Slow Food CHICAGO
Taste, Tradition and the Honest Pleasures of Food
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Slow Food Chicago celebrates the grand biodiversity of Illinois’s agricultural roots by working to build a stronger connection between small, local farms, the wonderful food they produce, and the consumers who benefit from enjoying delicious, healthy food.   We seek an agricultural system providing such food, cultivated with conscientious stewardship of the environment, and which fortifies social ties, invigorates culture, and strengthens local economies.

Our Convivium (from the Latin convivere- “to live together”) is part of the larger international Slow Food movement founded in 1986 to counter the frenetic pace of "fast life", the destruction of global biodiversity, the insults of a tasteless, homogenized food supply, and the loss of important culinary culture and tradition.

In short, we work for a food system which imparts health to the entire ecosystem and the humans who inhabit it, and  that works with nature and society instead of against them.  By doing so, we enjoy the benefits of responsible pleasure--  at the dinner table, in the city or countryside, with friends and family. 

What is GOOD, CLEAN, and FAIR FOOD?

GOOD – “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf
  “Laughter is brightest in the place where food is.” – Irish Proverb
  “I’ll have what she’s having.” – from When Harry Met Sally.
   
We cultivate happy, healthy beings through not just good, but great food.  If it is served outside under a blue sky, with loved ones gathered around, even better.   Eating food should be a joyous experience that satisfies and nourishes both soul and cells.
   
CLEAN – “The good of people’s bodies and the good of the planet are more or less perfectly aligned.” - Gidon Eshel, Geophysicist, The Bard Center for Environmental Policy
  “Why eat foods grown with poison?” - central Illinois organic farmer, Henry Brockman.
   
Our food supply should come from soil, air, and water that is clean and uncontaminated, and from animals that lead well-tended, contented lives.  What is good for the planet, its flora and fauna, is also good for our individual human biology.
   
FAIR – “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens.  They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands. - Thomas Jefferson
  “The health and wealth of a nation are inextricably tied to the health and wealth of its farmers.”
  “I want my farmer to be paid well, for the same reason I want my airline pilot to be.”
   
There is human dignity in fair and just commerce.   Healthy, nutritious food is ultimately our nation’s most valuable asset, and the farmers and laborers who produce it deserve an economic respect commensurate with their value to a healthy society.