, however, constitutes over one third of the Italian GDP, and constitutes Italys largest industryand the majority of Spannocchias income. According to Emma, the foundations executive director, there is a shift in environmental awareness among the people visiting Spannocchia. Ten years ago, visitors came to Tuscany to see art, she says. Now they want to understand whats going on with agriculture and the environment. Guests must join the Spannocchia Foundation prior to arrival, at a minimum cost of $45 for individuals. Richard, the American-born husband of the estates owner, explained to me that this process weeds out many of those who want to drink red wine by the pool under the Tuscan Sun. He went on to explain that the systems and amenities in most of Spannocchia's buildings were upgraded during the last twenty years, but care is always taken to change the appearance of the property as little as possible, avoiding the all too typical "gentrification" sweeping through much of rural Tuscany. 18 Visitors are

18 See also Herzfeld (2009) for a discussion of urban gentrification and the transplanting of local populations in the Roman working class Monti district.

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forewarned on the website that Spannocchia is truly rural and not a vacation resort; rather it is an historic working farm, a wildlife preserve, and an educational center.19 Connecting an interest in food eco-systems to local culture highlights what Miele and Murdoch call the practical aesthetics of typical cuisines (2002). They borrow the concept of practical aesthetics from Gagnier (2001), who defines it as the aesthetic component of everyday activity operating outside of purely economic modes of calculation or evaluationin other words, it retains an intrinsic value of its own. Miele and Murdoch argue that practical aesthetics combine the social and the natural in the very taste of the foods themselvesthis combination points to an ethical element in the products and cuisines proposed by Slow Food (2002:323). At Spannocchia, Tuscan food culture, environmental sustainability and local economy interconnect in a series of linkages across the gastronomic landscape. These connections rejoin elements of life at Spannocchia to broader discussions of Slow Food ideology. Although the mission of the estate is not explicitly linked to Slow Food, the food-related activities and enterprises at Spannocchia actively function within a network of individuals and organizations endeavoring to create social and economic change through the medium of food production and consumption. The breadth of this network meant that uncovering data about the practical aesthetics of food and life at Spannocchia was not always a straightforward task. For example, I began to drop in to visit with Graziella, the head cook who grew up at Spannocchia, in the late afternoons after I finished work outdoors or in the transformation kitchen. From an anthropological perspective, I hoped to build rapport and use this valuable time with her to glean stories about the history of the estate and her experiences growing up there. But Graziella had other plans. She loved to hear about the antics of
19 Accessed online at http://www.spannocchia.com/rental-information/information.cfm on September 12, 2011.

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the other interns and guests, and always urged me to sample the dessert for the evening meal so that she wouldnt have to. Most of all, she wanted to know what I cooked at home for my family, and what my mother and grandmothers served. What animals did we keep on our farm, she asked, and what grew in our gardens? Graziella, perhaps more than anyone else I worked with in Italy, never understood why I wanted to leave my family and friends for months at a time in order to work with pigs and talk about food. The topic came up regularly, and she often shook her head and asked, again, what my poor husband was eating in my absence. In the end I learned more about Graziellas background from the Spannocchia cookbook, a product created for a tourist audience, which I describe later in this chapter. My everyday interactions with Graziella and other food producers at Spannocchia revealed a much more complex portrait of Tuscan practical aesthetics, in which outsiders expectationsincluding those of Slow Food play a central role in dictating the presentation of Tuscan food and life. The History of Spannocchia The political, economic, and cultural history of Tuscany can be read in the walls of Spannocchia. Every Tuesday afternoon during the tourist season, Richard gives an historical tour of the estate for visitors. He holds an encyclopedic knowledge of the area, and he begins by explaining that it is an historical tour only because there is so much history involved in explaining how this place came to be. He believes that to lack a deep understanding of the systems that previously shaped the estate undermines the lives and cultural structures of those who existed upon it. Moreover, the organization and goals of present day Spannocchia are based upon the historical evolution of agricultural and rural landscapes in this region. In order to better understand this perspective, I attended the historical tour multiple times during my stay at the farm and tape recorded Richards narrative, which varied according to the interests of his audience. Each tour begins at the original entrance

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of the villa, overlooking the surrounding fields and forests. Richard begins by explaining that no written records exist for the estate prior to its acquisition in the High Middle Ages. The original tower (Figure 13) was built for defensive purposes during the 12 th century, when the feudal system began to collapse in the region and the land estates of a few noble Sienese families were broken up into multiple autonomous regions, which replaced the earlier aristocratic government. The nobles of the period typically lived in fortified castles to protect their estates from neighboring competitors. Richard points out the original crest of the Spannocchi family painted above the doorway; very little is known about this family prior to 1225, when the name becomes increasingly prevalent in Sienese records.

Figure 13 Spannocchia's 12th Century tower

By that time the family was well-established in the area and acted as a major player in the nascent banking industry of Siena, where it is still possible to see the family

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crest on several medieval buildings. The way in which the Spannocchi family came into political and economic power is unique. In most cases, wealthy merchants and bankers from the city expanded their landholdings into the surrounding countryside over time. However, the Spannocchi family lived on this estate prior to becoming major players in the economic system of Siena. At its height, the estate covered 2,500 acres of land, although this was considered a small landholding in comparison to its neighbors. At this point Richard turns to the history of agriculture in the area. He describes the way in which the fall of the feudal system gave way to the mezzadria, or sharecropping system, which tied peasant farmers to wealthy landowners. Under this system, the landowner provided a house and land to a peasant and his family in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Unlike the preceding feudal system, people were no longer tied to the land permanently or born into a life of agricultural labor. However, economic and social constraints limited the actual freedom of the contadine (peasants). One could move from farm to farm in search of better conditions, but farmers remained at the mercy of aristocratic landowners. Peasant families did not grow cash crops, but subsistence foods such as wheat, grapes, chestnuts, farro (a form of spelt), and so on. Half (or mezza) of whatever was produced went to the owner, who maintained the infrastructure, roads, houses, water wells, etc. Typically, landowners lived in an urban area, geographically and socially separate from the contadine, and the system moved food from the rural periphery of the political and economic landscape to its urban core in the cities. Remarkably, the mezzadria system continued throughout the first half of the 20th century. Visitors to Spannocchia often question Richard about the treatment of peasants on this estate, a question which is difficult to answer. There are no existing records that would outline the social equity or lack thereof during the centuries of sharecropping at Spannocchia. According to Richard, between 1800 and 1850 the Spannocchi family gradually disappeared and died out, with some family members abandoning the estate to emigrate

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to Austria or the U.S.20 By 1918 the land was overrun, and the several dozen farmworkers still remaining on the land were able to do less and less to keep the grounds intact. A lumber company bought the estate at this point, and cleared a majority of the timber in the area. The property was repossessed by the bank several years later, and then purchased by Delfino Cinelli, the grandfather of Richards wife Federica. Cinelli was a Florentine businessman who owned a successful hat-making industry. An aspiring author, Cinelli bought the estate as a writing retreat, and penned his semiautobiographical novel Il Castiglione che Dio Sol Sa (The Castle that Only God Knows) based on his experiences revitalizing the estate. He met his wife, Francis Hartz, on a trans-Atlantic ship voyage, where she was beginning her European Grand Tour under the watchful eye of her grandmother (Figure 14). The young couple married and lived in Italy for several years, but when Mussolinis fascist regime began to rise to power Francis took their children to stay with family in the United States. Delfino stayed on at Spannocchia, and once the war began Francis was unable to return. The couple never reunited, as Delfino died at an early age on the estate soon after. Francis and her children lived in Grosse Point, MI for many years. At this point, Richards historical tours wind their way into a sitting room filled with antique furnishings and family portraits, where he uses the story of Federicas family to richly detail the changes on the estate over the past century. Following the war, Spannocchia became increasingly overgrown as more and more people moved away from the countryside to work in Italian industries. The overt hardship of the fascist years and the promises of the Economic Miracle of the 1960s

20 The countrys Risorgimento, or Unification, took place in 1861 when Piedmontese diplomats from the north attempted to merge over a dozen city-states and regions into a collective whole. Leaders attempted to rally nationalism around the myth of Rome, while largely ignoring the development of a true collective consciousness (Brierley and Giacometti 1996). Restructuring of the country led to massive waves of emigration; by 1920, one fourth of Italians lived abroad.

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resulted in a mass exodus to urban areas, and the majority of peasant farmhouses were simply abandoned. In 1958, Federicas father visited the estate and decried the state of the land. Gathering money from Italian and American friends, he started a U.S.-based nonprofit for archeology in the region. After hiring a local archeologist and team of workers, the group unearthed Etruscan artifacts dating over 2000 years old on the site, and Paleolithic remains were also discovered nearby. In 1964, Cinelli began to host American archeologists and groups of students at Spannocchia, renovating the central buildings as boarding houses. This marked the beginning of the estates utilization for educational purposes directed to a U.S. audience.

Figure 14 Delfino Cinelli and Frances Hartz; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation

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Spannocchia operated as an archeological base for decades, and although Cinelli continued to employ a farm estate manager very little agriculture took place on the land during this period. Around WWII there were 40 tenant farmers living and working at Spannocchia; by 1981 there were 6, and in 1986 there were none. Cinellis daughter, Federica, studied architecture in Florence, where she and Richard met. They shared an interest in historical preservation, and in the early 1990s the couple moved their family from the U.S. onto the estate in order to take over daily operations. The irony is that although Federica and Richard created a space for Tuscan cultural identity, landscapes, and traditional foods to flourish, they are technically Americans. The Italians on the estate refer to Federica as la padrona, a term from the mezzadria years that indicates the landowner or boss. Translating Tradition: The Cookbook The revival of the agricultural economy and inclusion of farm work at Spannocchia brought the estate back to lifeor, rather, a new life, based on the economic viability of tourist interest in these sectors. Located under the tower, the Spannocchia guest services office holds a small assortment of gifts available for purchase: items include pen and ink drawings of the property, jars of honey from the Spannocchia beehives, and bundles of lavender harvested on site. By far the most popular item, however, is the Spannocchia cookbook. The slim paperback volume is made up of recipes for dishes that guests enjoy in the dining room, and allows visitors to recreate these meals at home. Analysis of the Spannocchia cookbook highlights the ways in which traditional food is central to the creation and maintenance of the estate. MacClancy describes cookbooks as both essential and profoundly misleading[they] may tell us less about culinary conditions than about collective imaginations, present-day values, and popular dreams, hopes and aims. They have to be seen not as descriptive documents but as prescriptive ones, giving us an inkling of the

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culinary worlds their authors would like to see. (2004:66). How does Spannocchia present a culinary world to its guests? The Spannocchia cookbook, available only in English, feeds into the ideation of the site as authentically Tuscan while simultaneously promoting gustatory conviviality. The introduction to the Spannocchia cookbook reflects this: By creating traditional dishes, made from products grown on the property, by hands who have created these dishes for decades, we forge a connection to the past and keep knowledge and taste aliveThe Tuscan cuisine is simple. Every dish is made from just a few ingredients. The secret behind the taste is the high quality and freshness of the ingredients and the care with which each dish is prepared. If you come to dinner at Spannocchia, you will most likely sit at the same table with an intern (or maybe the whole crew). This intern may have fed the pigs in the morning, helped slaughter in the afternoon, and now you are eating the sausages he helped to make for dinner. Or maybe the intern worked in the garden, and she spent the morning harvesting the green beans for the side dish. Here, the cookbook focuses on the role that interns play in food production at Spannocchia. The resident Italian farm directors receive little attention here; likewise, they are unlikely to be present in the dining room most evenings, preferring to eat in the privacy of their homes. Rather it is the interns, who do not present cultural or linguistic communication barriers to English-speaking guests, who serve as a primary locus of insider knowledge about food production on the estate at meals. On many occasions I watched tourists engaging the interns in conversations about their work on the farm, something that several of the interns told me they tired of after several weeks. Particularly after long days of heavy labor the very work that enabled food to appear on the tablethey were not always interested in engaging in yet another series of questions about farm work or their philosophies on agriculture with strangers. Other interns, however, enjoyed these interactions with aspiring co -producers at Spannocchia and reveled in the role of educators. The primary way in which guests at Spannocchia learn about the mission of the estate is through food. Resonant with the ideals of Slow Food, meals at Spannocchia

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connect sensory pleasure with social activity, and the cookbook encourages readers to continue this pattern at home: Whenever possible at Spannocchia we use our own ingredients harvested and produced on our farm: wine, olive oil, fresh pork, lamb, beef, venison, wild boar, salt-cured meats, vegetables and grains. While you may not have a farm of your own, when creating the dishes in this cookbook, we encourage you to buy local meats, shop your farmers market or grow something in your own garden. Fresh, organic products will make each dish taste even better. Another aspect that makes food taste good is eating it in good company! Meals at Spannocchia are a moment of conviviality in which staff, residents, interns, volunteers, and guests sit down together to enjoy a moment of relaxation and discourse and of course good food. The cookbook emphasizes dishes made with seasonal, locally available ingredients, and provides a version of authentic Tuscan cooking that is palatable to the outside world. The recipes included in the cookbook highlight a particular set of flavors and experiences. The cookbook provides roughly a dozen recipes for each course in a full Italian meal: antipasti (appetizers), Primi and Secondi Piatti (first and second courses), Contorni (sides), and Dolci e Liquori (Sweets and Liquers). Some recipes require ingredients that are plentiful on the farm but may be difficult to access outside of Tuscany (e.g., borage leaves, farro, cardoons, and wild boar meat). Since returning to the United States I have searched for a source of chestnut flour, a key ingredient in a pear and chocolate torte I learned to make at Spannocchia. Chestnut flour, a staple of preindustrial peasant diets, is typical in Tuscan grocery stores but rare beyond the borders of the region. Other recipes and ingredients are more well known (e.g., lasagne or tiramisu), but the majority of the dishes are distinctive to the area. This sets the Spannocchia cookbook apart from the sea of generalized Italian cookbooks available for purchase. Appaduri points out that specialized cookbooks like this one capture a particular moment in time and space, where they catego rically define, codify, and publicize regional and ethnic cuisines (1988:15). This particular version of Tuscan cuisine emerges from the history of the mezzadria sharecropping system at Spannocchia, but

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incorporates modern ideas about terroir and gastronomic landscapes. It provides a memento of an authentic Italian experience than can later be recreated at home. Moreover, the cookbook forges connection between meals and the food producers and cultural histories that surround them. Cooking with Loredana The current edition of the Spannocchia cookbook was written by Giada, the director of guest services, along with a former intern director, specifically for the tourist audience at the estate. As of 2011, Giada is working on a third edition of the cookbook, featuring an entirely new set of recipes. The first edition of the Spannocchia cookbook was written by a professionally-trained American chef who worked at the estate for several years. She worked alongside Loredana, Spannocchias resident coo k for over twenty years, to develop the book. About half of the recipes from that first volume were repeated in the second. This American chef originally taught cooking classes at Spannocchia, but the program was not particularly successful. The owners gradually realized that most tourists vastly preferred to take a class with a real Italian cook, rather than with an Americaneven an American who had lived in the area for many years and worked alongside the venerable Loredana. When Loredana retired from her post as the head cook, she shifted from cooking at the estate five nights a week to teaching Italian cooking classes. It was at this point that the program skyrocketed. Loredana does not speak English, and either Giada or Federica serves as a translator during the class. Cooking classes are held once a week during the high season at Spannocchia, and typically sell out quickly. Along with Graziella, Loredana is one of the last individuals who remember the mezzadria years at Spannocchia. Her family, tenant farmers, lived in Spannocchias Casa Capannone, a building currently used as a guest house. In her mid-20s she married Enzo, the son of another Spannocchia tenant farm family, who is currently a Spannocchia

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woodsman. Shortly thereafter they moved into Rosia and began a family, although both Loredana and Enzo continued to work at the estate over the years. Blurred black and white photographs of children at Spannocchia in the 1950s include a young Loredana attending school at the estates one-room schoolhouse. These photos hang in a sitting room outside of the dining room, visual reminders of the continuity between past and present. A close-up of one of these images is also printed in the flyer for Loredanas weekly cooking classes (see Figure 15). The fact that she was born and raised on the property, to tenant farmers, provides a degree of unmatched authenticityLoredana literally embodies the cooking traditions of the region. The flyer also mentions that she retired in order to spend more time with her three grandchildren, further supporting an image of a nurturing Italian nonna willing to share her knowledgeat a cost of 80 euros per person.

Figure 15 Young Loredana at Spannocchia, circa 1950; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation

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The introduction to the Spannocchia cookbook mentions that Graziella and Loredana were: Not as specific as we would have liked them to be when dictating recipes. To them a pinch, a little and some should be self-evident and cooking for a while in the oven should be specific enough for a roast. But these types of instructions only work for them because they are just that, masters, and know the kitchen by instinct and not through books. This mastery in the kitchen is achieved not through academic learning or culinary school, but a lifetime of repeated movements. The native practices of such women must be translated by cookbook writers for consumption by an outside audience (Heldke 2001). Hernandez and Sutton (2003) examine the role of this type of embodied knowledge in everyday cooking, and question whether the objectification of tradition as an aspect of modern life affects the ways in which individuals self-consciously adopt (or reject) modern recipes, gadgets, and cooking styles. When guests at Spannocchia take a class with Loredana, they learn to roll out and cut tagliatelle pasta by hand and to shape potato gnocchi with a fork. Although these procedures can be (and are) mechanized by many home cooks, the traditional methods and the associated sensory processes of tasting, touching, smelling, and looking are reified over careful measuring. 21 This sensory dimension comes to the forefront, and Spannocchia actively draws upon these aesthetics when creating an image of the estate as an ideal destination for gastronomic tourism.

21 This is true not only of Americans or other guests at Spannocchia, but Italians as well. Counihan (2004) shows that young women today are less likely to prepare elaborate meals, as their work schedules make this difficult. Women continue to do the majority of food preparation in Italian homes, and Counihan shows that although women expressed pleasure in being able to provide for their families, they simultaneously felt unappreciated in a society that continues to undervalue womens work in the home. Utilizing pre-prepared food items is simultaneously viewed as a liberating time-saver and a distressing loss of tradition and food quality.

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Saperi e Sapori (Knowledge and Taste) Dinner at Spannocchia is held five nights a week in the dining room, or, in good weather, on an adjacent outdoor patio. At 7:00 people begin to trick le in for Wine on the Terrace, a pre-dinner glass of wine made from grapes grown and fermented on site. This half hour is a good opportunity to chat with interesting visitors or recount the events of the day. The evening meal is integral to cementing conviviality between the individuals on the farm and forging a physiological link to the foods that are grown and produced there. While guests are always welcome to use a small communal kitchen to independently cook their own meals, the majority take advantage of the five-course meals offered every weeknight. The gustatory pleasures of a large meal served with wine, peppered with interesting conversation, and laced with the laughter of guests serves to create an atmosphere often associated with the iconogr aphic mealtimes of the big Italian family, complete with a loving nonna in the kitchen (cf. Chadwell 2002). The menu is composed of traditional Tuscan fare that utilizes the seasonal produce available on the farm and is fixed in advance by Graziella and Giada. Each dinner begins with the primo piatto (first course), a pasta, soup or risotto made with seasonal vegetables. The secondo piatto (main course) is a meat usually pork, beef, venison, or chicken, served with a contorno (side dish) of seasonal vegetables from the Spannocchia vegetable garden and insalata (green salad) that can be dressed to taste with Spannocchia-produced olive oil and vinegar. Dolce (dessert)panna cotta, tiramisu, traditional Sienese cantucci biscuits with vin santo, or crostate for exampleis served at the end of the meal. Bread, wine, and water are included in the meal, and it is essentially impossible to leave hungry. During the tourist high season Graziella has a part-time Italian assistant in the kitchen, and one of the guest services interns typically helps with prep work as well. Each day the menu is posted on a wall directly opposite the front door

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of the Castello, quite literally the first thing seen upon entering. Food items that are grown on the farm are marked with an asterisk.22

Figure 16 Graziella at work in the kitchen

Graziella creates a five course meal for 30-80 people every weeknight. She typically arrives at Spannocchia from her home in the nearby village around one or two in the afternoon and works until around 8:30, when the first several courses are on the table. In my fieldnotes I describe Graziella as the archetypical Italian grandmother cook, straight out of central casting (see Figure 16). With her round face , sturdy arms

22 While much of the produce from Spannocchias gardens and fields is consu med fresh, large portions are also canned, frozen, and dried for later consumption. This allows Spannocchia to utilize its own produce in meals year round. A system of cold frames and unheated greenhouses in the organic gardens further extend the growing season.

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and physical ease in the kitchen, Graziella embodies the stereotypical image of a Tuscan grandmother-cook. Many people first saw Graziella not at Spannocchia, but on a page of Bon Apetit magazine. In February 2008 the periodical devoted a full 10-page spread to Spannocchia, as part of their Green Issue. Emphasizing the connection between local production, regional traditions, and gastronomic tourism, the article contains dozens of gorgeous photographs of the estate. An entire page is dedicated to a glossy color photograph of Graziella standing in the kitchen. I asked her about how she felt about being featured in a famous magazine, and she sighed, saying Oh, that picture, it is just a big woman with a big pan. Ever-humble, Graziella was far more concerned with her weight in the photo than the fact that she was being heralded for her skills in the kitchen. Guests in the dining hall regularly erupted in applause when Graziella emerged from the kitchen to head home for the night. She would modestly thank everyone and head out the door. There were periods in which her skills as a cook were challenged, particularly in cases of vegetarians. One week, when the estate was hosting a group of yoga enthusiasts, there were several vegetarians and three raw vegans to feed. In a kitchen where eggs, cheese, and meats are central ingredients, Graziella had to find creative solutions. When I asked her how she managed that particular group her mouth was a straight, hard line, with just a little curl on one end of her lip. She just said, Well, we had a challenge, and left it at that. This response highlights her position relative to Spannocchias guestsabove all she is accountable for creating meals that emphasize Tuscan cuisine, and she must modify certain dishes to accommodate a range of individuals. Even guests who eschew many of the traditional ingredients central to Tuscan food hold expectations of authenticity in regards to their gastronomic experience at Spannocchia. Graziella is responsible for making these expectations a reality, and incorporates a range of creative tweaks in the kitchen to do so.

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Nostra Cena (Our Dinner) Wednesday night meals are Spannocchia-wide events that include houseguests, program groups, residents, interns and family members. Every other Wednesday night is pizza night at Spannocchia, when the interns all work outside preparing a huge variety of pizza for all of the guests. A wood burning stone oven constructed in a narrow crevice between two of the main buildings contains a fire made up of oak and corbezzolo wood.23 The fire is started hours before cooking time, and one of the interns is responsible for tending the fire throughout the afternoon. Another intern is responsible for assisting Graziella with dough preparation. By the evening, all of the interns take turns putting on toppings, rolling the crusts, and delivering pizza to the dining room. This is a festive atmosphere, and everyone seems to really enjoy taking part in it. The pizza arrives to the dining room as it is cookedyou can pick and choose which kinds you want, and its never the same twice. Toppings range from pear and gorgonzola cheese to fresh salsiccie (sweet Italian pork sausage). Guests are invited to go outside and watch the cooking process. Pizza night can last until late in the evening, as the fire burns down and guests top off their meals with small glasses of limoncello liqueur. On alternating Wednesdays, Spannocchia hosts a special meal called Nostra Cena. This dinner is created entirely from foods sourced from the estate itself. Most evenings, meals at Spannocchia include some items that come prepackaged. Pasta, for example, is not normally made fresh daily on site, although the sauces that accompany it are. On a Nostra Cena night, however, all the components of the meal come from the farm. Following wine on the terrace, the meal might begin with antipasti of bruschetta, figs and prosciutto, fried polenta, or roasted walnuts and parmigiano, depending on the
23The corbezzolo tree, or strawberry tree is an evergreen bush that produces small, reddish fruits that are sometimes made into jam. These trees voluntarily grew all over the Spannocchia property, and most of the wood used for the pizza oven came from trimmings and brush removal. The smoke from corbezzolo wood imparts a unique flavor.

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season. The primo piatto is often homemade or specialty pasta, or a soupravioli, tagliolini with ragu, or wild mushroom soup, in season. Meat raised and butchered on site is used for the secondo piatto, which may include lamb, venison, beef, wild boar or Cinta Senese pork, served with a contorno of vegetables from Spannocchias garden. Dinner concludes with dessert, coffee and after dinner digestivo drinkslimoncello, crema di limoncello, nocino (walnut liqueur) or mirto (liqueur made with myrtle berries and honey), pan-Italian favorites that are also made on site. Nostra Cena is also notable in that it is a more formal version of normal meals in the dining room. Everyone is encouraged to dress up, white tablecloths cover the rustic wooden benches, and the guest interns create seasonal centerpieces to arrange alongside candles. This atmosphere is particularly conducive to drawn-out meals that occasionally last until well past ten in the evening. Interactionally speaking, a good deal of pleasure comes from mingling with other like-minded guests and residents. The nature of the meals allows a degree of comfortable interaction between strangers that is not typically seen in restaurant dining rooms. At Spannocchia, guests become like family during meals. Because meals are paid for in advance, there is no bill waiting at the end of the evening, further adding to the illusion of familiarity. As Janet Chrzan writes, What would normally be considered the back stage area from a tourist perspective dissolves into the foreground, creating authentic experiences for Spannocchias guests (2008:26). To be honest, these meals were among the best I had at the estate. Showcasing the high quality of the farms produce, Nostra Cena best represents what Brynn referred to above when she said Slow Food is about enjoying what you eat, and enjoying what you eat is about understanding why youre eating it. Here, the mutually constitutive cultural connections between history, agricultural production and Italian cuisine emerge for guests and locals alike.

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Slow Food at Spannocchia Members of the local Slow Food Siena convivium also frequent Nosta Cena, and educational events geared toward the group occurred several times during my stay at Spannocchia. Invariably, these events included a tour of the gardens or Cinta Senese pastures, and well-dressed urbanites arrived on the farm to navigate muddy paths and fields. Although the Slow Food Siena convivium was a regular guest at the estate, and certainly supported the endeavors of Cinta Senese production both on site and at the local market, the groups primary activities consisted of expensive meals presented in elaborate settings. In other words, they appeared to be most invested in the good part of good, clean and fair. At one event, Spannocchia hosted Slow Food Siena on a hike through the property, a reading from Delfino Cinellis 1928 book, Castiglione Che Dio Sol Sa, followed by a tasting of Cinta Senese salumi products at the Castello. Mutiple photographs from the event can still be viewed on the Slow Food Siena website. 24 Large platters of Cinta Senese salumi products, salads made from Spannocchias organic farro (a variety of spelt), wine, and cheeses from a neighboring farm are all photographed in careful detail. Images of cheerful Sienese diners mingle with photos from the hike. Notably, there are no pictures of the farmers or workers, although a shot of a cute Cinta Senese piglet makes it into the mix. The evening ended with traditional music performed by Riccios folk group, Maggiaioli, which hanno suonato nell'aia insegnando a chi voleva il Trescone e altre antiche danze tradizionali contadine (played in the farmyard to those who wanted to learn the "Trescone" and other old traditional peasant dances). What is interesting here is that these Slow Food convivium members, most of whom live in the area around Siena, experience Spannocchia in the same way that

24 http://www.slowfoodsiena.it/slowsi_before/spannocchia_before.html

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tourists from anywhere else do. Most did not previously know about the endangered Tuscan pig, nor had they ever learned the traditional peasant dances of the area. Indeed, the heading on the webpage reads Escursione guidata ...tra boschi e cultura (A guided excursionthrough forest and culture). Combining activities in a rural landscape with traditional peasant culture and food culminated in an enjoyable event for the local convivium members in the same ways it is for international guests. Likewise, Slow Food Siena showcased Spannocchias artisanal products and producers in a typical rural setting in its local promotional materials, using the same tactics that Slow Food International employed when creating publicity materials for the global audience of Salone del Gusto (see Figure 17). Here, a cornucopia of Spannocchias food covers a table in front of the villa and tower, with the convivium leader at the center of the image holding a glass of wine. The estate owners and several producers flank him, and the attention of all is on the leg of prosciutto being carved by hand.

Figure 17 Publicity photo with Slow Food Siena convivium leaders, Spannocchia estate managers and workers. All of the foods pictured were produced on the estate; Image courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation.

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Slow Food Sienas ties to Spannocchia also reflect the politics of the movement on a local level. While Spannocchia maintained a positive relationship with the group, during my interview with Brynn she mentioned that she viewed the convivium as definitely Old School Slow Food. Its all about more formal events; what an old mans club. She argued that Old School Slow Food emphasized local connections of friendship that were not always amenable to outsiders, and which certainly did not encapsulate any political goals related to working with a range of local producers. For example, when Brynn tried to line up a cheesemaking tour for the interns, she contacted the head of Slow Food Siena to get an idea of what producers in the area may be interested in hosting a tour. As part of this job, I want to get to know as many producers in this area as possible. And it was almost like [the convivium leader] asked, Why are you doing that? We already have a pecorino producer. And I thought, thats ONE producer. Id love to know forty pecorino producers in the area! I feel like Old School Slow Food does thatthis is our pecorino producer, and this is our restaurant, this is our example. And its because theyre friends. They support each other. Theyre friends with the producer, and theyre friends with the restaurant. And I do think that is importanthaving a personal relationship with your food producer, and considering that person a friend, and I think thats really cool. But I dont think it should dictate who Slow Food supports and who it doesnt. Although the connection with Slow Food Siena benefitted Spannocchia, the degree to which it helped the numerous other food producers in the area remained unclear. Brynn explained that this Old School perspective extended to the numerous restaurant guides published by Slow Food, wherein the organization highlights particular locales based on the friendships of the editors. Lotti (2010) found a similar pattern when Slow Food selected representative producers for their Presidia products. How do these patterns frame Slow Foods presentation of producers/consumer relationships on the local level and beyond?

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The Most Italian of Meals During my final week of fieldwork, I enjoyed what many would view as the most authentic meal of my journey. Hosted by the son of the estate manager, the guests at what became known as the Cena di Caccia (Game Dinner) included all of the interns, the intern director, a visiting chef, several of the Italian staff members at Spannocchia, about ten Italian men that either hunt on the estate or are friends with/related to someone who does, and me. Angelino, an aging man with worn down teeth who formerly worked as a woodsman at the estate, arrived wearing a matching vinyl tracksuit and carrying his homemade cinghiale (wild boar) prosciutto. In addition to this Tuscan specialty, the meal consisted of a cinghiale trapped and killed at the estate that week, roasted over a wood fire. There were two stews made with deer meat one of cervo, the larger variety of deer (resembling the American white-tailed deer) common on the estate, and one capriolo, a smaller Roe deer also living at Spannocchia. There were fried polenta cakes, kabobs made with uccelletti (little birds, whole baby birds speared and eaten whole), and salad made from wild herbs and early garden greens. Someones wife sent along a crostata (fruit pastry) for dessert, and I brought my own specialty, a chocolate olive oil cake. We gathered at one of the old farmhouses, about a kilometer away from the main villa. An intern and I decorated a table outside under the veranda. It appeared ridiculously, stereotypically Tuscan with very little effortwe pushed together two old tables and covered them with white sheets as tablecloths, shoved lilacs and wildflowers into glass milk bottles, stuck candles into old wine bottles, and placed baskets of sliced bread and jugs of wine throughout. The tables groaned under the weight of so much food. Surrounded by olive groves, green hills dotted with sheep, and blossoming flowers, showing up to this table was like a gift from some long-forgotten Tuscan god. The springtime weather collaborated with good food and excellent company, creating an ideal send-off for my time at the estate.

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Interestingly enough, the meal that I shared with many of the same individuals on a different evening highlighted similar components of conviviality and local ingredients, but in an entirely different manner. In this case, the interns invited me to a special Saturday evening meal, at which they would cook and serve a feast to say thank you to the staff at Spannocchia. They decided that their special meal would consist of local products (mainly from Spannocchia) prepared in a Mexican fashion. In Italy it is nearly impossible to find as much as a can of refried beans, so if you want Mexican food (or the American interpretation thereof) you have to make it from scratch. 25 In reality, the role of globalized cuisine was omnipresent at Spannocchia. Not only were some of the Spannocchia residents adventurous foodies in their own right, the company of so many international guests and interns shaped everyday food consumption in unlikely ways. The interns planned this meal carefully, and it involved hand-rolling tortillas, collecting enough avocados (a difficult-to-find fruit) to make guacamole, and attempting to make a mole sauce that would accompany the venison that they were allotted to use for this meal. When purchasing the avocados at the local grocery store, two of the interns ran into Chiara, the head gardener at Spannocchia. As an invitee to the meal, she asked about what the interns were concocting, meanwhile eyeing the avocados in their cart. She frowned, and asked what they were planning to do with them. They tried to explain guacamole, something that Chiara had never eaten before, using their limited Italian language skills. She shook her head and laughed, promising that she would try it, but warned that the Italians may not be exc ited about it. This reaction

25When I returned to Spannocchia after going home for Christmas, I brought jars of salsa, seasoning packets for fajitas, and packages of tortillas as gifts for the Americans working at the farm during the off-season. For my Italian friends, however, I brought jars of rhubarb-strawberry jam made locally in Iowa and packages of bison jerky. These thank-you gifts also reflected foreign ingredients not found in Italy, but they were warmly received. Friendship aside, this may be due to the fact that they were similar to products available in Italy but made with slightly different ingredients.

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typifies the conservative approach many Italians take to foreign foods. According to a news article quoting a 2011 survey released by Coldiretti, the national agricultural association, more than 40% of Italians have never eaten foreign offerings such as sushi, curries or kebabs, and only 5% eat regularly in foreign restaurants (Squires 2011). Tensions between the local and global nature of Spannocchia emerged regularly through food in scenarios like this. New culinary conventions introduced by Americans and other guests exist alongside traditional Italian foods. At the same time, Spannocchia successfully presents localized food traditions to tourists and locals alike. Framing these transformations as a polarity between global and local cuisines is not really enough to explain what really goes on at Spannocchia. To add to this point, in his discussion of globalization and Belizean food, Wilk asks if local food culture persists despite globalization, or if there is something about globalization itself that produces local culture and promotes the constant formation of new forms of local identity, dress, cuisine, music, dance and language? (2006b:11). Do acts of co -production at Spannocchia stimulate a range of potential local cultures within a globalized milieu of characters?

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CHAPTER FOUR: (CO-) PRODUCTION AT SPANNOCCHIA Portrait Three: Gavin the Intern Prior to coming to Spannocchia, Gavin worked in the U.S. wine industry. After spending several years working in wine shops on the east coast, he moved to California to work with a well-known wine producer. He led professional wine tastings and worked toward certification as a sommelier. Gavin applied to the Spannocchia internship program with hopes of working with the animals and learning about agricultural production through hands-on, manual work. However, during his first telephone interview, the intern director approached him with the idea of working as a guest intern. While most interns at Spannocchia work in with the animals, vineyards, or vegetable gardens, one or two interns work indoors with the hospitality staff instead. In 2008 Spannocchia saw an increased demand for food and wine tours on the estate, and the director saw an opportunity in accepting someo ne with Gavins experience. I was hesitant to come, actually. I was thinking that I wouldnt get to do all of the things that I wanted to do if I was stuck in an office, which is kind of what I was doing at home. I wanted to take this time to do something else. Most of the work that I do at home is talking to people, selling wine, wine tastinga lot of really nonphysical things. Despite these reservations, Gavin accepted the opportunity. The tourist high season at Spannocchia extends from late May to mid-September. With seven guest houses that can hold anywhere from 4-9 people and sixteen guest rooms in the central Villa, it is possible for dozens of visitors to be on the estate at any given time. When Gavin and the other Fall Term interns arrived in August 2008, Spannocchia was in the middle of its busiest tourist season ever. As a guest intern, Gavin assisted with breakfast preparation and serving, guest check-in and check-out at the Spannocchia front desk/gift shop, and other hospitality duties. However, he found that on most days he could finish his office work by lunchtime, leaving his afternoons open to volunteer for other kinds of work on the farm.

103 Its been really great because its been so fluid. Ive been able to do so many things. Ive been able to do a little bit of butchering with Riccio, feeding the animals, working on random jobs. Making stuff around the villa, stacking wooda lot of physical work. However, when I asked him what he liked the most about his internship, Gavin talked about his role creating a Spannocchia wine tour and tasting. Although he had not anticipated enjoying this part of the job as much as he did, the task allowed him to apply his knowledge of the wine industry while simultaneously working closely with Spannocchias guests, administrators, and producers. He developed an informational flyer about Spannocchias grapes and wine making process and built a tour around it. It was a great time of year to do it, in the fall when the grapes were ripening. We were able to walk down to the vineyards and do a vineyard tour, which almost nobody in America does. Usually its a winery tour, and then a tasting. You dont see what the grapes actually look like. So we decided to make a two hour block of time, where we meet in front of the villa and then walk all the way down to the vineyards. Its kind of a long walk, about twenty minutes, and while were walking Ill talk about the history of grape growing here, the cultural aspects of grape growing and winemaking here, how important it is to the food culture here. This is one of the few places where wine consumption is still a huge part of daily life. 95% of what the wine business is about is bringing this snob appeal and pretension to [drinking wine]. One of the things that I really wanted to do here is make it accessible to people, and make them understand that herenot so much in America, but herethis is a part of daily life. Gavin also led Cinta Senese tasting tours at Spannocchia. These tours, which were always full, introduce tourists to the rare breeds program at Spannocchia, and are offered weekly during the high tourist season. According to the official flyer, the tour includes a walk to the fields and forests where the hogs live, a visit to the curing room where butchering and preserving take place, a climb up the 12th century tower, a visit to the small cantina where organic red and white wine and vin santo are made, and a grand finale wine and salumi tasting on the villa terrace. Gavin led the first Cinta Senese tour I went on at Spannocchia, and his natural presentation style and skill at guiding a food and wine tasting were immediately evident. Unlike the taste education workshops I attended at Slow Food events, the food and wine tours at Spannocchia emphasized sustainable,

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artisanal production methods above all else. It was common to see employees and interns out at work during the tours, further adding to the sense of authenticity and connection to the landscape. In our interview, Gavin discussed his feelings about food, agriculture, and becoming involved in Slow Food at some length. I was conscious before of farming, a bit, and I knew there were people doing really wonderful things with food. I was conscious of the local foods movement, and Id met Carlo Petrini at a local farm to table restaurant I worked at [in my hometown]. I knew about Slow Food. But it wasnt really something that I was interested in doing myself. It was something that I saw as important, and important to me, and important to talk about and to practice. But I didnt think that it was something that I actually wanted to put my hands into the soil and create. I was working really hard [in the wine industry], doing something that I really loved, but not taking enough time to understand what things were really, really important. And how important food actually was to me I think about my life before, and it was like, Id come home from the office, grab something to eat, watch CNN, go online for an hour, go to bed, and get up the next day and do it all again. I think now, was that really my life? Is that what I was living? Halfway through the internship program, Gavin quit his job in California. He decided to continue his practical education in agriculture through the WWOOF program in Italy for another six months. Many of the interns I talked to described their experience at Spannocchia as similarly life-changing. In my reading, Gavins experiences and those of other interns suggest that this very small segment of the movements participants best embody Slow Foods idea of a co-producer. The stated goal of the internship program is to familiarize people with Spannocchias core objectives and values, which include sustainable agriculture, Italian culture, cultural exchange, and place-based learning. Food production is central to interns everyday experiences at Spannocchia, but the structure of the program ensures that they simultaneously remain consumers of Italian food and culture as long-term quasitourists. For example, while room and board is provided, each individual must pay a $250 Education Fee to participate in the program in addition to the cost of airfare and

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other travel expenses. The program itself also includes several field trips to well-known tourist attractions such as the medieval village of San Gimingiano, the Palio horse race of Siena in the summer, and the thermal springs of Bagno Vignoni in addition to regular excursions to other Tuscan farms and wineries. On the weekends, the interns often take overnight trips to Florence, Lucca, or other nearby cities, and pay for these additional cultural experiences themselves. Furthermore, while interns must have the ability to speak English to gain acceptance into the program, knowledge of Italian is not necessary. In fact, the interns take part in twice weekly Italian lessons during their stay. On the other hand, the interns spend about thirty hours each week doing rigorous, filthy, and often exhausting food production-related work on the estate. For example, they feed the livestock, clean out the chicken house, mow the grass, herd sheep, and serve meals in the evenings. The opportunity to work with agriculture at close range enables the interns to become producers, even if for only a few months. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the interns also serve as the face of food production for many of Spannocchias guests. Operating neither fully as residents nor as tourists, they occupy a unique, liminal space on the estate, where food remains at the center of the experience. As Gavin pointed out: Here, its like you cant escape [food]. Even if you wanted to! Somebodys always like, Oh, isnt that lettuce great? Thats from the front garden, we picked that today. It puts it in your face. In this chapter, I present an ethnographic overview of the everyday, omnipresent food production work at Spannocchia. I outline the role of the interns, and provide several detailed examples of labor on the estate. How do they view this work, and how does it fit into the operation of Spannocchia as a whole? I then turn to my own work as a co-producer at Spannocchia and describe working with artisanal Italian butchers during the fall and winter months. In both scenarios, experiences of co-production at Spannocchia are not explicitly connected to the rhetoric of Slow Food by the interns or by the estate. However, these work experiences tacitly reflect the ideologies of the

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movements emphasis on sustainable, artisanal methods of food production. Close attention to daily life at Spannocchia specifically highlights how the experience and knowledge rhetorically associated with co-production is best realized by only a small segment of participants in Slow Food. Moreover, daily rhythms of work reveal that the labor involved in associated modes of food production can involve extensive selfeducation on the part of producers, who also must operate within the constraints of increasing regional and national regulations. Internships at Spannocchia In the same way that Spannocchias website warns tourists that the estate is truly rural and rustic, information presented to potential internship applicants on the Spannocchia website stresses the demanding nature of the program: Interns at Spannocchia spend 30 + hours each week involved in manual labor of some sort, so be aware that you may spend days or weeks on the same monotonous tasks like digging ditches, stacking wood, sweeping, hoeing, shoveling manure, doing animal feeding rounds, mowing lawns, pruning vines or trees, clearing stone walls, or plastering and painting. Be honest with yourself and with us about your ability, motivation, and desire to do hard, monotonous, manual labor and your interest in learning skills through hands-on experience The idea of working on a farm in Tuscany can be very easily romanticized and may seem like a great opportunity when one is daydreaming in class or at work. Be forewarned: Farming and maintenance work is chaotic, messy, unpredictable, laborious, monotonous, tiring, frustrating, and challenging in ways that probably go beyond ones normal understanding of these words. (Spannocchia Foundation 2011) The application information packet goes on to remind potential interns that the nearest town is approximately 6 km away, down a long and winding dirt road, and that access to transportation during the workweek is limited. All interns share a single telephone, there are no televisions, and internet access is extremely limited. Interns live in shared double rooms in Casa Pulcinelli, one of the buildings connected to the central villa on the estate, where they sleep on glorified cots and share two bathrooms. Privacy

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is difficult to come by, and life inside Casa Pulcinelli typically reminded me of a coed college dormitory. Despite these strong cautions, the internship program at Spannocchia currently receives between 40-80 applications for the eight positions available in each program cycle. Application materials include an in-depth questionnaire, several personal essays, three letters of recommendation, and, if one makes it through to the final cut, several telephone interviews. The intern director is responsible for the final selections. During my time at Spannocchia I interviewed three individuals who held or had held this position at some point. All emphasized that the selection of interns is not about choosing the individuals with the best qualities or previous experiences, but rather how the director believes that individual will fit into the overall group dynamic. One of the items on the application is to "List 3 interesting things about yourself." Brynn particularly liked this section in her selection process, and found that it revealed a great deal about the different applicants. Some of the people wrote things like "I am an accomplished swing dancer," or "I have visited x number of countries," although responses ranged to "I recently switched from briefs to boxers." Here, Brynn actively sought out a sense of humor and a somewhat lighthearted attitude. For her, this portion of the application was the one place where individual personality could really shine through, and when applicants listed "interesting" personal traits such as "I am committed to a green lifestyle, they were unlikely to be selected. Although many of the interns I worked with expressed exactly such an interest to me during interviews, this was not in and of itself viewed as a sufficient reason for wanting to work at Spannocchia. A solid, interactive group of workers is critical to the success of the program and of the farm, and each intern receives a specific assignment upon arrival. Assignments include work with the animals, the vineyards, the gardens, or with guest services, and although the application process allows each person to state their preferences, the final decision is up to the director. Very few of the interns have previous experience farming;

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rather, the interns I knew worked as bakers, waited tables in high end "foodie" restaurants, spent time on professional fishing boats, spent years in the Peace Corps, and worked on public health projects in China, just to name a few. 26 Interns ranged from age 18 to 28, although most of the interns I worked with at Spannocchia were relatively recent college graduates and two had just finished high school. Many of the interns I interviewed mentioned that an experience of working in Italy was a big part of their decision to apply to the program at Spannocchia. Others emphasized the appeal of working in agriculture, or viewed the estate as a means to support a personal ideology of living sustainably. Here, interns directly addressed issues about what it means to live a green lifestyle (or Slow, organic, sustainable, rural, etc.), as opposed to supporting it via other channels, such as serving organic food in a restaurant or volunteering in community gardens. I wonder, however, if the draw of agricultural work in less romanticized areas in the United States, rather than Tuscany, would capture similar symbolic appeal on an ideological level. Organizing Labor On my first full day at Spannocchia, Brian, the intern director at that time, introduced me to the interns and then he and I went to his office to arrange my work schedule for the next few weeks. The interns have a set schedule that is produced weekly, and although it appears to be very complex Brian made the comment that The people change, but the positions do not. In other words, the work that has to be done remains constant, but the people filling the various roles change from season to season. The intern director creates a rotating schedule that dictates who is in charge of making
26 During the period of my fieldwork, the U.S. entered a prolonged period of financial crisis and economic collapse. Several residents at Spannocchia theorized that the number of intern applications would increase in response to this, as the appeal of working abroad in an unconventional field like agriculture seems to become more appealing when it is more difficult to find a well-paid position.

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lunch for the group, and who is in charge of bussing tables at dinner each evening in the Villa. Someone else is in charge of keeping the fire going in the caldaia (wood furnace) that heats the water and the houses, and another individual holds cleaning duties in Casa Pulcinelli. Work hours typically extend from 8:00-1:00, and from 2:00-5:00 on days when there are no educational activities planned. However, every Friday the interns have a field trip, and they have Italian language courses on Monday and Thursday afternoons. On Thursdays, outside experts come to Spannocchia to present topics ranging from beekeeping to olive oil tasting to biodynamic farming. The entire internship program operates on a rotating schedule, and requires a lot of organization to keep everyone on time and on task. Despite organizational complexities and the rapid three-month turnover of labor, the flexibility demanded of the interns permits them to navigate this new system rapidly. As another former intern director stated, Within a week, the place is theirs. It is important for the interns to maintain a sense of ownership over their labor at Spannocchia. Day-to-day operations at the estate focus on tourist education, food production in the garden and fields, and a never-ending list of maintenance tasks on the vineyards, olive groves, fences, woodpiles, stone walls and animal housing. On weekday mornings everyone doing farm work convenes at The Wall at 8:00 a.m., where all interns and volunteers receive the days work assignment from the Italian staff. Most mornings, the interns stood shivering in coats, filthy jeans, and tall rubber boots, holding buckets of slop (food refuse) from the dining room for the pigs or sharpening hand tools. The Wall tended to be a confused space, with everyone talking at once in both English and Italian trying to figure out which tasks were most urgent. It was also one of the rare times that all of the farm staff could be found in one place, so in addition to directives, conversations about the state of the farm and ongoing planning could take up to half an hour.

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During the months when I was not helping with butchering work at Spannocchia, I waited for work assignments at the Wall with the other volunteers. In this way, I spent several months learning about the ins and outs of growing food in Tuscany through very literal field work. As promised by the internship application, some of the work was monotonous, such as milling grain or mending fences. At other times my jobs were decidedly unpredictable, such as the day I spent almost two rainy hours attempting to coax a (non-food motivated) mother pig into a new pen apart from her weaning piglets. As mentioned previously, I grew up on a farm, and my experiences with chasing escaped pigs and confronting enraged boars differed from those of the interns who had literally never seen a pig up close before. Nevertheless, the shared frustrations and exhilarations of farm work at Spannocchia forged connections not only among the interns, but between interns and their Italian supervisors. Everyday Work Of the tasks I took part in during my time at Spannocchia, two in particular highlight the physical demands of everyday intern labor: milling grain and clearing bramble in the vineyard. Both jobs are monotonous (or perhaps meditative, depending on ones perspective), and both are indirectly vital to the success of food and wine production on the estate. Each case presents a portrait of the everyday realities of creating food on a fairytale estate, and the struggles to maintain an ethos of sustainability while simultaneously striving for economic success. Milling grain for animal feed was easily the dustiest job at Spannocchia, and the interns who completed this task arrived at lunch covered in a powdery white veil. The animals at Spannocchia eat a locally sourced diet of organic grains and legumes, which must be ground in various combinations at least twice a week. Beans, barley, corn and other components are stored in small grain bins outside of a small mill shed located at the top of Pig Hill, where the breeding, gest ating, and nursing sows live. The shed holds a

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mechanical mill, a sturdy but persnickety thing that possesses a strong tendency to short out the electricity across the entire estate. Woven plastic bags attach to one side of the mill, where each one is carefully folded on and then secured with a metal clasp and a thick black rubber band. The bags rarely fill evenly, and if the bag has a hole or is not perfectly sealed around the chute, showers of milled grain will shoot up and create a cloud of dust. If the front basin holding unground grains goes empty (perhaps while you race about trying to seal off a leak in the bag), the grinder will spit pieces of grain at you at high velocity, which ping painfully off the side of your face. When the bags are full, they are removed from the machine, tied with a piece of twine and stacked in the mill house. On a good morning I could grind 12-15 large bags of grain, which would feed the pigs for three or four days. I could barely move the larger bags, which weighed upwards of 80 pounds. The mill was also incredibly loud, and I began to wear protective hearing equipment after an intern pointed out that I figure that if Im going to do this at least once a week for 3 months I should probably look out for my ears. Finally, and perhaps most insultingly, all of this work could be undone by the foraging of hungry wild boars during the night. On several occasions I trekked up Pig Hill to feed sows in the morning, only to discover the telltale indentations of small hoof prints and torn bags of grain dragged through the mud. Despite the tactical applications of metal fencing and strategically placed rocks and boards, the boars managed to break into the aging wooden mill shed multiple times. Handwritten instructions located on the wall of the mills interior outline the grain compositions and dietary requirements of the various animals. Feeding schedules are determined by age, weight, and motherhood, with pregnant and nursing sows receiving the largest quantity of food per head. The interns feed the pigs living directly by the mill from a storage bin inside the mill house, hauling a few buckets of food at a time. In other areas, the interns empty bags of feed in large plastic bins that resemble trash cans, to be measured out at feeding time. In distant fields, pigs eating from automatic cone-shaped

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feeders receive a bag or two at a time poured directly into the feeder. These feeders must be refilled within a day or so, depending on the size of the group. To be honest, it is not the most efficient system, as it is dependent not only on unreliable machinery but on unpaid manual labor to grind and distribute grain. Before the fall of 2008 things were even worse, as there were no automatic feeders and interns hauled food to each individual pen of pigs twice a day. This feeding cycle could demand half a day of work. In 2009, residents at Spannocchia suggested several potential remedies to the problem of the mill sapping too much electricity. At one point the staff considered purchasing a combination tractor/portable miller that could be driven directly to the pig pens. There, the feed would be dispensed with an auger, running off of the trucks battery. Unfortunately, Pig Hill is unbelievably steep, and to drive a piece of machinery that heavy up and down would be dangerous. Another idea, stemming from the solar panel systems at one of the Italian residents house, was to use the excess energy produced by the panels in the summer to create a steam generator. But it is unclear how this would work in the winter months. Eventually, in 2010 I learned that Spannocchia purchased a new grain mill, a programmable machine that mixes and mills on its own. Presumably, the interns now have more time to dedicate to other work. There is no technological fix for clearing bramble, however. In Spannocchias vineyards and orchards blackberry brambles threaten to overrun the terraced walls. On several occasions I worked with the vineyard interns to wage battle against these thorny branches. Wielding a crescent-shaped sickle, a small pair of pruning shears, and a wider sickle called a pennato that resembles a blunt machete with a hook at the end, I discovered how difficult vineyard maintenance can be. Work gloves could not prevent the sharp thorns from puncturing my hands and wrists, and I discovered small, bloodstained rips across my work clothes. Cleaning the walls, as the vineyard manager, Alessio, calls it, is hard work. Its not difficult in the same way that animal work is

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difficultthose jobs require sudden spurts of energy and strength (e.g., tossing a hay bale or bag of grain), whereas this work is slow, steady labor that burns energy over time. The vines and trees make up Alessios domain at Spannocchia. He is know n to sing and talk to himself and the vines. One day in March, when he was busy trimming the olive trees and mulching the branches, he stopped to tell me about how tired he felt, and how the spring makes him exhausted more than any other season. I asked him, What about vedemmia (the grape harvest)? to which he responded that although yes, that is a lot of work, there is only one task to completepicking grapes. In the spring, all kinds of tasks competed for his attention. The grapevines needed to be pruned, tied, and trained (comprising the bulk of vineyard interns work), the olive trees needed to be pruned, and the numerous general maintenance activities such as clearing the walls and fixing terraces still loomed. Alessio looked overwhelmed, and his expression was one of a man who with too many tasks and not enough workers. Realities of Co-Production The resident Italians hold various opinions of the interns. On the day that the fall interns departed Spannocchia, I asked the farm manager Riccio what everyone would do now that the work force was gone. He laughed and said, Now we dance. Although his statement was tongue-in-cheek, the effort taken to train a new set of workers every three months is immense. Although the interns labor is critical to ensuring the farms success, the permanent workers at Spannocchia hold very different perspectives on the goals of the farm as a whole. For example, Alessio received accusations of sexism from several of the interns, due to his alleged preference for male workers. At the time, one of his interns was a tall, 23-year old man and the other a younger, very petite woman. My experiences working in the vineyard revealed the physiological demands of the work, and the reality of the situation was that the male intern could work more quickly and effectively than his female counterpart in many situations. It was not that she was a bad

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worker by any means, and in some situations (such as tying vines) she may have been more effective. Likewise, throwing hay bales and piles of wood could be done by any of the interns, but a strong back sure didnt hurt. One weekend, while awaiting the arrival of a new WWOOF volunteer, a male intern kidded that he hoped her medical form read 6 foot 4, 190 pounds. When she turned out to be over age 60 and in relatively poor shape, several individuals (staff and intern alike) heaved barely concealed sighs of disappointment. On a farm with so many possible tasks, there will always be work for people of all genders, fitness levels, and so on. Not everyone should toss hay bales. However, a smaller farm may not be able to accommodate a range of volunteers, and there is no way to pick and choose volunteers based on physical size or strength. These examples demonstrate not only the arduous realities of an interns daily labor, but also reveal the pressure on Spannocchias staff members to structure the production process. Economically, it would not be feasible for smaller estates without free labor from interns and volunteers to ma intain organic production on this scale. At the same time, in order for Spannocchia to begin to turn a profit from its food production, some of the processes will need to become more efficient. The tension between maintaining traditional or low-impact agriculture and achieving monetary profit comes to the fore in situations like these. Portrait Four: Giuseppe, the farmhand Giuseppe is the head of day-to-day animal operations at Spannocchia. In many ways Giuseppe is a typical Italian man in his early 20she can frequently be seen holding cell-phone conversations with his girlfriend (a regularly rotating position of area ladies), he spends weekends socializing at the local discoteca, and he wears trendy jeans and shoes when not in his work uniform of camouflage prints and mud-covered work boots. Giuseppe is entirely atypical, however, in that he has remained in his rural hometown and pursued agricultural work. Similar to the rural-flight that occurs in my

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home state of Iowa, Italians who grow up in rural areas rarely stick around, preferring to find more lucrative work in larger cities and industries. Giuseppe came to work at Spannocchia in 2006, and his contract is renewed on an annual basis. There is a real concern that he will decide not to renew again, choosing instead to focus on the small acreage he owns nearby. Riccio, the farm manager, turns over most of the day-to-day operations to Giuseppe. Riccio has become increasingly dependent on Giuseppes detailed knowledge of the animals at Spannocchia, as well as his skill in dealing with the interns who work with the sheep, pigs, horses and cows. Many of the young American interns have never worked on a farm before, and even fewer have experience with large farm animals. Here Giuseppes patience is more than a virtue. Although he speaks very little English, and his thick Tuscan accent 27 can make it difficult for foreigners to understand his Italian, he is always easygoing and willing to explain things multiple times. On the morning the spring group of interns arrived, Chiara had been battling a porcupine in the garden. The porcupines are common offenders in Tuscany (much like raccoons in Iowa), and had decimated a number of her crops. Although Spannocchia is located on a natural reserve area, rules about hunting are loosely interpreted in cases like this. Giuseppe snuck past the interns with a long, forked metal prong, and several minutes later he returned, carrying something in a large, lumpy sack. I followed close on his heels as he carried the package to his truck and dumped it in the back. It was the offending porcupine, now dead, which Giuseppe took home for his mother to clean and prepare. Many rural Tuscans consider porcupine to be a delicious treat, and Giuseppe's
27 While the Tuscan dialect of Dante was the antecedent of the standardized Italian language, the accentless Italian spoken on the news today derives from Milanese pronunciation. In rural Tuscany, the accent of locals is marked by an aspirated c, which transforms words like Americana into Amerihana. In my experience, the further south one travels from Florence, the thicker this accent becomes. Some Italians I met believe this linguistic trait is a relic of the Etruscan language spoken in the region centuries before.

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mother is an infamous cook. Like the majority of young unmarried Italian men, Giuseppe still lived with his parents.28 Every day, he arrived at the lunch table with an enormous, enviable paper bag filled with pasta dishes, sliced meats and a loaf of bread, vegetable sides, fruit, and often a delectable looking dessert. Giuseppe was happy to let me tag along during the day in one of the farm trucks, but it wasnt until the spring, when I impressed him with my ability to catch pigletsa skill gained during my own agricultural childhoodthat he gave me real jobs to do. Giuseppe was curious about my family's land in the American Midwest, where my fathers family holds just under a thousand acres. This amount of farmland for was unfathomable to most of the Italian farmers I met, and Giuseppe was one of several who jokingly proposed marriage to me when he realized what I stand to inherit. He often asked about what kinds of pigs my father raised, what kind of tractors he used, and what kinds of crops were in the fields. On the few occasions that I tried to explain my academic works to Giuseppe, he responded in the same puzzled way that the farmers back home did: Why would you go all the way to Italy to chase pigs, when you could just as easily do it at home? The Anthropologist as Co-Producer Spannocchia is open for guest visits from March 1 - December 1, the same dates during which the intern program runs. During the winter months, the estate hibernates. The pool is covered, the guest houses are sealed up, and many of the estat es employees

28 Young Italians are considerably more likely to live with their parents than their Northern European or U.S. counterparts. Data from the European Community Household Panel Study (ECHPS) in 1996 showed that 82% of Italian men aged 18-30 lived with their parents. Manacorda and Moretti (2006) argue that such findings rationalize some of the incongruities of Italian society today (i.e., low rates of youth employment, deferred marriage, and decreased fertility rates). Giuliano (2006) further posits that for young adults in Italy, for whom the social norm is to live with their parents until marriage, larger social changes such as changing sexual norms, increased work outside of the home, and an overall rise in housing costs also play a role.

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are released until the next spring. Three long-term winter volunteers arrive, but they do not enjoy evening meals cooked by Graziella or the educational programs. With this pared down staff, I discovered there were more opportunities for me to participate in the everyday operations of the farm alongside the Italian residents. Most importantly, it was during this period that I was able to gather the bulk of my information regarding hog production and meat processing at Spannocchia. Spannocchias transformation kitchen, where all of the meat processing occurs, occupies a small corner room adjacent to the Fattoria. On my first day at the estate, hauling luggage to my room in the Villa, I happened to glance out of a second story window. Expecting a view of the Villa courtyard surrounded by Tuscan flora, I was instead greeted by three men unloading a hog carcass from a refrigerated truck (see Figure 18).

Figure 18 Unloading a slaughtered hog

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I rushed to take a photo, unaware of how familiar this scene would become during the many hours I would spend processing Cinta Senese meat in the coming months. My work assignment was born out of necessity: the full time farm hand, Giuseppe, was too busy with the rapidly expanding herds to help out, and the fall interns would leave in several weeks. Despite the fact that I knew nothing about meat processing, I was equipped to complete unskilled but necessary labor in the transformation kitchen. Late fall and early winter are historically the times when most butchering takes place in Tuscany. For practical reasonsincluding lowered temperatures, a relative lack of insects, and a decreased availability of wild foods for the pigs to forage farmers traditionally slaughter animals around this time of year. The same considerations applied at Spannocchia. Riccio needed seasonal help in the transformation kitchen, and I arrived in the fall of 2008 with an interest in Cinta Senese pigs. I never expected to learn the details of Italian meat processing in such a visceral way, but I consider it a massive stroke of good fortune that I arrived on the estate when I did. The bulk of my fieldwork from October to February took place inside the transformation kitchen. Smashed into a field notebook, I discovered a crumpled to do list from my time in the transformation kitchen. This seemingly unimportant piece of paper, which has real fieldnotes scribbled on the front, provides an accurate glimpse into my daily work: Boil salted water for the pig heads Clear off the salt in the salatura (salting cabinet), place the lardo on the shelf Clean the corner with the steamer Dispose of animal parts Mop the cella (refrigerator) floor again Clean the floor of the ascigatura (drying room) Make cervo (venison) sausage labels Take the recycling and trash out Clean the bathroom

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Although most participant-observation research does not include mopping up hog blood on a daily basis, my work in the Lab allowed me to access the everyday conversations, challenges and rhythms associated with salumi production. A Word of Warning Riccio never made the assumption that I might be squeamish. Fortunately, he was correct: growing up on a hog farm, I was familiar with the life cycle of pigs destined to become pork. However, it became rapidly apparent that not everyone shared my matterof-fact attitude toward butchering. Even the most carnivorous individuals sometimes looked nauseous when glancing into the transformation kitchen, and the handful of vegetarians I met at Spannocchia avoided it altogether. One evening I made the mistake of talking about a days work during dinner, when several individuals sitting near me became visibly uncomfortable with my descriptions. (In my defense, they were consuming and enjoying a fresh pork loin that came from that work, but I did apologize for causing discomfort.) Much to everyones relief, I ceased my descriptions of butchering during dinnertime, and once I left Spannocchia I only talked about my work with a few individuals. 29 Not everyone who eats meat wants to closely consider the source of that meat, or experience the reality of the slaughter and butchering cycle. The ethics and politics of eating animals are not my focus here. Publications from other academics (cf. Fiddes 1991; Sapontzis 2004) and popular authors (cf. Foer 2009; Schlosser 2001) discuss the subject in detail. From my perspective, the Cinta Senese at Spannocchia are among the healthiest and well cared for pigs that I have ever seen.
29 In one particularly painful reflection of the psychological intensity of the politics that surround meat, I met a woman who does incredible work with her local food system. We enjoyed a lively conversation about food, politics, and eating that lasted for several hours. Basking in this newfound camaraderie, I mentioned that I participated in small-scale pork processing during my dissertation fieldwork. Her face paled, and she mumbled something about the intelligence level of pigs, and how humans should not consume them. Her expression was horrified. Our conversation ended abruptly and I never heard from her again.

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There is literally no comparison between the horrors of industrial pork production and hogs that enjoy outdoor foraging and roaming, natural husbandry, and a diet based on organic, suitable ingredients. However, the reality of meat production means that while these animals live a good life, it includes a bad moment at the very end.30 My personal food politics dictate a desire to know as much as possible about the meat I am consuming, but I recognize that the images and descriptions of butchering I share in this chapter have the potential to create discomfort among some. The Transformation Kitchen In the late 1990s, Riccio and Richard began to experiment with curing meat in the old wine cellars below the Fattoria using only traditional methods. The Cinta Senese pig possesses a uniquely high fat content, making it a challenging meat to cure. While factory-farmed pork is bred to produce extremely lean meat, heritage breeds like the Cinta Senese have fat streaked throughout the muscle. Lean meat loses water much more quickly than fat, allowing the salt to soak quickly into the meat and harden. With more fat the process takes longer, but the quality is arguably worth it. Riccio described industrial prosciutto to me as dried rather than aged. A standard leg of prosciutto takes about nine months to cure. At Spannocchia, the prosciutto cure for a minimum of eighteen months.

30 I never had the opportunity to go to the slaughterhouse, but I watched the process on film shot by one of the winter interns. One at a time, the pigs are stunned unconscious with an electric jolt, and then immediately killed with a metal bolt to the forehead. The entire process takes only seconds. Riccio is one of many who believe that excessive fear and confusion at the moment of death affect the taste of meat negatively, and that all possible care should be taken to make the slaughter process as stress free as possible. One on occasion we noticed bruising on the side of a hog returned from the slaughterhouse, indicating thrashing near the time of death. Riccio demanded that I get my camera, and took photographs of blood clots he found in the lungs and purplish marks on the legs, both of which indicated further struggle. Steaming with anger, he took his phone outside and proceeding to yell at the slaughterhouse owner for over half an hour for being careless with his animals. His anger reflected both a concern for the welfare of the hogs he raised and the possible effects on the flavor of his meat products.

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These factors, in addition to the dearth of information available about the breed at the time, stunted Spannocchias effort s at meat curing. Riccio explained a bit of the science behind this difficulty to me. There are two basic ways to cure a salame the traditional wayacidification and dehydration. The acidification process raises the temperature of the meat to 18C (65F) for a few days to jumpstart the fermentation process. In most cases, chemical acids and nitrites are added to the meat to achieve a regulated fermentation. However, because Cinta fat begins to liquefy at 18C, and because the farm does not make use of chemical additives, Spannocchia utilizes the dehydration method. Even after careful considerations and calculations, Riccio and Richards early efforts at meat curing at Spannocchia were thwarted due to variations in humidity. Some meat went bad, and some of it just tasted like salt. Obviously, Tuscans successfully consumed the Cinta Senese in salumi production for centuries, long before the advent of humidity control or chemical acidifiers. What Spannocchia was missing was an expert butcher who knew the ins and outs of curing the Cinta Senese. In the past, a traveling butcher called a norcino would go around to help area farmers butcher in the fall. The norcino played a crucial role in the days when the only source of animal protein for many people came from a pig or two slaughtered and cured for home consumption. 31 Eventually they found Piero, a retiree who possesses a vast knowledge of small-scale butchering. Piero became the maestro of Spannocchias transformation kitchen, eventually training Riccio in particular. Piero was also photographed for the 2008 Bon Appetit article; standing in front of a room of curing prosciutto, his image occupies a full page across from that of Graziella.

31 The norcino butcher dates back to medieval times. The name refers to the men who attended a well-known butchering apprenticeship in the village of Norcia, Italy. Thus trained, these men were able to earn additional income during the fall and winter months serving as itinerant butchers.

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As the operation grew, Spannocchia invested in a cella (a roughly 8 by 5 walkin refrigerator used to store fresh meat), the asciugatura (a low-humidity cooler used to begin the drying and curing process of salame), and a system to control the temperature and humidity in the stagionatura (the dry curing room adjacent to a cellar wall) and salatura (salting room). The European Economic Community (EEC) requirements for meat production, even on a small scale like this, are strict. A veterinary service must approve not only the environment animals live in, but the transformation areas as well. According to Richard, the EEC was stricter five years ago than they are now. When he and Riccio designed the transformation kitchen, local officials required both practical changes to the building (a separate bathroom and sink had to be installed) and somewhat inexplicable changes (such as removing the original wooden doors and installing vinyl ones). The biggest problem they encountered was the location of the cellaaccording to law, the space between the front door and the cella (a distance of perhaps twenty feet) is too far to transport raw meat without risk of contamination. Fortunately, due to the small scale of Spannocchias production the inspectors waived this rule. However, Spannocchias vending license only allows for direct sales to restaurants, markets, and individuals. Without substantial changes to the transformation kitchen and processing procedure, Spannocchia cannot sell its products in retail stores. The transformation kitchen, affectionately known as the Lab, is a narrow rectangular room dominated by an enormous marble-topped table. A stainless steel counter, stove, and sink occupy one half of the room, and an assortment of hooks, knives, cutting boards, and plastic bins line the walls. Large windows that never fully close allow cold breezes to sweep through the screens (the only screen windows and doors I ever saw at Spannocchia), numbing the fingers and noses of anyone inside. For sanitation purposes it is important that the room remains cool during the butchering process. During the winter I arrived to work at the Lab wearing long johns, jeans, two

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pairs of wool socks, and layers of shirts, and quickly layered a white butchering coat and plastic apron over the top.

Figure 19 Making salame in the Transformation Kitchen

Many peoples first observation of the Lab is that it is incredibly clean, particularly when compared with the rest of the farm. Cleanliness and temperature control are clearly dictated by EEC regulation and reinforced by Riccio. The emphasis on a pristine environment played out in my own work: for every hour I spent working with the meat itself, I probably spent ten hours scrubbing floors, buckets, white plastic tubs, walls, knives, and metal hooks. As the least-skilled worker in the transformation

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kitchen, cleaning tasks almost always fell to me. 32 We did not use chemical cleaners on any part of the kitchen except for disinfecting the floor after a butchering cycle. White vinegar was the primary cleaning agent, along with scalding hot water, an industrial steam cleaner, and biodegradable organic dish soap for the tubs. Anyone at work in the transformation kitchen had to wear head coverings, white lab coats, and clean shoes at all times. Over time I found that a bandana was most effective at keeping the blood and grease out of my hair, which I kept tightly braided; Riccios wild mane of curly hair threatened constant escape from the white butchers cap he wore. Butchering European Union regulations dictate that hogs destined for sale at market must be killed in a certified slaughterhouse. Although my butchering experience at Spannocchia included the processing of wild animals killed on site, such as deer and chinghiale boars, the Cinta Senese were slaughtered off-site. In 2005 the farm butchered between 28-30 pigs a year, which increased to 40-50 per year in 2008/2009. Every two to three weeks, Riccio and Giuseppe would select three or four animals to send to slaughter. Practical considerations played a role in the selection process: in addition to size and shape, the pigs that escaped from their pens the most regularly and successfully found themselves higher on the list of potential prosciutto. The pigs arrive from the slaughterhouse sawed in half lengthwise. In addition to our regular white coats, we don long plastic aprons and hang the carcasses from large metal hooks in front of the window. In the winter steam would rise from the bodies, which were still warm from slaughter a few hours before. The majority of the wiry hair
32 Although it is outside the scope of my present study, I also perceived gendered dimensions to my work assignments in the Lab. Butchering is not considered womens work in Italy, and in addition to cleaning tasks I was also asked to fetch espresso for Piero, clean the bathroom attached to the Lab, and re-paint the walls. Although essential, these jobs did not directly involve working with meat itself.

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on the body of each hog is removed through a scalding process at the slaughterhouse, but the first step at Spannocchia is to use a small butane torch to burn off any remainder. Whoever is in charge of this process alternates between torching the stray hairs and shaving the shriveled remnants off the flesh with a sharp knife. When exposed to the extreme heat of the torch the skin shrinks back, and one must be careful not to scald the flesh. Worse, the odor of burning hair permeates everything and lingered in my own hair and clothes for days afterward. In addition to the hanging carcasses, the slaughterhouse returns plastic tubs of innards. The tongue, throat, and lungs remain connected in one long strip, which we rinse with water and hang on metal hooks inside the cella. We then wash out the hogs stomachs and intestines, already emptied of any residual food/digestive material at the slaughterhouse, which will serve as casings for buristo and fresh sausage. The slaughterhouse also drains the blood from the animals after slaughter, and returns it to Spannocchia in a large canister. For me, this blood is the most evocative reminder of the living animal, which is now very literally transformed into meat. At this point the carcass is hoisted onto the marble countertop and the major divisions begin. The large cuts require the most expertise and experience; although I observed this process numerous times, only Piero and occasionally Riccio transformed the hog into its components. At one point Riccio, still learning the intricacies of artisanal butchering, asked me to video-record Piero at this stage in the process. What if something happens to the maestro? he asked, I need to see how he makes the cuts. The butcher carefully sharpens an assortment of knives at this point. Each has a specific use. During my fieldwork, Riccio was in the process of amassing a comprehensive collection of high-quality butchers knives. When he visited larger cities he would often return home with a new piece. Although the transformation kitchen is equipped with dozens of blades of varying quality, Riccios tools were his alone.

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When I watched Riccio break down a hog for the first time, the process took about two hours. Piero wasnt in the lab that day, and Riccio nervously worked fr om memory. Although his own apprenticeship with Piero and other area butchers began several years before, Riccio still considered himself a newcomer to the field. The first step in the entire process is to remove the hind leg for prosciutto, the most valuable piece of meat Spannocchia produces. Riccio first made an incision to remove the caul fat in the lower abdomen, carefully carving around the kidneys, which are saved for use in salume. A series of intricate cuts released the hind leg from the rest of the body. Riccio laced a metal hook between the tendons below the hoof and hung the leg from the metal bar above the window. When the hog carcasses arrive back at Spannocchia, the slaughterhouse affixes a certificate of authenticity (i.e., that the hog is Cinta Senese) to each half. This crucial certificate is tied to the prosciutto leg, where it will remain until it is sold almost two years later. Although all of the meat at Spannocchia is traceable to the pig from which it came, the prosciutto holds the highest economic and symbolic value. Not only does it require a lengthy investment of time for curing, Riccio explained to me that A good prosciutto will create strong emotions in people. Prosciutto ties emotional value to artisanal production. With the pressure of the prosciutto over, Riccio went on to remove the head of the hog. After breaking the neck bone, he trimmed the flesh away for guanciale (cured jowls). He cut off the ear, carefully removing the yellow identification tag that was attached to the pig shortly after it was weaned. The ear tags contain serial numbers, which are retained by the farm long after the meat has been processed and consumed, to ensure further traceability. Riccio then pulled out the brain and spinal cord tissue for sopressata, and threw away the glands and tissue around the neck, as the hormones they contain negatively affect the flavor of salumi products. Carving along the spine from the neck down, he detached the muscle tissue from the fat and iridescent connective tissue. Riccio showed me how to feel for the false ribs, and made a major cut directly in front

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of them, pulling the ribs and away from the rest of the body. After trimming small pieces of meat from the upper layers of muscle for sausage, Riccio then used a bone saw to separate the spine from the ribs, and the loin from the spine. Bits of cartilage flew through the air as the bones cracked. The layers of meat and fat were further divided: the stream of fat on the hogs back would be cured as lardo, the sides divided up into portions of pancetta. The lower belly, marbled with fat, would be wrapped in caul fat and cured into capocollo. Riccio continued to carefully carve up the side of hog, and eventually we were left only with the shoulder (spalla) and surrounding bones. We transferred each cut of meat into a separate white plastic tub in the cella, with specific tubs relegated for bones, fat, and other small pieces of meat that would be used for making salame the next day. Salumi versus Salame In Tuscany, all types of cured meats are known as salumi. The term encompasses all charcuterie; the root of the word, sale (salt), indicates a class of meat products traditionally cured in salt. Salame, on the other hand, is a specific variety of salumi made with salted and spiced ground meat packaged in animal intestine and allowed to ferment. In other words, while all salame is salumi, not all salumi is salame. 33 To add to the confusion, similar pork products have different names throughout Italy. For example, the product known as sopressata in Tuscany is a kind of head cheese containing scraps of meat, skin, fat, garlic, lemon, and a spice blend dominated by pepper, cloves and nutmeg. In southern Italy, however, this combination is called coppa, and sopressata refers to a spicy, aged salame similar to pepperoni.

33 The English term salami is the Italian plural of salame, and refers to the same product. It is not a variant spelling for salumi.

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In the Spannocchia transformation kitchen we produced the following types of salumi in the winter of 2008-2009: Salame, Rigatino (Pancetta), Lardo, Sopressata, Finocchiona, Proscuitto, Capocollo, Gotino, Buristo, Salsiccia, Spalla, and Salame Bastardo. (Please see Appendix A for descriptions of these products written by Spannocchia staff for the Cinta Senese tour.) Most of these are made of nothing but Cinta Senese meat, salt, and pepper. Nothing contained mystery meat, although all parts of the pig were used. Spannocchia follows the old Italian dictum Del maiale non si butta via niente (No part of the pig should be thrown away). This culinary suggestion requires an in-depth understanding of animal anatomy, as every cut has a specific preparation. Sayings like this reflect a deeply rooted cultural legacy in which skills that ensured daily survival in the countryside were revered. However, it is a mistake to believe that eating the entirety of the animal was a hallmark of the rural poor, as recipe collections from the Middle Ages on show great enthusiasm for organ meats and other offal across the social spectrum (Capatti & Montanari 1999). Whereas today we typically consider certain cuts of meat to be less prestigious, social difference was for many years reflected in the type of animal consumed, with beef and veal being the choice of the elite in most areas of the peninsula. Throughout the Middle Ages, a forest (i.e., landholding) was measured by the number of pigs and wild game it was capable of fattening. Until the 14th century, when feudal land use patterns began to shift, all social classes ate pork. At that time, population shifts to urban centers, the shrinking of forests, and developments in cattle breeding began to mark pork consumption as specifically rural or associated with the peasantry. However, Capatti and Montanari point out that in regions like Tuscany, where single-family farming and sharecropping persisted as the primary modes of agricultural production, pork continued to hold a place of importance at the table regardless of social standing (1999). Significant care is given to even a less pricey preparation of meat, such as salsiccia (fresh sweet sausage links) or salame. As Riccio explained it to me, if a

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customer buys the cheapest meat we have, and finds it to be outstanding, it would indicate that our most expensive cuts would be even more phenomenal. Two of the cheapest meats Spannocchia sells are sopressata and buristo, a headcheese and blood sausage, respectively. These products are made on the final day of a butchering cycle, after all of the sausages, prosciutto, lardo, and other items have been processed. At this point, all that remains of the pigthe skin, the head, and leftover bones and fleshis tossed into a large cauldron filled with boiling salt water (Figure 20). There it cooks for several hours, eventually emerging as a gelatinous slurry that must be strained for bones and inedible cartilage (Figure 21). Spices are added, and the entire mix is diced by hand using a large knife and wooden board (Figure 22), a difficult process due to the hot steam that continues to rise up from the mix. Finally, the seasoned meat is packed into heavy paper casings (Figure 23). It takes two individuals to complete this step; one person holds the casing upright, and the other ladles the meat inside while checking for stray bones. The finished sopressata is then hung over a plastic bin, where it continues to secrete excess gelatin for several hours (Figure 24). Unlike the other Cinta Senese products, sopressata and buristo (Figure 25) are not aged. These products go directly to the refrigerator, where they remain until market day.

Figure 20 Piero stirs the cauldron

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Figure 21 Straining meat and bones from the brine in the cauldron

Figure 22 Slicing meat for sopressata

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Figure 23 Putting the spiced meat mixture into casings

Figure 24 Gelatin forms on the exterior of freshly packaged sopressata

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Figure 25 Sliced buristo

Le Muffe (The Molds) Many Americans would be shocked if they saw just how much mold collects on Italian salumi as it cures. Good salumi, however, is evenly covered in grayish-white mold as it ages (Figure 26). The mold imparts flavor and prevents spoilage during the curing process. One of my jobs in the stagionatura, or curing room, was to brush excess mold from the hundreds of hanging salame to encourage even coverage. Riccio handed me a soft broom top, and instructed me to be very, very gentle with the brushing. He demonstrated, lightly passing the bristles over a rack of salami, which left a gentle snowfall of greenish mold below. He explained, The white muffa, this is good. This we want. The green muffa, it is sometimes good. We dont want too much. The black muffayou come and find me.

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Figure 26 Racks of curing salame in the Stagionatura, with more aged products covered in the desirable white muffa hanging on the lower racks

Forty-five minutes later I found myself coated with greenish dust. Surprisingly I did not sneeze uncontrollably, although my sinuses were filled with muffa for the next day and a half. (In the future I remembered to ask for a paper face mask before beginning this particular task.) Riccio came in to check my work half an hour later and shook his head in frustration. Apparently I took off far too much mold, most of which now pooled in dusty puddles beneath the drying racks. I said lightly, lightly! he hollered. This was just one of many, many mistakes I would make in the transformation kitchen. Riccio shook his head, shook his fists, and told me to get the mop and some hot water. I needed to clean up the stalagmites of mold left on the stone floor. Do NOT use soap, you will kill the muffa! Riccio admonished as he left the room to take yet another cell phone call. No chemicals were allowed anywhere near the stagionatura. The mold population was precious.

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The stagionatura is precisely temperature and humidity controlled with a digitalized system and Riccio records the readings on each twice a day. When he left for a weekend trip to his hometown in February he very hesitantly assigned another winter intern and I to check the readings, carefully explaining the process to each of us both individually and together. A few degrees of humidity or temperature can make dramatic changes to the final product. The right molds only survive in specific conditions, and it is widely understood that the final flavor of a product is influenced by the specific molds that exist in a given site. What grows in the Spannocchia stagionatura is not the same as what occurs in a neighbors. This microbial terroir is difficult to reproduce. Industrial salumi producers have a range of mold cultivations at their disposal, and curing rooms are carefully controlled to maintain a homogenous end product. 34 Prior to the days of electronically controlled humidity, a good curing room or cave was an important commodity. The irony is that in the past individuals created salumi as a product that did not demand a lot of attention, but was left to age in relative peace. In the current market economy, which demands specific outputs, the technological aging process must be carefully monitored. Spannocchias butchering program is thus simultaneously based in traditional, artisanal processes and modernized, technological practices. The same is true for Spannocchias other food production efforts, which blur the line between tradition and efficiency. Although these are not always conflicting modes of producing food, Spannocchia does incorporate modern means in order to sustain artisanal processes. The same is true of the estates Cinta Senese breeding program, which emphasizes time-honored practices of rearing this indigenous hog while concurrently
34 See Paxson (2008) for further discussion of microbiopolitics in the case of cheese microbes. Similar to the highly localized muffa described here, artisanal cheese producers identify unique cheese cultures as both as distinguishing features of a marketable terroir and as a means of differentiation from industrialized cheese production (Paxson 2010).

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conforming to external standards of production enforced by the EU, Slow Food, and a local Cinta Senese consortium.

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CHAPTER FIVE: THE CINTA SENESE Eat It to Save It The Cinta Senese is the only breed of native Tuscan swine to survive extinction. Until very recently, the Cinta Senese pigs that I helped to feed, house, and butcher at Spannocchia were members of an endangered species. Today, breeders keep these pigs for hobby or in connection with agritourism, but increasingly the Cinta is raised for commercial production of lard, salami, prosciutto, and other specialty meat products. The Cinta is not an economical or particularly profitable animal in the age of industrial agriculture, and ironically this may be exactly what enhances its popularity today. What could be deemed more distinctive than eating a food product that is difficult to obtain, must be raised in highly unique contexts, and can only be enjoyed by a narrow segment of the population? It is the renewed demand for Cinta Senese meat in both local and regional markets that brought this breed back from the brink of extinction. The survival of the species literally depends on a gastronomic market. Renewed ideals of locality, typicality, and artisanal production bolster the market for Cinta Senese products in Italian markets Normally, when we think of endangered animal species, the idea of eating them is far from our minds. However, in the case of heritage livestock breeds like the Cinta, cultivating a consumer demand for animal food products is central to conservation efforts. Heritage breeds are the traditional livestock breeds raised by farmers in the past, before the drastic reduction of breed variety and genetic diversity caused by the rise of modern industrial agriculture. Heritage animals were bred over time to develop traits that made them particularly well-adapted to local environmental conditions. As such, they are generally better adapted to withstand disease and survive in harsh environmental conditions, and their bodies are better suited to living on pasture. In contrast, industrial food production favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds selected for maximum

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output in a controlled environment. These animals are bred to produce lots of milk or eggs, to put on weight quickly, or to yield particular types of meat within confined facilities. Today's industrial farms rely upon a small handful of specialized types of livestock and crops, resulting in the loss of thousands of non-commercial animal breeds and crop varieties. Since 1990, roughly 200 breeds of farm animals have gone extinct worldwide, and there are currently 1,500 others at risk of becoming extinct. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that over the last decade, sixty breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct; at this time, one in five species of farm animal is in danger of extinction (FAO 2006). In Europe, half of the breeds in existence at the turn of the 20th century are now extinct, and a high percentage of the remaining breeds are in danger of disappearing over the next 20 years. In 1980, fewer than 200 Cinta Senese pigs remained in Tuscany. Through efforts of local breeding consortia, Slow Foods Ark of Taste and Presidia, and EU -wide efforts to label the origin of products, consumers receive information about the traditional methods of breeding, rearing, and butchering Cinta Senese pigs. By attaching positive values to these products, consumers value foods produced in this way not only for their flavors, but for the cultural distinction they connote. In their marketing efforts, producers explicitly link their products to local geography, history, and cultural identity, but may be pulled between multiple groups with differing agendas. While an emphasis on traditional production methods underlies Spannocchias efforts, my ethnographic examination of the marketing of Cinta Senese foods produced at Spannocchia highlights how Italian producers navigate complex and contested regulatory practices in order to market such goods. However, different groups categorize and highlight the Cinta Senese in very different ways.

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A Truly Tuscan Pig The Cinta Senese serves as a cultural object that provides a common reference point for farmers and consumers in Tuscany. The pig serves as a receptacle of symbolic meanings: it is part of a localized sense of history, and the ways in which its meat is prepared and consumed are typical specialties of the area. The Cinta Senese originated in the hills around Siena, and the majority of breeders continue to work in this province. The distinctive white belt, or cinta, was carefully selected for by medieval breeders who needed to separate their stock from other, wilder breeds living in forests nearby; today, a solid white band remains a crucial feature in breeding selection.

Figure 27 Cinta Senese breeding sows

The breed remains rustic and is ideal for raising wild or semi-wild, and today the Cinta continues to be raised freely on meadows, rocky fields, and in forests of oak trees, where they receive the majority of their nutrition from acorns and wild greens

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(Pacini and Madeo n.d.). At Spannocchia, many of the sows gave birth in hidden nests within the forest and had to be relocated to outdoor farrowing pens. The Cinta Senese is uniquely adapted to the area, and it is able to survive in the wild for extended periods. It withstands the hot summers, and demonstrates a marked resistance to infectious diseases. For many centuries, peasants kept one or two Cinta Senese hogs, which could be left in relative isolation to feed on otherwise unproductive land for several months out of the year. However, the advent of industrial farming and subsequent introduction of larger, more prolific breeds like the Yorkshire, or Great White, nearly wiped out the Cinta population in the late 20th century. Several factors led to the decreased popularity of the breed among area farmers. The Cinta is a grazing pig, and requires wooded areas for foraging in addition to a typical grain diet. They tend to be lively and energetic, or in more practical terms, they have a hard time staying within the confines of pens, as I learned all too well at Spannocchia. Moreover, they take up to two years to reach market weight. In a competitive market that is increasingly dominated by industrial production methods that can get a pig to market weight in less than six months, this is a major deciding factor for most farmers. The shift to more prolific breeds began long before the 21 st Century. In the 1928 book Castiglione che Dio Sol Sa, Delfino Cinelli (Federicas grandfather) describes the animals living on the Spannocchia estate nearly a century ago. In this excerpt, Cinelli describes an early 20th century meeting between two landowners: Gherardo (a somewhat autobiographical version of Cinelli himself) visits a neighboring estate, that of Count Geminiani. The Count is considered to be more or less the head of the region, and Gherardo is anxious to make him a friend and mentor. This scene occurs early in Gherardos development of Cerreta (the fictional estate based on Spannocchia), when he is still struggling to figure out the local agricultural system. Mastiani is the man he has hired as a farm manager.

140 In Count Geminianis stables the first thing that struck the eye was the glorification of the local breeds. At Cerreta, Mastiani never missed a chance to criticize them, discoursing on the more rapid growth of other breeds and the greater profits in raising them. Certainly, a visit to Cerretas stables could not prove him wrong; but here the effect was entirely different. Here were only local Maremma oxen, with great moon-shaped horns, great almost black shoulders, low powerful bodies, short and agile legs, with something of the savage in their eyes. And in the stys, pigs of the Cinta breed, the same that can be seen in the countryside of Ambrogio Lorenzettis fresco of the Good Government. The stables were beautiful, airy, clean, too well kept in Gherardos opinion; they seemed more a luxury than part of an agricultural operation; in this he had learned to expect more stinginess than splendor. Perhaps out of vanity in his newly acquired knowledge, he surprised himself by repeating some phrases of Mastiani referring to specialized imported breeds. Wife and ox from your own neighborhood, moralized Geminiani. Up here we need rustic animals, for several reasons. But you need to experiment or else you dont learn. They have many advantages, these animals, youll see. In saying so he caressed the neck of a filly that had turned its muzzle toward him as he passed. Unfortunately, our native breeds are disappearing; there has been too much cross-breeding. But now we are attempting to go back to the old. (Cinelli 2005 [1928]: 92-93) The importance of maintaining heritage breeds is evident in this passage, written nearly a century ago. Echoing modern concerns surrounding the loss of heritage breeds, the rhetoric utilized in this quotewith its emphasis on rustic, glorified local breeds is similar to that seen in todays Cinta Senese marketing tools. Translated reprints of the book are available for purchase in the Spannocchia gift shop, and it is possible to peruse one of several copies positioned in the Spannocchia library or sitting rooms. With its long descriptions and meandering storylines, the book is written in a style unfamiliar to readers of most modern novels. However, the book provides key historical information about the estate, and reveals an ongoing interest in historical preservation and sustainable agriculture both at Spannocchia and throughout Tuscany. The fresco referred to in the 1928 Cinelli excerpt, Ambrogio Lorenzettis Allegory of the Effects of Good and Bad Government, still hangs in Sienas Palazzo Pubblico. Painted between 1338 and 1340, this late-medieval sequence of paintings provides an

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unrivaled pictorial encyclopedia of quotidian incidents in both the Sienese countryside and urban center. The images depict an orderly, well-fed city and flourishing countryside on the side of good government, and starvation and recklessness on the bad. Thousands of tourists visit this room each year, and it stands as a prime example of secular art during this period.

Figure 28 Detail of Lorenzetti fresco; Image courtesy of www.cintasenese.blogspot.com

Of particular significance to the producers and consumer of Cinta Senese pigs today is the detail of a pig being led from the countryside to a market within the city walls (see Figure 28). The farmer takes his pig, which is tethered by one hoof, past peasants laboring in the fields and wealthy lords on horseback. The presence of the Cinta Senese pig in this painting proves its importance in the agricultural and gastronomic life of 14th century Siena. It even forms the basis of a 2008 childrens book, Scandalo in Toscana (Scandal in Tuscany) by Nancy Shroyer Howard, in which the pig, now a

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cartoon figure, runs loose throughout the fresco, interacting with the various characters in the painting. The presence of the Cinta Senese pig in this painting highlights its role in the agricultural and gastronomic past of Siena, and lends a sense of authenticity to current production. Twenty years ago this detail did not receive special attention. Today, this painting is regularly cited by the Consorzio di Tutela della Cinta Senese (or the Consortium for Guardianship of the Cinta Senese), and appears on most of its posters and promotional materials. 35 Formed in 2000, the Consortium is comprised of Sienas provincial Administration of Agricultural Assessment and the Associaiazione Senese Allevatori (Association of Senese breeders), a group of producers and butchers dedicated to preserving the Cinta breed for food products. According to one of its founders, the Consorzio was created first to save the breed, and then to promote and guarantee the origin and distribution of the products obtained from it (Pacini and Scatena 2005). It is a voluntary consortium, and focuses on maintaining and overseeing the genetic heritage of Cinta hogs. In 2005 there were over 140 members, the majority of whom support themselves primarily through direct sales of hogs or meat products. The network of Cinta Senese producers operates on the following general guidelines: identification of territorial boundaries, mobilization of the symbolic capital generated around the name Cinta Senese, communication and coordination provided by codes of practices (not strict quality standards), and sanctions (i.e., improper uses of the breed name).

35 As one culinary guidebook points out, the Cinta Senese in the painting would not pass the quality controls of todays area breeding consortiumthe white band across the shoulders of the animal is too wide and the ears are too small (Guinti Gruppo Editoriale 2001). Over the centuries, interbreeding with both the wild cinghiale boars that roam the forests and various porcine breeds traversing the Sienese Maremma, a transhumant livestock passage for millennia, led to changes in the Cinta Senese. It was not until 1934 that selective breeding records were kept by the Sienese agricultural chair.

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Perhaps the most important work of the Consortium involves controlling the commercialization of the Cinta Senese salumi products. This is most clearly visible in their efforts to obtain DOP (Denomination of Origin) status for Cinta Senese products sold throughout the EU. The process is worth describing in some detail for what it reveals about the intense regulatory pressures brought to bear on producers, as well as the tensions that develop between different groups of producers. Emphasizing Locality Through EU Standards In 1992 the EU developed a system of protected geographical status through the Common Agricultural Policy to legally safeguard the names and characteristics of specific regional foods.36 In Italy, these certifications are known as IGP (Indicazione Geographica Protetta, Protected Geographic Indications) and DOP (Denominazione dOrigine Protetta, Protected Designations of Origin). 37 These regulations guarantee a specific degree of quality linked to the territorial origin of a food product. 38 Moreover, the labels constitute an attempt to protect traditional food products from encroachment by industrial production, which endangers their unique identity and potentially detaches it from a local context. Italy promotes dozens, if not hundreds, of products through the EU
36 At the core of EU food policies is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of European agricultural subsidies that began operating in 1962, with the EC intervening to buy farm output when the market price fell below an agreed target level. It was agreed that simple tariffs were not enough to protect farmers from fluctuations in world market, and nations had devised a range of complicated forms of price and income support instead. However, allowing opening up a free market of produce grown under states with different price systems was dangerous, and creating an EU-wide system of support remains a difficult political task (Pinder 1998). Today, the Union taxes imports, subsidizes agricultural exports, and sets internal intervention prices on specific products, providing a degree of economic certainty for EU farmers and ensuring production of a certain quantity of agricultural goods. The result of this is that the CAP budget currently constitutes 44% of the entire EU financial plan, and entails a complex system of red tape that the EU is currently working to simplify. 37 In English, the acronyms of these categories are PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication). I use the Italian acronyms throughout this dissertation. 38 The DOP and IGP designations are independent of those used for wine and spirits, which fall under a different class of labeling.

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agricultural quality policy. 39 There are 29 Italian charcuterie products that hold either the DOP or IGP recognition, and these constitute roughly 45% of all European meat products certified as such. When a product is DOP, the entire production chainfrom the operator who obtains the raw material to the operator who obtains the product that ends up on the consumers tablemust comply with the regulations of the European Union and the laws of the Italian State. This system aids consumers by giving them information concerning the specific character of the products, which is particularly important in the context of GMOs and other concerns over food purity, and promotes an EU-wide niche market for artisanal and locally produced foods. Essentially, receiving DOP status enables producers to target much larger consumer audiences throughout Europe. According to a study funded by the European Commission, the main reasons given by producers for involvement with the DOP system are economic and relate to marketing, gaining or securing market share to keep businesses viable or profitable through the protection of the use of names, or sending quality assurance signals to consumers (London Economics 2008:6). Regional-specific products made across Italy can be classified into two groups: either they are products that primarily serve small niche markets, typically remaining highly exclusive and localized (such as the Cinta Senese pig), or they are products that cover a significant share of the relevant market, and are frequently exported despite being produced in specific, delimited areas (e.g., Parmigiano Reggiano cheese) (de Roest and Menghi 2000). In either case, the regional product competes against cheaper,

39 A complete list of can be found at http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/ qual/en/it_en.htm. It is particularly interesting to compare the Italian list including varieties of cheese, meat, olive oil, and so onwith those of other EU member states. Denmark, for example, has only three products listed, and it appears that the only country utilizing the designation labels more than Italy is France.

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industrialized versions of the same food. Capturing a niche market is critical to the success and survival of regional products, and strengthening the identity of the food, either through connections to producers, local history, or local culture, is the primary means of doing so. The Cinta Senese consortium highlights such connections, but it also developed stringent definitions of what precisely constitutes a Cinta Senese pig in order to better compete for the DOC label and to protect local heritage food markets. The Cinta Senese consortium applied for DOP status in June 2005, under the category of fresh meat (Goracci 2005). Unlike many other applications, DOP status was requested for the entire animal, not a particular product coming from that animal. The Consortium developed operational codes and procedures in 2004 in order to bolster the likelihood of approval, and structured the system so that DOP labels would be available only for animals born, raised, and slaughtered in Tuscany. In contrast, Prosciutto Toscano received DOP status in 1996, and the prosciutto holding the label does not necessarily come from hogs born and raised in the region as long as it is cured in Tuscany. The Cinta Senese guidelines are more stringent. The application process is formalized, and requires an enormous amount of administrative organization. While a small farmer would be highly unlikely to apply for DOP status, groups like the Cinta Senese consortium hold the organizational power to do so. In order to register a product name, a group of producers must first define the product according to precise specifications laid out by the EC. Specific criteria linking food products and geographical areas must be met: how do the characteristics of a particular region affect a product in a way that other regions cannot? Applicants must demonstrate a causal link between an area and the characteristics and reputation of the product, typically joining ideas about terroir with local production techniques. The proposal is then sent to national authorities for approval, and these groups transmit their decision to the European Commission. There the application undergoes a number of control procedures to determine compliance with EC regulations. If it meets the requirements,

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publication in the European Unions Official Journal will inform those who are interested. Finally, the application is subject to a six-month waiting period, during which oppositions to a geographic status indicator may be made to the national authorities. 40 Although the Cinta still does not hold DOP status, the Cinta Senese consortium continues to regulate breeding and production in the area. At present, producers like Spannocchia, who operate in accordance with the Consortium, continue to use the quality assurance labels developed by the Amministrazione Provinciale di Siena. In March 2007 the Consortium effectively changed the name of the pig to the Cinto Toscano as part of an initiative to include a greater number of producers and processors, regional and provincial institutions, and trade associations (Siena Province News 2007). The DOP label would now read Suino Cinto Toscano if approved, although this name change is not presently reflected on the EC database. Presumably, the producers with strong ties to the city of Siena and its surrounds found fault with this change, as it undermines the history and culture of this particular area. The preparation of cured meats is uniquely framed by the context of a shared culinary heritage in which local products are transformed into staples that can be exchanged over greater periods of time and space. As such, cured meats tie directly into the Italian sense of campanilisimo: literally this means loyalty to ones bell tower and figuratively it signifies a strong association with ones hometown. Many Italians embrace the concept of food perfection associated with products from specific regions (Harper and Faccioli 2009). The importance of regionalism in Italy plays a particularly vital role here, as the local origins of Italian foods are intrinsically tied to identity (cf. Brierley and Giacometti 1996; Stacul 2003). Likewise, consumers around the globe continue to purchase the connection between specific meats and locality (e.g., Bolognese
40Detailed information about the application process is available at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/schemes/index_en.htm.

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mortadella, Prosciutto di Parma, etc.), even if these connections are now largely symbolic in an era of industrial food production. In changing the name of the Cinta Senese pork products to Cinta Toscana these localized associations lose credence, even if it simultaneously allows for the inclusion of more Cinta producers. During the course of my research in Italy I never heard anyone refer to the pig as a Cinto Toscano, and it is unclear if this name change remains in effect. The importance of localism in increasingly global (or at least European) markets remains central to producers. The Trouble with Labels Current consortium status is restricted to pork products from animals born, raised and slaughtered in Tuscany. The swine must live in a wild or semi-wild state, with access to grazing pasture and forested areas. Their diets must be exclusively vegetarian, consisting of a combination of free-range grazing and feed that is free of genetic modifications. All piglets must be registered and certified after birth, and provided with an ear tag listing their genetic background. Likewise, all salumi products made from these animals must be marked with a Consortium wrapper providing the numerical identification code of the producer, the animal, the year of slaughter, and the weight of the product (Figure 29). This allows the Consortium (and the consumer) to trace any final product back to a unique animal. This quality seal is provided by the Provincial Administrators of Siena, and regulates all products sold. Keeping the labeling system in order was a major part of my job at Spannocchia, as there is a great deal of record keeping for each cut of meat. According to some farmers, the Consortium exists largely to support the efforts of larger breeding operations. A conflicting community of interests begins to emerge smaller operations are typically locally oriented, selling primarily to area farmers markets or via other methods of direct marketing (such as sales to tourists). These small producers share values of safeguarding biodiversity and maintaining tradition and organic

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methods, both in the raising and butchering of the Cinta. On the other hand, larger producers have the capacity to capitalize on a much longer retail chain. Strong communication networks provide access to export markets, and meat processing is streamlined by scientific advances in meat curing. While both groups are working to revive the Cinta Senese breed, they are operating through very different spectrums of cultural, social, and financial capital.

Figure 29 The red Consortium labels contain serial numbers for traceability to the point of origin. The brown paper labels from Spannocchia list the ingredients and date of production, as well as contact information for the estate.

Some worry that this lack of network cohesion could lead to the erosion of the collective capital assets of Cinta breeders. Without a common language to express quality standards, incoherent images of the product could lead to a loss of reputation. Perhaps foremost in the minds of the breeders is a disparity in financial capital. Marked differences in the final prices of Cinta products (60 /kg for prosciutto at supermarket chains versus 95 /kg at the farmers markets) attract different kinds of consumers. It is

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difficult to engage the small farmer, who may view a breeder who sells to a retail chain as an opportunist, in a common enterprise with a larger producer. Although the two groups share many of the same challenges, no network truly exists to address these issues in a meaningful way. Although the Consortium connects numerous producers, their broader efforts to regulate production and achieve DOP status alienate smaller producers. The case of the Cinta Senese producers echoes Cavanaughs (2007) work with northern Italian salumi makers. In this research, Cavanaugh found that many producers believe DOP labels end up homogenizing and commodifying food products. Rather than emphasizing a unique regional typicality, they argued that DOP labels demand standardized production, something that only a handful of producers are financially capable of doing. Moreover, standardization negates the unique characteristics that define individual producers. The concept of nostrano (literally, ours) emphasizes the individuality of flavor imparted by a particular producer. However, DOP trademarking of foods considered traditional to specific regions legislatively backs the commodification of authentic foods, and stands in sharp contrast to the ever -increasing bioregulation of artisanal producers, whose methods may considered unhygienic or backwards by EU authorities (Roseman 2004). For example, Leitch (2003) describes the process by which Lardo di Colonnata gained status via international food writing. At this point it also attracted the attention of EU food inspectors, who found the traditional methods of curing the product in a conche curing rack to be unsanitary. Regulators demanded tiled floors, bathroom facilities, and nonporous curing containers, the last of which fundamentally alters the flavor of the end product. Slow Food became involved, and nationalists in Italy took on the rationalizing logic of EU bureaucracy in order to preserve the cultural traditions of lardo production. It is not hygienic by scientific reasoning, but it is hygienic in

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practice. 41 Ironically, at this point butchers across Italy began to capitalize on the status of lardo, making their own batches and labeling it all as lardo di Colonnata. The branding by Slow Food boosted the popularity of all types of lardo, whether or not they were produced using the artisanal methods valorized in Colonnata (seasonal processing, the areas microclimate, the marble of the aging tanks, and the extensive variety of local aromatic herbs and spices). Residents of the original village copyrighted their product and fought for DOP protection. Making things even more complicated, the demand for lardo di Colonnata meant that pigs became so scarce in the area that pigs were imported from neighboring regions to boost productionhowever, in order to hold DOP status, all raw materials must come from the region. The popularity of a backwards product led to numerous difficulties for producers, even as their economic success increased. In his popular book Heat (2006), journalist Bill Buford describes a similar situation, in which the infamous bistecca di Toscana (an enormous beefsteak from the Chianina cattle breed) sold to tourists and locals alike in a well-known butcher shop was, in fact, steak shipped into Tuscany from artisan meat producers in Spain. From the butchers perspective, the modern breeding and feeding practices used locally ruined the cattle breed. Rather than do away with a pervasive and well-known food tradition, the butcher simply sourced his raw materials (albeit under the cover of night) from another location. The consumption of this symbolic bistecca is complicatedmuch like knockoff Prada and Fendi handbags sold on the streets of any large Italian city, one wonders if the reality of the symbol is truly as important to the consumer as the mythology surrounding it.

41 Although an array of scientific experts defined the risk presented by lardo, the Italian response speaks
to the ways in which locally-defined and subjective values shape an understanding of risk (c.f. Beck 1992; Douglas and Wildavsky 1982). Here, socially embedded, culturally defined notions about food production shape decisions about consumption.

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The places where typical Italian foods are most likely to be found are also areas with negative demographic trends (Fonte 2006). One way to preserve these foods is to de-localize the consumption of the product itself, and market it to a distant, often urban, consumer. In the process, foods may lose their inherent links to territory, tradition, community, and so on, and these must be re-created by the distributor. Distant consumers have to learn the value of a local product that they do not know directly. Once again, the DOP/IGP system is a powerful means of achieving this, transforming cognitive systems, or the codification of local knowledge, into formalized systems by technicians and experts. Fontes study of the COOP-Italia supermarket chain and its efforts to promote ten Slow Food Presdia products in 2000 shows that the role of the distributor is one of mediation and translation between urban and rural culture; between scientific and empirical forms of knowledge; between local production and global markets (2002:272-273). In other words, traditions, local networks, and associations become new forms of social capital. The marketing of cultural reference points in Tuscany does not end with largescale distributors and supermarkets, however. Cinta Senese hogs are culturally defined they occupy symbolic space in addition to being a material, economic product. The consumers value Cinta Senese products for their flavor as well as the prestige associated with consuming an endangered and artisanally produced meat. On the other hand, the producers value the territory and cultural heritage linked to the Cinta Senese products, and they link prestige to who is producing the food and the manner in which it is done. Therefore, negotiating both material (market) value and symbolic value involves processes of re-contextualization between these two groups as foodstuffs move through their social lives. Marketing Cinta Senese meat p roducts involves a conscious manipulation of cultural ideals. Groups like Slow Food perform such manipulation on a massive scale, formally linking producers, consumers, and foods in previously undefined ways.

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The Ark of Taste Cinta Senese pigs are members of Slow Foods Ark of Taste project, which was launched in 1996. The Ark of Taste aims to rediscover, catalog and promote foods which are at risk of extinction, but have productive and commercial potential and are closely linked to specific communities and cultures. Today the Ark of Taste lists more than 900 unique foods from 50 countries around the world that are threatened by industrial standardization. In addition to profiling rare foods, it is a tool that helps farmers, ranchers, fishers, chefs, retail grocers, educators and consumers celebrate the diverse biological, cultural and culinary heritage of a particular place. To reiterate, in the case of heritage livestock breeds like the Cinta Senese, cultivating a consumer demand for animal food products is central to conservation efforts. When a food product boards Slow Foods Ark of Taste it is indexed as a culturally and gastronomically important item, making it highly desirable to our omnivorous, socially and ecologically-conscious consumer. (The guidelines for Ark of Taste selection and management are listed in Appendix B). The examination of the milieu of local knowledge and memory of endangered foods connects to the exterior landscapes of local history, ecology, and the scientization of r isks intersect with interior landscapes of invented traditions and fantasy (Nazarea, 2006; see also Belasco, 2006). Slow Food developed an alternative global system, the Presidia, to support endangered Ark of Taste products lacking backing from strong companies or consortia. Presidia status entails stringent codes of practice (e.g., type of animal feed, husbandry, sustainability, etc.) similar to those seen in the Cinta Senese consortium. To date, more than 300 Presidia have been created around the world, involving over 10,000 small-scale sustainable farmers. Each Presidium supports a quality product at risk of extinction, emphasizing traditional processing and/or agricultural methods and safeguarding native breeds and local plant varieties. The activity of a Presidium not only safeguards products and production processes rooted in a well-defined context, it also ensures that aspects

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regarding the cultural identity of a product are known and appreciated. Although it may appear to be similar in structure and scope, Slow Food does not support the EU system of Product of Origin labeling, arguing it is cost prohibitive to the small producers it claims to support.42

Figure 30 Labeling for Presidia products

42 Although Slow Food does not directly support the DOP program, AREPO (Associazione delle Regioni Europee dei Prodotti dOrigine, or the Association of European Regions for Origin Products) handed out brochures at Salone del Gusto describing the IGP and DOP seals. AREPO works to promote and defend the interests of the European producers and consumers committed to enhancing quality agrifood products. Each regional group is represented by food producers, and its goals mirror those of Slow Food Presidia in many ways. For example, AREPO works to disseminate information about specific attributes of quality and origin products, promote DOP and IGP logos and products with consumers, and support producer organizations holding geographical indications. Sixty percent of the DOP or IGP producers in Italy work with AREPO, and the group also hosts international programs to increase the visibility of quality products in underdeveloped nations. The parallels to Slow Food are evident, and this program highlights the fact that there are multiple avenues in which food producers can work to effect global change through involvement with consumers.

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In 2006 there were 195 Presidia projects in Italy; by 2008 that number decreased to 177. Many of the original recipients of Presidia statusincluding the Cinta Senese actually lost their membership in the program, although they remain on the Ark of Taste. On the other hand, the number of international Presidia increased substantially, from 84 in 38 countries (2006) to 121 in 46 countries (2008). As Slow Food shifts its emphasis to promoting endangered foods from developing nations, groups like the Cinta Senese, which enjoy relatively secure financial and organization backing on a local level, are encouraged to fend for themselves in order to free up resources for global ventures. Nevertheless, in the course of my research I continued to find references to the Cinta Senese as a Presidia product, and the consortiums connection to Slow Food remains unclear. Although formal ties between the groups appear to have been severed (i.e., the Cinta Senese is no longer listed on official Presidia documents), they continue to work together on a regular basis. For example, in the 2007 Slow Food guide Salumi dItalia (Salumi of Italy), the authors dedicate a page to the Cinta Senese despite the fact that it lacks a Presidia stamp (Slow Food Editore 2007).

Figure 31 Cinta Senese producer at Salone del Gusto

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In 2006 the Commune of Siena sponsored an Island of Taste at Salone del Gusto, featuring images of the city and artwork of Siena and surrounds, regional olive oil, honey, and Cinta Senese salumi. Wearing an apron that mirrors the banded white stripe on the pigs themselves, a Cinta Senese producer sliced samples of what appears to be pancetta by hand (see Figure 31). Here, the emphasis is on the region of Siena and its products, rather than membership in the Presidia program or even Consortium status. Large posters of Sienese art and architecture frame the booth. In her ethnographic study of a village in northern Italy, Cavanaugh (2007) shows how Bergamasco salami emerged as a potent symbol of local culture in recent years. Prior to the economic miracle of the 1960s, Bergamasco salami was consumed only by those who produced it themselves at home. As economic conditions improved in the region, the salami production became sporadic and the product was harder to find. Today authentic Bergamasco salami is distinguished by its particular territory and cultural history both for locals and outside consumers. Already heralded by Slow Food, Bergamasco producers continue to push for IGP status from the Italian government. Cavanaugh argues that the IGP can: Indexically signify a cultural group, such that achieving an IGP for Bergamasco salami means that it would stand for the province of Bergamo, but also Bergamos history, culture, and soc iety as an authentic cultural object that is, a concrete symbolic representation of local value and ways of life. (2007: 159) The story of Bergamasco salami mirrors that of the Cinta Senese, wherein producing salami is equivalent to producing culture. Does an equivalent process of marketing salumi lead to the marketing of local culture? The influence of organizations like the EU, Slow Food, and the local breeding consortium all factor into the politicaleconomic restructuring of Cinta Senese production during the past twenty years. Changing notions of rurality and food quality mark a major shift in the ways Italians and Europeans as a whole consider food. How does the marketing of Cinta Senese products cultivate a particular set of social relationships with consumers in various social

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spaces? To address this question, I return to ethnographic data collected during Spannocchias market events.

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CHAPTER SIX: PRODUCERS IN THE MARKET My time spent with Riccio, the farm manager at Spannocchia, yielded a wealth of information about the day-to-day pressures that small-scale producers face when marketing their products. In addition to working with reflexive consumers who connected his Cinta Senese products with the overarching mission of sustainability at Spannocchia, Riccio also sought to educate new consumers about the cultural heritage of the pig as well as the ecological impacts of free-range pork production. However, different social spaces and the contexts of local and regional markets shaped the construction of Riccios self-presentation and performances. These constructions bring me back to revisit questions regarding the ways that Slow Food stages interactions between producers and consumers at its major events. I initially explored these interactions in Chapter One in my discussion of Salone del Gusto, but these themes are magnified in the practices of the associated event Terra Madre, which attempts to connect consumers with an even broader range of global producers. Portrait Five: Riccio Riccios real name is Bruno, although I never heard anyone call him by that name. The word riccio means curly in Italian, and Riccio is obviously nicknamed for his wild head of hair. He talked to me in Italian and broken English, depending on the activity of the day and who else was around. Due to the multitude of languages spoken at Spannocchia by visiting guests and interns he speaks at least four different languages decently. Riccios English is better than my Italian, and he is politely conscious of the presence of so many English-speaking interns and tends to code-switch so that everyone present can comprehend his message. That being said, on days when Riccio was particularly frustrated with me, he spoke mostly in Italian. Riccio and his partner, Daniela, never officially got married. They met in the early 1980s on an anarchist, back-to-the-land commune that lacked running water and

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reliable electricity. Riccio speaks fondly of those days: We were crazy, just crazy. Living out in the woods, growing our food. It was a wild time. Today, Daniela is the Castello manager at Spannocchia, and organizes the day-to-day activities of the hospitality crews. She and Riccio have two daughters who spent much of their childhoods on the Spannocchia estate. When the family first arrived, they lived on the bottom floor of Casa Pulcinelli while the buildings were being renovated. Riccio laughs about the fact that he has tried to get Daniela to marry him multiple times. In keeping with their non-traditional ideologies, she always refuses, despite their decades-long commitment. Originally from the suburbs of Venice, Riccio is not a native Tuscan. Whenever we traveled he would search for frutti di mare at restaurants, the fruits of the sea. The local pizzeria would often accommodate his tastes when we arrived for a meal after markets, adding shellfish to his dishes. Going anywhere with Riccio was an adventure, primarily because he seemed to know everyone in the nearby villages. A twenty minute trip into town could easily transform into a three hour undertaking. During my first week at Spannocchia, Riccio took me and two French hog farmers visiting Spannocchia to a Slow Food event in the Tuscan coastal city of Orbetello. We drove several hours each way, and on our way there I had no idea where we were going. Riccio spent most of the trip there speaking in French with the other farmers, leaving me entirely in the dark regarding our destination and purpose for the day. Upon arrival I was thrilled to have been includedthe event, Terra Madre Toscana, brought together Presidia food producers from across Tuscany and also included the international guests hosted by these farmers after Terra Madre events in Turin. There were talks, food booths, and numerous opportunities to make research contacts. I soon discovered that Riccios lack of explanation on this occasion was painfully typical. Despite his practical oversights with me, Riccio plays a critical role in the success of Spannocchias farming program. His phone never stops ringing when we are

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togetherhe deals with the Cinta Senese Consortium, veterinarians, the local slaughterhouse, Slow Food Siena members, consumers who want to purchase meat on site, and myriad others. His role as the farm manager encompasses a broad range of duties, and in addition to overseeing the animal operations on the farm, he must complete a massive amount of paperwork required by the Italian state. His desk, located in a highceilinged former stable near the tower, overflows with hastily scribbled phone messages, Cinta Senese consortium forms, receipts from the local market, and books about sustainable agriculture. On a day-to-day basis Riccio oversees Giuseppe, who was one of the few people who could handle Riccio s regular outbursts of temper. Although Riccio was not directly in charge of the interns, many of them simultaneously feared him and sought out his company. Those who played musical instruments were immediately welcome in Riccios home, as he is an avid fan of musical genres ranging from American jazz to Italian folk tunes. I would often hear guitar music coming from his house after a long day. It was his method of relaxing, so if I stopped by his house in the evening I was equally likely to find him fast asleep in a rocking chair with the guitar in his lap, his dog Lapo sitting at his feet. I spent more time working with Riccio than anyone else at Spannocchia, and it is easy to describe his gregarious public personality. In private, however, he became much more reserved. After spending a day at a market, he would treat me to dinner and often spend the entire meal reading an Italian newspaper. Its nothing personal to you, he explained, I am just so tired. In the spring of 2009 he began to suffer from heart problems related to stress, and although he did not cut back on his consumption of cheese or Cinta Senese salumi, he began to ride a bicycle around the estate in the evenings for exercise. His work spreads him thin, and most days it seemed as though he was performing the tasks of at least three individuals. Furthermore, with a house that connects to Spannocchias villa, Riccio literally lives at workhe gets up in the middle

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of the night to deliver calves, he stays up late cleaning the transformation kitchen after a long day of butchering, and he can be found in his office late in the evening. Eventually, Riccio hopes to focus specifically on the butchering and curing of the Cinta Senese pigs. His true passion is butchering, a trade in which he remains a relative novice. As the meat curing program at Spannocchia grows, however, it seems more and more likely that his dream may come true. The year after my time at Spannocchia, Riccio developed a long-term winter butchering internship, ensuring several months of labor and support in the transformation kitchen. As the meat processing program grows, however, it remains to be seen how much of the marketing Riccio will continue to oversee. The Sovicille Market

Figure 32 Cinta Senese statue in Sovicille

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According to Riccio, the monthly Saturday market held in the nearby village of Sovicille is the reason that Spannocchia is able to continue its Cinta Senese program. It is where Spannocchia sells nearly all of its fresh pork products, and butchering cycles are timed to coincide with market dates. This particular market emphasizes local, organic produce, and the Slow Food Siena group operates an informational booth and recruits new members on most Saturdays. In the central square of Sovicille, within eyeshot of the market stalls, a small statue of a Cinta Senese states Qui nacsi la Cinta Senese (Here the Cinta Senese was born) (Figure 32). As the figurative birthplace of the Cinta Senese hog, the residents of Sovicille and the surrounding area are constant supporters of farms like Spannocchia. In addition to butchering fresh meat products like pork loin and salssiccie sausage links, we sometimes included other value-added products at the stand. For example, one of my first interactions with Graziella took place in the transformation kitchen one Friday evening prior to a market day. She was making fegatino, a specialty product from pieces of pork liver that is time-consuming to prepare and therefore rarely seen for sale. Graziella cut the liver into golf-ball sized chunks, rolled them in flour, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper, and then wrapped each piece into a slice of stomach membrane (caul) saved from the recently butchered hog. The flavorful packet was sealed with a toothpick, to be sold the next morning for one euro apiece. There, Riccio instructed customers to cook the fegatino slowly over a low flame. Despite the fact that the process of making a large tray of fegatino took several hours, even with my help, Graziella thought this price was exorbitant. She recognized the demand for the product elderly Italian customers connected fegatino to nostalgia, and younger customers saw them as a heritage item unique to our stand. To Graziella, however, the relative value of caul, pork liver and other ingredients was too low to justify the prices charged, regardless of demand generated by cultural fetishization. Nevertheless, Riccio and I rapidly sold the entire tray the next morning.

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In the days leading up to market we would locate clean Spannocchia aprons, dig out promotional materials and paper sacks, find the receipt books, and load roughly a dozen large containers of various cured meats. Early on Saturday morning I met Riccio outside of the transformation kitchen to load the van. Another winter intern, Dylan, and I eventually created a checklist in order to remember all of the items we needed the knife set, multiple wooden boards, an enormously heavy scale, the metal prosciutto stand, and the officina (a large plastic crate that contained our legal documents in addition to string, pens, markers, price lists, flyers for firewood sales, and so forth). Invariably we departed behind schedule, although Riccio never seemed concerned as he navigated the rickety van the twenty minutes to Sovicille, blaring his favorite Italian radio station,. At some point I realized that Riccio preferred to arrive after the other vendors, as this meant he could pull the van right up to our stand in order to unload without shuffling for space. While Riccio unpacked, I would begin to clean out the glass display case (provided by the market) with white vinegar, and arrange the fresh meats inside. Several items remained vacuum sealed in plastic (such as the sopressata and lardo), and these went in first to keep refrigerated. Keeping things cool was never a problem when I worked, however. It always felt bitterly cold. Sovicille's charming central piazza is shaded by the centuries-old buildings surrounding it, and awnings cover the vendors, so even if it was warm in the sun, we never felt it. My responsibility at the market was to handle the money and keep track of the sales. I was not allowed to slice meat or sell it on my own. Riccio referred to me as his "secretary" to the customers, and asked them to pay at the cassa (cashier stand) when they tried to hand money to him directly. For every purchase, I would record the type of meat being sold and how much we charged, which tended to vary. Sometimes Riccio would use the scale and calculator to figure out an exact price based on our price list (which was based on a per kilo rate). Other times he would simply say "one euro" or "two euro" and leave it at that. When his friends came around he would chat happily, handing

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out samples. More often than not, these folks would purchase a large piece of prosciutto, usually along with a couple of salame or chunks of lardo. Typically we would make 5-10 large sales of over 50 euros, but the vast majority of purchases were only a few euros each. People would stop for a few slices of sopressata or buristo for sandwiches, or ask for just a small amount of prosciutto for the week. At the market we always wore aprons with the Spannocchia logo on the front along with small white butcher caps, and for Riccio, latex gloves. Sometimes he was very conscious of wearing these (he said it made the stand look more "clean" and "professional") and other times he would forgo them completely. Within an hour the gloves would be covered with nicks and tears from his knife, which carved away samples of meat throughout the morning. "Per passagiare" was the motto "to sample."

Figure 33 Riccio slicing salumi products at market

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Riccio never used an electric slicer, or even one of the mandolin-style slicers to get a fine cut of prosciutto. He insisted on shaving off paper thin slices by hand, and he felt that this added to the traditional/artisanal quality of our products (Figure 33). This differentiated us from a grocery store or typical butcher shop. Our meats were unlike anything that could be purchased in a shop, and the presentation of the products at market-- the "performance" of selling an artisanal product-- was likewise different. Most people seemed to enjoy talking to Riccio and his (always slightly confused) string of young Americani assistants. I think that in some ways the presence of interns lent a certain degree of clout to Spannocchia (i.e., the estate is prosperous enough to support interns), while simultaneously reminding consumers that Spannocchia is a working/training farm. While the other stalls are operated by local producers and their families, Spannocchia possesses a steady stream of foreign labor eager to participate in food production and marketing. For a local market that emphasizes local products and producers, I wonder what other producers might think about the foreign workers associated with Spannocchia. Riccios dynamic personality has clearly played a major role in earning and maintaining credibility for Spannocchia within small local markets such as Sovicilles. Again evidencing their positions as co -producers, many of the interns actively desired a market shift with Riccio, particularly those who did not regularly work with butchering or animal production on the farm. It allowed them an opportunity to represent Spannocchia in public, and to gain a sense of what a local Italian market is like. Working behind the stand, rather than shopping in front of it, altered ones relationship with the farmit conferred "insider" status both literally and figuratively, along with the responsibilities and privileges that entailed. One intern, Ava, wrote about her experiences with Riccio in the market for the intern newsletter. Her quote reinforces the connection between production and consumption at the Sovicille market, and the way that working at the market allowed an intern outsider access to the local community.

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Although she primarily worked in the gardens during her time at Spannocchia, Ava volunteered to help at the market several times. There was a flurry of activity all morning with customers buying up all of our different packaged meatsI hurriedly made change and bagged meat, while Riccio took his time cutting and chatting with the customers, dishing out free samples. Everyone who came to our stand knew Riccio and Spannocchias quality products. It was a very special moment to feel such a sense of communityI was amazed by the seamless intermingling of local shoppers and local producers. Not only did consumers take the time to travel to Sovicille to converse and purchase their goods straight from the source, but at the end of a full day of shopping they sat down with the producers as one big community to share a meal. (Il Pennato 2009:7-8) The meal that Ava refers to above is a highlight of the Sovicille market, where Riccio treats his assistants to a special meal at the local trattoria around the corner. This trattoria utilizes the days market produce, and various cooks (including Graziella and Loredana) rotate through its kitchen. The meal is always open to the public, but after the market closes at noon it is primarily filled with the producers themselves. The menu changes every time, featuring different products from different farms, but the food is always incredible. My favorite part of an otherwise exhausting market day was sitting at the table with area producers, who would discuss the sales of the morning, the market atmosphere, their farms, and the state of the world in general. The trattoria served Spannocchia wines, and Riccio never hesitated to bring out additional bottles for the producers. The atmosphere was jovial, fueled by great food and drink and a sense of conviviality with other market participants. Most of them had known one another for many years, and knew the ups and downs of the area. The producers were unfailingly kind to me, especially when they realized I could speak a certain amount of Italian. They were curious about my project (especially given Riccio's nickname for me--"PhD") and always wanted to know more about what farming and food were like in the Midwestern USA and in my family.

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At Sovicille, consumers arrived with an understanding of the Cinta Senese pig. The Italians visiting the market all knew about the Cinta statue in the town square, and most were familiar with the various salumi products offered at our stand. As such, the Sovicille market is an ideal environment in which to support the mission of Spannocchia, both through gastronomic channels and through education about sustainable agriculture. The majority of the individuals who purchased meat at our stand knew Riccio or one of the other Spannocchia residents personally, and supported the overall mission of the estate, which many of them had physically visited at some point. In addition to the Sovicille market, I assisted Riccio at other regional markets in nearby small towns and in the city of Siena. The larger the market, and the more distant from Spannocchia, the more Riccio emphasized educating consumers about organic agriculture and the nature of hog production at the estate. Even in Siena, the home of the famous Lorenzetti painting, not everyone knew about the Cinta Senese hog, and many questioned its higher retail price at our stand. In most cases, however, Riccio was able to deftly navigate the world of the market, and reveled in performing the role of an artisanal butcher. In the case of a market trip further afield to Rome, however, the story unfolded in a very different fashion that highlights how tenuous and context-specific the social capital of small-scale producers can be in the broader Italian marketplace The Casino di Roma In Italian, the term casino refers to a mess, a disaster, or general disorder. In March of 2009, I accompanied Riccio and a winter intern, Dylan, to an expo in the outskirts of Rome. Riccio was originally invited months before, but the price of a booth was unbelievably high. The city of Siena ended up sponsoring Spannocchia, due to a last minute cancellation on the part of another Cinta producer. Before we left I searched online for information about the expo, called Parklife, and gathered that the focus would be on outdoor activities, promoting the parks, and natural foods. Since

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Spannocchia works with endangered pigs on a natural reserve, it seemed to be a logical fit. Only two people could fit in the Spannocchia van packed with prosciutto and other meat products, so I agreed to drive to Rome with Paola, one of the regular vendors at the Sovicille market. Paola operates a sizable apiary, and I got to know her during the postmarket meals described above. Arriving at the enormous fairgrounds, Paola and I were surprised to discover that Parklife constituted only a tiny section of a massive expo called Big Blu, a pan-Italian boat and water show. We pulled up to the building holding the Parklife exhibits, and upon entering we found dozens of booths vending fishing gear, camping gear, wet suits, motor boats, and so on. Other vendors from Siena arrived before us and began to set up in our small corner booth, which someone decorated with a wall-sized poster of the city of Siena. I helped Paola carry in her waresjars of honey, shaped beeswax candles, and bottles of honey-flavored grappa. Another vendor, Matteo, arrived with a selection of Chianti wines, Vin Santo, and olive oil produced on his property. Matteo emphasized the organic nature of his products, and hung banners stating biologica in large letters. Another couple from Montepulciano brought their wines to sell. The wife, sporting a skintight pair of black leather pants and a black sweater, was emphatic about decorating the space to look like Tuscany. To this end, she brought yellow and white plaid tablecloths, red and yellow potted flowers, and a large terra cotta pot filled with fake sunflowers. Riccio, eternally late, did not show up until the evening. He insisted on bringing one of the prosciutto racks, which we crammed into an already overflowing space. Dylan, one of the long-term winter volunteers at Spannocchia who also spent a lot of time in the transformation kitchen, worked with me to collect some decorative and promotional items before we left: Spannocchia informational brochures, Cinta Senese posters and books, and an aerial photograph of the farm printed as a poster. We also brought a case of our organic farro, the organic spelt that Spannocchia grows.

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On the first morning of the exhibit, we discovered that Parklife, which constituted perhaps 5% of the entire Expo, was not on the official map of the show. Most people seemed to discover it while heading toward the bathrooms located in the back of the building. Big Blu was dedicated to fishing, boating, scuba diving, and other water related activities, and there were several buildings devoted to specialty dcor for yachts, highend speedboats, and so on. Early that morning, Dylan looked at me and simply said, Im so thoroughly confused. It appeared that we were going to attempt to sell artisanal Cinta Senese meat at a national boat show. People walked past with new fishing poles and bags of tackle, or wandered in for a snack after purchasing a new boat. Unlike our typical market customers, no one had heard of Cinta Senese hogs before. In the first day we made less than 250 euros in the course of 10 hours, although Riccio gave out most of one leg of prosciutto as samples. The sales tactics he employed at the Sovicille market were unsuccessful at Big Blu. Sales for the other vendors in our booth were equally dismalmal economia (bad economy) became an oft-repeated phrase that day. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of all of this was the enormous, professional butcher stand located directly across from our booth. They rolled in early the day before with a dark, wooden facade that set up over the generic metal Expo stand. In the middle of the space a spotlessly clean butcher table provided room for several people to work at once. This travelling meat show knew how to market to the Roman customers their space looked like a traditional Italian butchers stand, rather than a hastily constructed vending booth. Towers of meat and cheese piled up on the counters, and we actually saw people stop to take a photograph with this glorious showcase of various salumi products. Legs of prosciutto lined the walls of the booth, and it was possible to have meat vacuum packed for transport. Three employees in crisp white butchering jackets made constant salesand their main sales appeared to be on simple panini sandwiches made with cold cuts.

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Riccio took this as a clue. Even though, as he argued, we are selling a very different kind of product (a specialty meat made in an artisanal way), the competition clearly irked him. I caught him looking over at the stand wistfully throughout the morning. Before we left the first day he asked me to look around and scope out other food stands to see if there was anything we were missing that they might have. The next day, he told me, we would try a different approach. Rather than emphasize the educational, ecological, or artisanal aspects of Spannocchia products, we would focus on making sales. The next morning, a Saturday, we purchased twenty loaves of bread from a local bakery and I became a de facto sandwich maker. Sales were brisk, and Riccio could barely keep up the pace of slicing prosciutto by hand, something he maintained throughout the weekend. By the end of the next day he could barely move his arm. Dylan suggested that we could bring a slicer and triple our profits, but Riccio was horrified by this idea and argued that people want to see the process. Indeed, this artisanal performance does seem to be what differentiated Riccio from the other vendors, even if our sales were slower and the appearance of the stand a bit shabbier. By midday the crowds swelled substantially and everyone was making sales. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, the financial police showed up at our booth with a man who had just purchased 5 euros worth of product from us. It is illegal to purchase food without a receipt in Italy, although this is something that is variably enforced. At the local market, Riccio very rarely gave a receipt, preferring to record the price and type of salumi sold in Spannocchias transaction book. Before we left for Rome, Richard gave Riccio a stern reminder that we must give receipts, specifically because the financial police are much more active in Rome. That day, Riccio had issued receipts for larger purchasessay a kilo of prosciutto, or multiple salamisbut the sandwiches and little

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purchases were exempt. With the pace of sales, we didnt have time to write down the amounts or types of meat sold. 43 The financial police asked to see our receipt books and all of our legal documents. The atmosphere in our little corner of the Fiera, previously jovial, rapidly turned sour and silent as we strained to hear the conversation going on between the police, Riccio, and a representative from Siena overseeing our booth. At one point, this representative declared that singling us out was the dream of Berlusconi, to fine the smallest producers at an Expo. Nevertheless, the rules are the rules, and we end ed up with a verbal warning after a thirty minute debate. For the rest of the day we were very careful to give receipts to everyone. After the police left, vendors from other booths around ours came by to ask what happened. They all agreed that it was ridiculous, and in an interesting way the entire episode created a sense of solidarity between everyone on the floor. Instead of eyeing each other as competition, as they had done before, they now had a moment to bond over. Suddenly, Riccio was in his element meeting other producers, talking to people from all over, and selling the products that he loves. He was upset by the financial police, but when he noticed that Dylan and I looked ashen after the incident he looked at us and said, Hey, ragazzi (guys), dont give up. Over the course of the weekend we went through six legs of prosciutto and several cases of salami and gotino. A lot of sopressata (which the Romans call coppa) sold in panini, but very little was sold by weight or in whole portions. (This was probably a good thing, since the sopressata was refrigerated sporadically in a mini-fridge at the back of the stand, shared with the other vendors.) Ironically, although the rules

43 I discovered later Spannocchias license is only for sales of whole meats, not value added items like sandwiches. Legally, we should not have been selling them at all. By not writing down these sales, Riccio may have been pre-emptively covering his tracks.

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about giving receipts were stringent, health codes were not enforced. At no point did anyone question the cleanliness of our stand, our hands, our tools or aprons. Riccio had me wipe down the cutting board with vinegar several times throughout the day, and all meat scraps were swept into a paper sack under the table. He also hung onto any scrap of recyclable material. This is a mission of his, and he was furious that the building was not equipped with recycling facilities. At one point I thought I found a recycling station only to discover that it was a stand selling recycling bin systems, and the containers that were out were floor models. Trash cans overflowed with plastic cups and flatware, paper plates, and paper flyers from different stands. Riccio was also angry about how light the expo center was. At first I didnt understand what he meant, but eventually realized that he was taking issue with the large amount of electric lighting that was wired in everywhere. In Riccios words, it was not a green building. The environmental mission of Spannocchia was utterly abandoned there, and the desire to market Spannocchia products to a larger audience was in direct competition with the core values of the estate itself. At Spannocchia, residents recycled everything from batteries to food scraps to short pieces of wire. In criticizing the environmental impact of Big Blu, Riccio simultaneously asserted his role as a caretaker of the environment, something central to his persona at Spannocchia. Our challenges continued. On the second day we ran out of bread by noon. Even more disconcerting, we also ran out of blank receipts around the same time. I found out that for the entire event Riccio only allotted two receipt books (each with 100 receipts), one of which was already half used. These books are small, carbon copy pads that must be stamped with essential Spannocchia information (location, phone number, etc.). We have a special ink stamp to do this, and it would work with any blank receipt book. Unfortunately, no one had thought to bring the stamp along. On the final morning we arrived early to prepare for customers. Bolstered by the previous days sales, Riccio purchased 70 euros worth of bread at a local bakery before arriving at the Expo center.

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Before the doors opened we prepared about 40 panini with various meats and displayed them attractively on the counter. Then, the very first sandwich we sold turned into a fiasco. Within ten seconds, the Guarda di Finanzia stopped the man who had purchased the sandwich and asked for a receipt. Because we had run out of them entirely the day before, he did not have one. Flashing their badges, the Guarda brought the customer back to our stand and demanded to see all of our papers and receipt books. An hour of arguing, fighting, pleading, and high tension ensued, and eventually Spannocchia received a 500 euro fine (essentially all of the profit from the previous day). Dylan and I left the immediate vicinity during this debacle, as we didnt have our passports or WWOOF cards with us and could be considered unpaid labor. After the fine was written the police left, and a very aggravated Riccio took a walk to cool off. Our sales were suspended until we had receipts, and there were 39 panini still sitting on the table mocking us. People walking by would ask to purchase one, we would say we couldnt, and theyd head to the booth across the way. The fellow vendors at the booth worked with Riccio to formulate a solutionmaybe we could try photocopies, or faxed receipts. They flagged down the financial police again, but the Guarda did not like the idea of using photocopies, and also refused the faxed receipts sent from Spannocchia. Another half hour debate ensued, during which Riccio tried to convince them in any way possible. At a certain point, one of the policemen, exasperated, knocked on the wooden table to imitate Riccios hard head. He became insulting, suggesting that Riccio stick with farming rather than selling and marketing in the city. It was an ugly scene; although in retrospect I also wonder if Riccio was performing the role of a rural, uneducated peasant in order to get a little leeway. While I have no way of knowing his conscious or unconscious strategies, Riccio was adept at creating a visage for multiple audiences. In Rome, playing downtrodden peasant butcher allowed him to negotiate the market in ways that were never required of him back in Sovicille.

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In the end, Richard drove from Spannocchia to Rome with new receipt books. The winemakers in our booth formulated a crafty solution in the interim, using their receipt books to make the sales for Spannocchia, writing degustione in the items sold column along with the amount charged. Later we balanced our accounts against theirs. This ended up being somewhat useful for them as well, since they could ask each customer if he or she would like a small glass of wine along with their sandwich. Our sandwich sales were considerably stronger than their wine sales, and this allowed them to turn out a lot more glasses of vino. They also were able to market and sell entire bottles of their products while people were waiting in the line for panini. We used this temporary solution for about two hours, at which point Riccio went back to selling things without a receipt. I was horrified, since Richard still wasnt there with receipt books. Visions of being utterly shut down, tossed from the Expo, and losing all of our money to fines raced through my head. But Paola explained it to methe guard that was giving us all the hassle, the one who had implied that Riccio was a stupid hick from the country, went off duty at noon. When he left, the next guard on duty wouldnt give us any trouble. This was such a stereotypical Italian way of dealing with a legal issue that I laughed. And, indeed, we didnt have any further problems. When Richard arrived with the books I ran outside to meet him in the car, returned with the receipt books, stamped away, and we sold panini and meat without an issue for the rest of the fair. Shifting Roles of Production Food producers like Riccio have diverse relationships with multiple consumer audiences in local and regional markets. Riccios multiple rolesof farm manager, artisan food producer, educator and market workercoalesce dynamically in various settings. In many ways he seems to be the ultimate Slow Food producer, creating Good, Clean and Fair foods for a broad, international audience of engaged consumers. At

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Spannocchia, Riccio directs the everyday operations of the farm, working with numerous individuals to create the specialty food products for which the estate is known. He interacts with tourists to build Spannocchias reputation as a paragon of sustainable agriculture. At the local market, he is the convivial butcher, keen to spread the word about organic, ethical meat production. In Rome, he adopts the role of the backwards peasant, adroitly bending official rules in order to market a specialized product to an unwitting and indifferent audience. In all cases, the pressure to perform the role of the rural protagonist is one that he willingly accepts. Yet it is equally clear that he does so with varying degrees of success. He is proud to be a food producer, but his day-to-day work extends far beyond what Slow Foods definitions of the role entail. As described in Chapter One, a major goal of Slow Food is to build the profile of small producers like Riccio, and to bring them into contact with greater numbers of consumers. In taking an active interest in the people who produce food, including their methods and the problems they face, such consumers metamorphose into co-producers. Slow Food instigates and mediates the direct contact between producers and consumers on a global scale. Major Slow Food events, such as Salone del Gusto, orchestrate these connections, even if the stated objectives of the events do not necessarily map onto actual realities, as depicted in Chapter Two. In short, Slow Food utilizes representations of producers that are not based upon the lived daily realities and challenges of food production. Nevertheless, Slow Food consumers adopt these representations, and build them into the symbolic politics of the movement. Here, symbolic po litics refer to ideas and images, not common identity or economic interests, [which] mobilize political actions across wide gulfs of distance, language, and culture (Conklin and Graham 1995: 696). The symbolic politics of Slow Food permit consumers to e nact action from a distance. These politics emerge in Slow Foods notion of Virtuous Globalization, wherein the pleasure derived from eating well is intrinsically tied to responsible consumption and a connection to the welfare of producers and the environment.

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Through the lens of Slow Food, the labor and social lives of food producers (or at least the performances thereof) become visible to the engaged consumer. But in practice, the movements stated concerns with unequal relations of production are largely subsumed by an emphasis on relations of consumption. Massive inequalities persist in food production, particularly between large scale corporate food producers and locallybased small-scale producers. Even Spannocchia, a farm with a well-developed business plan, engaged producers, and an international clientele, felt the impact of ongoing disparities between large and small producers. In the case of producers from underdeveloped regions of the world, inequalities and consumer-producer relationships become even more problematic. While Riccio faces numerous challenges in his everyday activities, his role is largely self-defined. The stories of marketing the Cinta Senese hog with Riccio highlight his roles as a Slow Food producer in the developed nation of Italy. He presents himself as a rural agriculturalist, but not necessarily as an Italian, a Tuscan, or a white, middleclass man with heart problems. For other producers, particularly those in underdeveloped nations, the ability to forge connections through Slow Food channels remains far more tenuous. In the remainder of this chapter I return to the site of Terra Madre, the complementary event to Salone del Gusto where international producers arrive in Turin every two years to perform the role of small-scale producers. Based on my observations at this event, the experiences of Terra Madre participants are shaped by multiple layers of intersectionality, wherein race, ethnicity, and a romanticized peasant class profoundly shape their roles. A Return to Turin: Terra Madre One space in which to analyze the practical impact of Slow Foods discursive strategies on food producers is Terra Madre, an arm of the movement that works to assist small-scale producers from around the world in concrete, practical ways. The term Terra

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Madre is used interchangeably by Slow Food to refer both to the Terra Madre projects that operate continuously and also to the Terra Madre events that occur simultaneously with Salone del Gusto every other October. Whereas Salone del Gusto is a meeting place for consumers and producersessentially a journey of shopping and eating for most attendeesthe Terra Madre event highlights political, ethical, and environmental issues facing food producers. However, a closer examination of Terra Madre events reveals Western consumer imaginaries of the producers, particularly those from underdeveloped nations, which obscure problematic inequalities. Although the producers are rhetorically central, my observations and experiences at the 2006 and 2008 Terra Madre events in Turin and the 2008 Terra Madre Toscana in Orbetello revealed ongoing disparities not only between producers and consumers, but between the producers of poor and rich nations, and between producers and the Slow Food network as a whole. Within the Terra Madre network the socio-political ideologies of Slow Food find a practical foothold, and many see it as the arena in which Slow Food may overcome its reputation as an elitist foodie club. Here, Slow Food presents the standardization of taste and agrifood production as one aspect of a larger homogenizing phenomenon that eliminates a sense of place and local tradition. The Terra Madre network works to bring sustainable growth to local economies, particularly those from remote, underdeveloped regions of the planet. As one arm of the Slow Food network, it aims to do the following: To give voice and visibility to the rural food producers who populate our world. To raise their awareness, as well as that of the population at large, of the value of their work. To sustain their ability to work under the best conditions, for all of our good and for the good of the planet. (Terra Madre Foundation 2011) Terra Madre operates on the premise that the social and economic welfare of farmers is integral to the production of healthy foods. In the opening address of the 2006 Terra Madre conference, Carlo Petrini likened the state of the organization to a wellfertilized soil, ready to sprout new growth for local economies based on worldwide solidarity and sustainability. The oft-repeated goal for Terra Madre focuses on linking

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locally-based food communities within a global network of food producers, cooks, academics, and researchers. Attendance at the event is viewed as a first step in traversing the global/local divide, and a continuing theme in Terra Madre examines alternative relationships between local communities and global processes. The biannual Terra Madre event is held in the Lingotto Oval, a hangar-like space reconstructed from the aging bones of a defunct Fiat car factory to hold the speed skating arena in the 2004 Winter Olympics. Admission to Terra Madre is free, but requires a preapproved pass. In addition to the delegates selected to attend the conference, chefs, academics, and other food producers can apply for a pass. In 2006 and 2008 I obtained permission from Slow Food to attend the event as an observer. Upon entering the Oval, delegates and other visitors must first obtain an official name tag from the desk representing their country (see Figure 34). The multi-lingual staff at each desk was equipped to handle questions about lodging, transportation, and other concerns.

Figure 34 Delegate check-in

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The explosion of diversity celebrated at Terra Madre is perhaps best embodied by the parade of nations that opens the meetings. United Nations-style translation headsets provide access to teams of real-time simultaneous interpreters who provide an aural lifeline between the thousands of individuals present during the main events. In 2010 the Terra Madre event coordinators chose to highlight indigenous languages during the opening speeches. In October 2010 I watched the Opening Ceremony of Terra Madre streamed live, via the internet, from Turin, Italy to my home in Iowa. A nervous-looking Guarani Indian wearing blue jeans, a yellow athletic shirt, and an ethnic looking headdress and necklace made of feathers and leaves came to the podium to discuss the degradation of his homeland in South America. A Sami herder from near the Arctic Circle wore a brightly colored wool coat, a Mongolian woman appeared in animal furs and a beaded headband, and an aboriginal Australian entered in a woven grass skirt. Each of the individuals mentioned above addressed the audience in a language considered to be linguistically endangered. This synchronized revival of locally-based foodways, language, dress, and indigenous knowledge is performed to a global audience through the latest technological innovation. Unfortunately, the translation of these endangered languages was dubious at best. It felt a bit like a strange version of the game Telephone, in which a message undergoes so many repetitions and translations that it ends up reduced to almost nothing. I witnessed the same thing happening in 2006, when a Tibetan yak herder spoke to the crowd at Terra Madre. He spoke, a man translated his words from the Tibetan language to Cantonese, which was then translated into Italian, and then into English. It is safe to assume that the message changed somewhat during the course of four translations, as each successive translation grew increasingly shorter in length and the narrative continuity I heard in the English version varied In 2008 I received a hefty Terra Madre guidebook listing individual food communities by continent, country, and category of food product. Email contact

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information was listed for each entry, and additional pages listed data for academics and chefs participating at the event. The introduction to the handbook describes it as a map of Terra Madre: It doesnt have a center or periphery, as a network is made up of many parts of equal importance. It brings together more than 1600 food communities that are at the forefront in protecting diversity; human, natural, agricultural and gastronomic. In addition, it includes around 800 cooks from all around the world who are fighting against the homogenization of food, and more than 400 universities, professors and researchers with their ideas for virtuous globalization: an approach that is not based on colonization, but on development through shared knowledge. The Terra Madre map is for everyone who respects and cares for the planet we live on, to let them see that they are not alone. It is also an invitation to explore and respect other cultures. This map of the Terra Madre diaspora underscores a valuation of indigenous knowledge, which is rhetorically juxtaposed with intensive industrial agriculture and mass production. Similarly, rampant Western neoliberal development is viewed as detrimental to the social fabric of communities. Adrian Peace describes this political theatre not only as the ideological flagship of Terra Madre, but also as the occasion on which the myths and fetishisms of Slow Food are much in evidence (2008:31).44 Here, he argues, the iconically key figure of the small-scale producer is valorized in opposition to the demonic order to agribusiness, and Terra Madres rhetoric contends that those at the base of the agricultural hierarchy consistently behaved in a manner qualitatively different from those at its apex (Peace 2008:38). However, fetishizing the nobility and dignity of small-scale producers obfuscates how they experience the wider relations of food production. In practice, the majority of producers in rural economies have relatively little autonomy from either the constraints of global agribusiness or from local inequalities based on class, gender, age, or ethnicity.
44 Following Barthes (1973), his use of the term myth refers to the assemblage of social stereotypes, skewed representations, and biased accounts that are characteristic of all consumer experiences under late capitalist conditions (Peace 2006:57).

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Fetishizing Cultural Diversity In 2006 the Italian government provided 1,500 special visas for Terra Madre delegates.45 Delegates arrived from all corners of the earth, including nations not considered politically friendly to Italy. In a quote from the British newspaper The Guardian: One of the problems was that a lot of these people didn't have passports. So we'd set about arranging that, and then we'd discover that they didn't have the documents they needed to get a passport," says Cinzia Scaffidi, one of the principal organisers of the event. "There was one group of indigenous people from Brazil who wouldn't have their photos taken either. We asked why and were told they were afraid it would rob them of their souls. (Hooper 2004:8-9)

Figure 35 Peruvian delegates at Terra Madre

45 Italian taxpayers end up paying for a lot of Terra Madreto the tune of about 3 million euros. Ironically, the right-wing government of Italy supports this project because it promotes tourism and agriculture in Italy. At the first Terra Madre in 2004, the neo-liberal governor of the Piedmont, Enzo Ghigo, and Italys agricultural minister, Giovanni Alemanno (who is part of the post-facist National Alliance) stood with Petrini at the opening ceremonies.

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Through their connections with Slow Food, these delegates amassed the economic and social capital needed to travel to Italy. In Bourdieus (1984) terms, however, they presumably did not possess the cultural capital necessary to navigate the modern, metropolitan space. Putting aside any ethnocentric presumptions about photography for the moment, the use of a statement that emphasized the delegates lack of cultural capital sends a particular message to Guardian readers. Rural peasants from around the world may hold indigenous knowledge about agriculture, but their ability to navigate urban Turin was presumed tenuous at best. This statement simultaneously reinforced readers images of rural food producers as ecologically noble savages (Redford 199 0): People who dwell in harmony with nature, free from modern social complexities. Carlo Petrini describes Terra Madre as a concrete means of using local action to generate major effects on a global scale, and serves as the true catalyst for Slow Food as a whole (2010:23). Here, Slow Food merely provides the support and resources for Terra Madre to flourish. Petrini goes on to state that Terra Madre farmers represent the opposite of homogenization, of consumerism, of what the Slow Food movement calls fast life (2010:24). He does not want the ideas of these food producers to be colonized, and argues that they share a brotherhood that much of the world has lost.46 In a bizarre romaticization of the Global South, Petrini repeats that many of these producers may have never left their villages before, often working thanklessly, and yet have managed to avoid overt consumerism and urbanization.

46 Interestingly, the Terra Madre farmers who arrive in Turin act as symbolic placeholders of Marxist movements that shaped the original Slow Food ideology. Deeply rooted in the communist agenda of 1970s Italy, the first members of Petrinis proto-Slow Food organization called Arcigola hoped to bring the Peasant new forms of social capital via consumption and regional/national reclamation of forgotten local foods (Parescoli 2003; van der Meulen 2008).

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In direct opposition to these presumptions, a casual conversation with a Slow Food employee in Bra, Italy, several weeks after Terra Madre 2006 revealed a very different picture. While discussing the activities of Terra Madre delegates, I learned that several delegates fled during their trip to Italy. When I questioned her further, she said that it was not something that Slow Food wanted to publicize, but that it had also happened in 2004. Some of the delegates from poor nations, armed with a visa to a Western European country, simply left the convention and quietly entered Italian society. This calls into question the glorification of traditional peasant lifeways, as well as the motivation of delegates to attend Terra Madre. My fieldnotes from Terra Madre 2006 reveal my discomfort with several aspects of the event: Much of the iconography of the meeting (the publications, ads, etc.) focused on images of very traditional looking ethnic groups. (See figure 35 and 36.) At Terra Madre these individuals did not receive glossy brochures, or stalls in the Salone del Gusto. A physical separation arose between the tourist crowds and the food producers themselves. [Unlike at the Salone] there was no soft lighting, no signs as to where people were from, no emphasis on the food production they did in everyday life. Most did not sell food at all; rather, they sold things like jewelry, weavings, and other handicrafts. These Terra Madre vendors sat on the ground or on low folding chairs. They had no designations other than their ethnic apparel, which the organizers encourage d them to wear during the event. Terra Madre emphasized ethnicity and a traditional Sud del Mondo (Global South)47 appearance. This look was itself commodifiedwould the African woman selling carved jewelry have done well if she wore Western-style clothes (see Figure 36)? Did the vendors change out of their traditional outfits once they left

47 This term is used regularly by Carlo Petrini and other Slow Food representatives in Italy to reference developing nations. I have never seen or heard this term used in Slow Food rhetoric in the United States.

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the sales floor? I certainly did not see anyone dressed this way wandering the halls at Salone del Gusto, or even participating in delegate meetings.

Figure 36 African delegate in "traditional" attire, Image courtesy of Slow Food International

In her research on Slow Food events, Steager (2009) discovered that the individuals vending jewelry and the like were not officially sanctioned by Slow Food rather, they arrived at the event carrying large bags of items to sell. These agriculturalists arrived in Turin anticipating a wealthy, Western audience, and they were not disappointed. Everyone elseincluding mewalked around the Oval like an Epcot tourist, snapping photos and purchasing trinkets. Starting up conversations with the delegates was difficult due to language barriers, and there were no simultaneous translators working with individuals. For the most part, the white European and North

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American attendees at Terra Madre wore casual clothing that bore no reflection on either their day-to-day work clothes or any ethnic identity. For example, the only Italians wearing visibly traditional costumes were part of a folkloric musical group that performed while walking through the Oval. However, I am also not sure that I would have taken notice of some producers without their costumes on, which brings up another set of questions about my own reflexive observation and creation of meaning. Casual conversations I have had with other attendees to Terra Madre events reference the issue of Othering delegates. I particularly recall a conversation with two cheese makers from Iowa, whom I first met in the airport at Turin in 2008. Following the loss of much of their arable farmland in the Iowa floods that spring, the couple travelled to Terra Madre for inspiration and renewal. They spoke glowingly of their experiences with Slow Food and sincerely referred to Terra Madre as a moment that changed their business and lives. However, when I mentioned interactions with foreign delegates they became visibly uncomfortable. It was strange, they recalled, how many of them were sitting on the floor. Were they there as family or friends of the food producers? the couple asked me. These Iowan producers were not asked to dress in any specific way, and they were confused as to whether or not other delegates might have been. This brings up important questions about the intentions of these producers and the ways in which they chose to represent themselves at Terra Madre. In Goffmans terms (1959), the front stage performance of an idealized identity may conflict with backstage realities. In most cases, however, Terra Madre producers do not hold power over the ways in which Slow Food represents them publicly. Terra Madre is widely publicized throughout the city, despite the fact that the event is not open to the public. The images of the individuals on the subway sign are from the Faces of Terra Madre, an ongoing photography project that invites all delegates to be photographed against a solid black background (Figure 37).

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These striking images beautifully capture the range of faces, styles of dress, and expressions of Terra Madre participants. However, outside the context of the Oval, these portraits are not always well contextualized. On one hand, giving food producers a face encourages consumers to consider the human work that goes into food production. On the other hand, it is easy to draw comparisons with the images of Lavazza coffee workers shown at the corporate stand at Salone del Gusto. Reducing producers to their physical appearance on a subway sign does not tell the viewer where the individual is from or what he or she produces. Another viewer may interpret the range of races and ethnicities presented to be symbolic of the biodiversity of life and culture t hat Slow Food promotes.

Figure 37 Terra Madre sign at Turin subway stop

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Finding a Middle Ground In their discussion of indigenous Amazonian Indians and global environmental movements, Conklin and Graham (1995) refer to a pragmatic middle ground in which first-world and fourth-world (indigenous) citizens meet. It is a political space, an area of intercultural communication, exchange, and joint political action wherein indigenous people have become key symbols as well as key participants in the development of an ideology and organizational networks that link [local] conflicts to international issues and social movements (Conklin and Graham 1995:696). In this case, Terra Madre delegates are featured as key symbols and key participants in Slow Foods events. This is especially true in regards to producers from the Global South, but it is equally true for politically-savvy western producers, many of whom hail from underdeveloped regions of wealthy nations. However, this global meeting of food communities that appears to constitute a rich middle ground for mutual constructions of knowledge is, in truth, a first-world construction, carefully created through the media and Slow Foods extensive communication channels. The deliberate use of certain producers symbolic capital such as native costume, endangered language, and other cultural ephemera that do not necessarily correlate with actual day-to-day food production activitiessupports Slow Foods political and ideological agendas. When Terra Madre coordinators encourage delegates to exhibit these forms of symbolic capital, the group captures the profit of distinction (Bourdieu 1984), something that sets them apart from other food-related social movements. As a consumer-based movement relying on voluntary membership and donations from an overwhelmingly Western audience, Slow Food utilizes these creative misunderstandings to its benefit. Over the past several decades, images of indigenous people, particularly those in colorful costumes and wild settings, became regularly used in advertising campaigns to connote eco-consciousness and ethical production and trade. Slow Food builds upon this trend, and connects the Good and Fair

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connotations displayed by this style of media campaign with its own political and ideological agendas. As Conklin and Graham point out, Identification with native cultures can be a political statement: it encapsulates a critique of Western cultural dominance and colonial regimes and locates those who identify with the native in an oppositional position, morally distanced from their own societies racism or colonial histories (1995:702). Slow Foods critique of the insidious virus of fast life parallels this kind of utilization of indigenous symbolic capital.

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CONCLUSION I suppose it would have been a lot more fun to have written a book on the sublime virtues of slow food, Chez Panisse, Berkshire pork, or the gustatory pleasures of an heirloom tomato. For sure, it would have been a pleasure to indulge my research abilities in something sensual and fulfilling. But such concerns, given the challenges we face as socially aware consumers, strike me as overly precious. Such idealization of the luxurious a staple of food writing todaydistracts us from the reality of the concrete. So Ive chosen to save the romantic rhetoric for the parlors of hobby farmers and seminar rooms of the chattering culinary class. (McWilliams 2009:9) In the early days of this project, I collected numerous magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and blog posts written for popular and academic audiences on the political, economic and cultural constructions of alternative food movements. Spanning topics from GMOs to 100-mile diets to animal welfare, these discursive artifacts reflected a surge of interest in food and rapidly engulfed my file folders. The publication of several pivotal journalistic exposs Michael Pollans The Omnivores Dilemma (2006) and Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation (2001) central among them intensified the escalation. Food was at the forefront of my academic pursuits, but in a relatively brief amount of time I could no longer keep up with the deluge of information documenting Americas renewed interest in food. Currently, a rapidly expanding genre of food literature written for popular audiences continues to shape public discourse on food in the United States. While many authors address issues of social and environmental justice related to food production and consumption, a subset of the genre succumbs to the idealization of the luxurious noted above. Sometimes deemed food porna tongue-in-cheek term describing the glamorization of food photography and the decadent writing presented in blogs, cooking shows, and other mediathis growing category of food discourse emphasizes the delectable and indulgent characteristics of eating and drinking. As one might expect, much writing on (and by) Slow Food attempts to adulate the aesthetic qualities of

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particular foods while simultaneously providing a penetrating description of the individuals who produce them. I must admit that it was sometimes difficult to write about my experiences doing research with Slow Food and at Spannocchia without succumbing to the romantic rhetoric that McWilliams lampoons. Particularly at Spannocchia, where cypress trees line dusty paths and centuries-old stone walls surround sumptuous fields of poppies and olive trees, the sensate pleasures of everyday rural life emerge regularly. My field notebooks overflow with descriptions of convivial meals featuring local wines, organic vegetables, heritage pork, and a seemingly endless array of pastas. While both the natural and constructed beauty of Spannocchia is part and parcel of what makes it a successful agriturismo, my research also reveals the less-than-desirable tasks crucial to the maintenance of this illusion of effortless authenticity and the numerous pressures faced by its inhabitants. McWilliamss characterization that such topics provide fodder for the seminar rooms of the chattering culinary class not only oversimplifies the breadth and competence of the work done by Slow Food and others to connect producers and consumers, but also undermines the researchers ability to analyze it. Pleasure and Politics Central to the underlying ideology of Slow Food is a reassessment of gustatory pleasure as it connects to principles of social and environmental justice. However, the ideologies underscoring this pleasure are distinct from those seen in literary food porn. Slow Food inserts culinary tastean attribute normally associated with cultural capital into a social economy built around the preservation of endangered foods, local cuisines, and cultural heritage. However, as Andrews points out, It is the pleasure factor which has given rise to confusion in the intersections between class, food and elitism in Slow Foods distinctive cultural politics (2008:176). Although it is the link between pleasure and responsibility that steers Slow Foods operation, t his connection, and its associated

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values of Slow living, gives rise to charges of self-indulgence and exclusivity. However, rather than dismissing the entire Slow Food enterprise as an exercise in elitism, the revaluation of pleasure need not negate the political potential that Slow Food holds. Within Slow Food the significance of a particular food item moves beyond that of monetary value to encompass the valorization of (sometimes distant) local cultures and environments. For instance, Parkins and Craig (2009) describe Terra Madre as a unique system that negotiates between international consumers and localized, marginalized food communities in an attempt to deploy cultural values that protect and enhance an alternative model of global food networks. In connecting traditional food cultures with consumer culture, Slow Food (and related consumer-based movements such as Fair Trade) developed a potent means of refereeing political and economic change in everyday life. Parkins and Craig note that: These features of alternative food networks are represented as a resistance against the disembedding forces of globalization and the dominant food culture derived from the global agro-food industry and mark an attempt to build an alternative economy of food that grounds economic relations in particular social and cultural contexts, lived out through everyday practices. (2009:79) The issues central to Slow Foodenvironmental sustainability, biodiversity, education, and social justiceoutline the values of Slow living. As the values of Slow Food are incorporated into peripheral projects like Slow Tourism (Matos 2002), Slow Cities (Knox 2005), and even Slow Money (Tasch 2008), it becomes clear that the foundational values of this movement are not limited to food production and consumption and have the capacity to encourage systemic political change. At the same time, the myriad ways in which producers and consumers interpreted Slow Food throughout my research indicate that it is not a static or unilateral institution/movement. Rather, Slow Food encourages multiple interpretations across political, cultural, and national boundaries. For instance, Spannocchia regularly invokes discourse about cultural and environmental sustainability that echoes the core ideologies

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of Slow Food (e.g., Good, Clean and Fair). The estate functions as a prototypical locale for the ethical production and educated consumption of Slow foods like Cinta Senese pork, even as Slow Food principles are variably incorporated by different individuals working at or visiting the estate. Likewise, individuals from around the world involved with major Slow Food events like Salone del Gusto translate Slow Food ideologies into concrete realities in multiple spaces of their own. As evidenced in this thesis, the efforts of the Slow Food movement are framed by new complexities and contradictions at global-local interfaces, creating new opportunities for both the reproduction and the transformation of social inequalities. My ethnographic data demonstrate that Slow Foodas one organization in an array of social movements working to address food, globalization, and ethical production disseminates new responses to to these transnational concerns. With its emphasis on connecting producers with socially invested consumers, or co-producers, Slow Food offers a medium through which to examine the intended and unintended consequences of alternative food systems cross-culturally. Shifting Fields The original scope of my thesis research included a comparative study of Slow Food activities in Italy and the United States. I began research on Slow Food in my home state of Iowa in 2006, where I spent a significant amount of time working with a local Slow Food convivium. In 2008 my husband and I joined the leadership committee and coordinated many of the groups activities. My work in Iowa included organizing a local Slow Food Eat-In to bring attention to the bleak condition of public school lunches, attendance at multiple Slow Food dinners emphasizing both conviviality and local food products, staffing a Slow Food booth at local farmers markets to publicize the convivium, organizing the public screening of several films exposing the realities of industrial agriculture in the U.S., and rebuilding the groups website. I also began to collect data

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from local food producers who held membership in the convivium. However, through discussions with local producers and consumers at public venues like the farmers market I learned that although many Iowans supported the ideas behind Slow Food, few deemed it necessary to spend the money to officially join. For example, after I described the movement and its core philosophies to a middle-aged organic farmer he laughed and responded, Good, clean and fair? Thats what Ive been trying to do my whole life! I dont need some group to write it all up for me! In so many words, he went on to explain that although he appreciated Slow Food for its role in educating consumers, he didnt see a need to join as a farmer. Conversations like this one made me question the role of producers in Slow Food. Data from my earlier research trip to Bra, Italy and my observations at Salone del Gusto emphasized the political and economic roles of producers in the Slow Food movement, but this was not something I saw in my work in Iowa, where Slow Food seemed to be swept into a broad category of food activism occurring on the local level. When compared to several groups in the area that energetically addressed issues of food insecurity, organic production, and consumer education, the Slow Food group was largely ancillary. I also experienced growing frustration with convivium members who continually requested activities centered on dining in expensive area restaurants or organizing fundraising events, pursuits that many membersfarmers among them could not afford. Later I found that the Slow Food Siena convivium encountered similar obstacles. In both cases, an emphasis on gustatory exploration overshadowed the political objectives of Slow Food. The disconnect between the stated ideology of Slow Food and its implementation on a local scale points to one of the potential difficulties in the study of New Social Movements. The rhetoric of an international movement will be interpreted variably by local, grassroots actors, sometimes in ways that detract from the stated goals of the larger organization.

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While the information presented in this thesis focuses primarily on my work in Italy, it also highlights the international scope of the Slow Food movement in unexpected ways. The profusion of American and Italian co -producers at Spannocchia allowed me to not only explore the ways local actions develop within transnational social movements, but also to consider the types of relationships that exist among members from very different backgrounds. Additionally, the concentrated representation by individulas from myriad nationalities at large events like Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre emphasized the globalized nature of the movement and its effects. The multi-sited nature of this project reflects ongoing efforts in cultural anthropology to link global exigencies with local realities. Locating a cohesive middle ground, wherein diverse groups of producers and consumers interact to co-construct new shared meanings and practices through Slow Food channels, remained a challenge for the duration of the project. As Slow Food works to translate its ideology regarding co-production into everyday acts of food production and consumption, the importance of finding a practical and epistemological middle ground for analysis remains central. Future Directions It remains to be seen if the connections forged through Slow Food at events like Terra Madre, or in agricultural settings like Spannocchia, can translate into real-life changes in the daily lives of small-scale food producers around the world. As Slow Food focuses its attention on increasingly politicized activities and events, efforts to instigate system-wide changes through food production and consumption rise to the forefront of the movements rhetoric. Slow Foods concept of Virtuous Globalization, for example, posits that a global system like Terra Madre can assist farmers by creating a network of self-sufficient local economies, and the powerful interdependent linkages forged through these connected local economies holds the capacity to confront neoliberal structures. Based on my understanding of the current organizational structure of the movement, I do

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not believe that Slow Food operatives alone can foster economic independence or revolution in remote or underdeveloped agricultural sectors. However, the movement does possess the capacity to assist people in specific local market segments and specific geographic areas. At this point, Slow Food offers the greatest potential impact to areas where localfoods initiatives go beyond the monetary value of food production, due to synergies with other economic activities like tourism and landscape management (cf. Van der Ploeg et al 2002). For instance, at places like Spannocchia, where Italian food producers generate financial support through relationships with socially- and environmentally-conscious gastronomic tourists, relationships of co-production guide the ongoing development of the estate. Co-producer relationships emerge even more strongly with interns, who not only ideologically support the mission of Spannocchia, but also serve as a physical labor force for the estates agricultural production. Here, the principles of Slow Food implicitly guide food production and consumption in an everyday context. The decisions made by consumers at Spannocchia manifest in long-term economic sustainability for producers. It is unclear if producers supported by Presidia projects or other Slow Food directives experience similar consumer support. Moreover, the outcomes of Slow Foods emphasis on cultural or environmental sustainability through co-production remain ambiguous. To the best of my knowledge, no current research exists on the implementation of Presidia projects outside of Europe. Analysis of producers and consumers in underdeveloped regions could reveal additional interpretations of the Slow Food message. Do these producers view Slow Food as yet another group within a spectrum of well-meaning aid organizations arriving from developed nations, or is the role of Slow Food unique? Moreover, how do Slow Food ideologies play out in regions where the most pressing issues facing food producers may include food insecurity or social instability? And as such, is an emphasis on Good, Clean and Fair specific to the

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ideologies of capitalist Western consumers, or is it meant to transcend social and cultural borders worldwide? As the movement grows, particularly considering the more recent emphasis on the relevance of Terra Madre in shaping Slow Food as a whole, highlighting the ways in which tastes for certain food aesthetics and ideologies indicate and maintain distinctions between groups is a starting point for future study. Further, as Mintz and DuBois (2006) point out, there is a need to (re)contextualize issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and other markers of identity into the social economy of movements like Slow Food. Delineating groups as uniquely identified food communities begs for additional analysis on the significance and structure of community itself in the postindustrial era. Similarly, food related social movements emphasize promises of democracy and equality. However, the same movements can erect barriers to these ideals by charging the market with the responsibility for realizing them (Lavin 2009). Is food a fashionable political issue because food is inexorably tied to consumption, the ethos of which comes to the fore in capitalist, consumerist politics? Here, a resurrection of my initial comparative analysis between the U.S. and Italy (or another Western European country) will prove useful. As both a physical substance and symbolic object, food offers a lens through which to view the intersections of large-scale economic, political, and social processes with small-scale, mundane, everyday routines (Wilk 2006). As such, food-centered narratives and practices also reflect the social and economic changes and processes brought on by capitalism, technology, and informational and bureaucratic complexities. Anthropology is uniquely positioned to study the ways that food activism, such as that promised by Slow Food, holds the potential to manifest itself in meaningful ways for food producers and consumers. As evidenced in this study, singular examinations of specific events or locales do not present a full portrait of either the Slow Food producer or consumer.

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These considerations highlight anthropologys potential contribution to the larger academic field of food studies, especially with regard to studies of food production and consumption. Multiple avenues exist for further studies tracking the international spread of the Slow Food movement and its various forms of knowledge across the globe. Scholarly investigations on food issues have the potential to link academics more closely with alternative agrifood movements like Slow Food, particularly in cases where research can effectively counter-position the movement against neoliberal markets and systems that exploit food producers. With an increased awareness of tensions between global and local processes, anthropological investigation can reveal the ways in which everyday social experiences surrounding food shift and expand over time and space.

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APPENDIX A: SALUMI PROCESSING AT SPANNOCCHIA

Salumi Processing at Spannocchia

All Spannocchias salumi (cured meats) are made from the meat of our own organically raised Cinta Senese pigs. We do all our own butchering and meat processing on the premises. Sienas meats are famous around the world. The citys sausages have been revered since the time of the crusades. Del maiale non si butta via niente From a pig, you dont throw away anything

Prosciutto
Material: The back leg of the pig, including the foot. Process: First it is massaged with a mixture of salt, pepper, vinegar and crushed garlic. Then it is completely covered in salt for between 20-25 days. At this point it is washed with cold water and the open part (or joint) is rubbed with strutto (lard) and covered with pepper. Now it is ready for aging. During aging it is hung for at least 12 months (sometimes up to 2 years) in a cool, humid environment. When Ready: The meat should be bright red or pink with evident marbling of white fat. The aroma and taste are very particular to this product. It can either be hand cut or sliced thin with an electric slicer.

Capocollo
Material: The neck of the pig from the nape of the neck to the 5th rib. Process: Meat is massaged with salt, black ground pepper, vinegar, and crushed garlic and then covered with salt for three days. After this, it is washed and re-massaged and covered with ground black pepper. When Ready: It should be a long, round form about 25-35 cm long and 6-8 cm wide. The meat is red with swirling areas of lighter pink. The flavor is intense and slightly spicy. It should be sliced thin to serve.

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Salsicce (Sausage)
Material: From lean and fatty cuts of meat left over after making the other salumi. Process: The meat is finely ground and flavored with salt, pepper, and garlic. It is encased in long casing, often pig intestine that has been cleaned and stretched. They are usually prepared in long, connected strips, tied off between sausage with string. When Ready: They can be eaten fresh or after a brief aging period. There are also salsicce secche dry sausages that are made from leaner cuts of meat and aged for a much longer period of time. The color should be red with a strong flavor and aroma.

Lardo
Material: Fatty white colored meat taken from the high part of the thorax, including the skin. Process: The meat is cut into big square chunks and coated with salt, ground black pepper, chopped rosemary, bay leaves and juniper berries. It is aged for at least 90 days. When Ready: The color should be white, with only very rare lines of more lean red meat. The taste should be delicate and the texture smooth.

Soppressata
Material: Head, skin, fat and scraps. Process: In a huge pot, boil everything together. Remove the bones. Add salt, pepper and some spices including clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. The mixture is then put into a large, porous cotton sack. The mixture is packed into the sack so that the liquid oozes out. The form should be 20 cm wide. When Ready: The meat is grey, white and maroon in varying degrees. The flavor is intense and aromatic. The meat should be sliced as thinly as possible. It is not aged.

Buristo Senese
Material: The same cooked meat as the soppressata with pig blood added to it.

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Process: The meat is mixed with salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices and placed in a casing (usually the stomach or colon). It is then re-boiled in the liquid from the first cooking of the meat. The form is very irregular, because of the different casings used. It should be aged a few days. When Ready: The meat is a dark reddish brown with small areas of white fat. The taste is very particular.

Other cured meats we make are: guancia (from the cheeks), pancetta (the same cut as American bacon but aged, not smoked), and spalla (front leg cured in the same way as prosciutto which is a back leg), strutto and ciccioli (after the pork fat is cooked, the liquid portion becomes strutto, lard, and the remaining small pieces of fat are ciccioli).

Document courtesy of the Spannocchia Foundation.

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APPENDIX B: ARK OF TASTE GUIDELINES

Article 1 The selection and approval of products must be based on the following criteria: 1. Products must be of distinctive quality in terms of taste. Taste quality, in this context, is defined in the context of local traditions and uses. 2. The product must be linked to the memory and identity of a group, and can be a vegetable species, variety, ecotype or animal population that is well acclimatized over a medium-long period in a specific territory (defined in relation to the history of the territory). The primary material of the foodstuff must be locally sourced unless it comes from an area outside the region of production, in which case it must be traditional to use materials from that specific area. Any complementary materials used in the production of the product (spices, condiments, etc.) may be from any source, and their use must be part of the traditional production process. 3. Products must be linked environmentally, socio-economically and historically to a specific area. 4. Products must be produced in limited quantities, by farms or by small-scale processing companies. 5. Products must be threatened with either real or potential extinction

Article 2 General rules for Governance of the Ark: 1. 2. GM products or GM-based products are forbidden. No product using a trademark or commercial name may be introduced to the Ark.

3. The use of the Slow Food logo, name and trademark (or any variations thereof) is forbidden on Ark and Presidia products and/or the packaging thereof. 4. Ark products must be produced in accordance with general Slow Food campaigns and 'manifestos': for example the campaign in Defense of Raw Milk, that against Transgenic Wine Production, and that in favor of Sustainable Fishing.

201 Article 3 The International Commission has the following responsibilities: 1. 2. 3. 4. Defining the criteria and categories for the Ark. Defining the general rules for the Ark. Verifying compliance with the general rules by national Ark commissions. Supporting the national commissions.

5. Assisting the creation of new national commissions in countries where these are not yet present. 6. Verifying products and admitting them to the Ark in countries where there is not national Ark commission. Article 4 No national commission has the power to autonomously change the criteria and regulations of the Ark. Eventual changes in International Ark Commission Duties, and Criteria need to be proposed by at least two members of the International Commission, at which time they can be discussed and voted upon in any meeting at which at least two-thirds of International Ark Commission members are present. Article 5 The board of the national association (or the national coordinators) must present a shortlist of names for the national commission and the name of the commissions chairperson to the International Presidents Board and the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. The national commission will be officially active only after it has been approved by the International Presidents Board and ratified by the Slow Food Foundation. In a country without a board or national coordinators, the International President s Board will provide a shortlist of names for the commission and the name of the commissions chairperson to the Slow Food Foundation. If the board of the national association (or the national coordinators) becomes aware of a problem or the need to change a commission or a chairperson in the period between international congresses, it must send written notification to the International Presidents Board and the Slow Food Foundation.

202 If the International Presidents Board becomes aware of a problem or the need to change a commission or a chairperson in the period between international congresses, it must send written notification to the board of the national association (or the national coordinators) and the Slow Food Foundation. If the Slow Food Foundation becomes aware of a problem or the need to change a commission or a chairperson in the period between international congresses, it must send written notification to the board of the national association (or the national coordinators) and the International Presidents Board. When an agreement cannot be reached, the International Presidents Board will make the final decision. All commission members must also be members of Slow Food. The position of chairperson of a national commission cannot be held by the president of the national association or the head of the national coordinators. Article 6 After every International Congress, all national commissions will be dissolved and must be reappointed. Article 7 Commissioners will be asked to leave the International Ark Commission in the following cases: 1. They do not follow the International Ark Guidelines

2. They do not develop their National Commission (if they have no current national commission) 3. Given due consideration of regional differences, they do not complete the work of the National Commission, for example, in the space of a year the country they represent submits less than three Ark products that have been reviewed and researched (up to the point that the National Ark is declared 'complete') or they are unable to show work completed on the Presidia project in said time period. 4. Are no longer part of the International Slow Food Movement

(Developed by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, Accessed online at http://www.fondazioneslowfood.it/ October 28, 2011)

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