11th December, 2022
Slow Food was initially founded by Carlo Petrini and a group of activists in Italy during the 1980s with the aim of defending regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life.
In the decades since its beginning, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people, in over 150 countries.
This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with family and friends, without rushing.
Slow Food is against its counterpart, Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle.
Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow World.
Out of the slow food movement has grown something called the ‘Slow Cities Movement,’ which had started in Italy but has now spread across Europe & beyond.
In this town planners begin to rethink how they organize the urban landscape so that people are encouraged to slow down & smell the roses & connect with one another.
Basically, the movement questions the sense of “hurry” and “craziness” generated by globalization, fuelled by the desire of “having in quantity” (life status) versus “having with quality”, (life quality) or the “quality of being”.
The French, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has come to the notice of USA , the pupils of the fast and “do it now” brigade.
This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress.
It means re-establishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the “now”, present and concrete, versus the “global”, undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans’ essential values, the simplicity of living. It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive work place where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do.
It’s time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence.
Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious to live for the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists.
We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in what each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment.
As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.
Don’t rush, Slow down, Live Life to the fullest & stay blessed forever.