Gastronomy Tourism

 The fast world is the chief product of the global expansion of capitalism. In the global economic system, time is valuable and an increase in the pace of life is inevitable (Knox, 2005: 3). In life, which has become more complicated with the development of technology, many people seek a slower pace of life.

Its proponents see the "slow motion" as a response to the negative impact of speed on everyday life. Slow living is not a return to the past, the good old days, laziness or the slow motion of life. On the contrary, slow life is a process in which daily life - at its own pace, complexity, excitement and routine - is approached with interest and attention. Slow life, above all, is the art of living in the “now” in a meaningful, sustainable, thoughtful and enjoyable way (Gallagher, 2013: 99).

 

Honore (2004: 16) expresses “slowness” as follows: slowness is not a simple rejection of fast life or a Luddite (anti-technology) response to the developing technological world; on the contrary, it is a state that makes the world attractive. Slowness is about thinking about the pace at which we live, which means “controlling the rhythm of one's own life”.

 

slowness for Petrini (2001: 26); It requires devoting one's energies to creating the world they most want to live in. “If you want to revive a tradition and breathe new life into it,” he argues, “often all you need is a new toolbox and some innovative ideas.”

 

Parkins and Craig (2006: 67) argue that slow life can be perceived as an attempt at "individuation" and as challenging the normative trajectory of global capitalism; They advance this discussion, which is in line with the foundation of the Slow Food ideology, so that any effort to slow it down means it will slow down all obstacles.

 

Today, the situation in which cities are dragged into and the changes in the lifestyles of individuals push cities to social movements such as Slow Food and Slow City.

 

1.1. The Emergence of Slow Food

 

Italian gourmet, Carlo Petrini, started the Slow Food movement in the Langhe region of the Italian province of Cuneo in 1986 as a reaction to the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Rome's Piazza di Spagna. A group of political and cultural Italian activists prepared the Slow Food manifesto, which inspired the founding of the international movement Slow Food (Jones et al., 2003: 298). The Slow Food Manifesto focuses on the negative effects of fast living on our lives.

 

The purpose of the manifesto is not just to protest McDonalds, but to offer an alternative to mass-produced globalizing food. This manifesto is considered the starting point for the Slow Food movement, which today has around 100,000 members in more than 130 countries. The Association has over 100,000 members who have joined 1,500 groups (local chapters that support its philosophy), as well as 2000 networked food groups (which engage in the small-scale and sustainable production of quality food). Currently, there are 24 groups promoting the Slow Food philosophy in Turkey (slowfood.com, 2015b)

 

According to the Slow Food Manifesto; Standardization of taste, threat to biodiversity, environmental destruction (associated with the industrialization of agriculture), extinction of small producers, extinction of low-profit species, vegetables, fruits and cereals, and loss of cultural identity are negative consequences of globalization. Therefore, this movement adopts anti-capitalism as its main aim. He emphasizes that the fast life fed by globalization disrupts every aspect of the traditional, especially the food system and consumption behavior (slowfood.com, 2012a).

 

The movement aims to preserve the "right to taste" taste education and traditional farming methods and techniques, by preserving the nearly extinct traditional tastes, raising awareness of the pleasure of eating (including the social aspects of sharing a meal). Taste education is also seen as a slow way to resist McDonaldization (Petrini, 2001: 69). This movement aims to reduce the homogenizing effect of fast food, preserve food pleasures and life, develop gastronomic culture, experience agricultural diversity and education, protect foods at risk and have its own university (Pink, 2008: 97; Pink, 2009: 454). Slow Food is an international non-profit, democratic association; it is voluntary to advance social and cultural causes (slowfood.com, 2012b).

 

Individual members of Slow Food meet in local groups called “convivials”. Members are encouraged to integrate the principles of the movement into daily practice and are expected to promote the values ​​of the movement (Pink, 2008: 98). Today, Slow Food, which includes a wide cultural diversity due to its global spread, continues to support locally produced traditional foods that are enjoyed in a pleasant way (Carp, 2012:133; Furze et al., 2010: 450).

 

1.1.1. Human-Earth-Plate (People-Planet-Plate)

 

Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, while explaining Gastronomy Tourism, defines food as a purely cultural product related to quality, sustainability, biodiversity and social justice. He positions Slow Food as a new social movement that increasingly focuses on cultural and symbolic strategies as a tool to ensure independence or democratization of social and cultural spaces (Schneider, 2008: 390). At the same time, according to Petrini, food should be associated from plate to planet, be good, just and clean.

 

Because the main purpose of Slow Food is not only to 'defend good food and gastronomic pleasure and thus support a slower pace of life', but also to 'defend biodiversity by preserving traditional dishes, main ingredients, growing and processing methods' (slowfood.com, 2013). Slow Food has given itself an eco-gastronomic mission (Sassatelli and Davolio, 2010:205).

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