Slow Food en France. Traductions et alliances locales d’un mouvement international

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uses my long-term ethnography inside Slow Food’s international headquarters in Italy, as well as inside the French association, in order to analyse the place that Slow Food occupies in France and its capacity to oppose the industrial food system. International association, non-profit organisation, and economic enterprise, negotiating with a large spectrum of political and economic actors, Slow Food is a political and economic object. The leaders of Slow Food have always considered France as the country of gastronomy, valuing French food culture highly from the first years of the association. But, paradoxically, in France the movement has never really grown. What accounts for this marginal position? What does this particular case of ‘food activism’ elucidate about the contradictions of the French food system? Using an anthropological perspective and methodology, and paying attention to the different points of view of people involved inside the movement, I analyse the ambivalent relationship between its French branch and the international one, highlighting their reciprocal misunderstandings. Finally, I explore the relationships that Slow Food members – and especially producers – have established with other associations and initiatives, such as the AMAPs (Association pour le maintien de l’agriculture paysanne).