Bra: Slow food - slow city

The slow city movement stems from the slow food movement and is a revolt against standardisation and mass production.

Cittaslow is a growing network of minor cities around the world, working towards sustaining the qualities of life in cities. The slow city movement stems from the slow food movement and is a revolt against standardisation and mass production. The aim is to protect the environment, promoting local goods and production as well as sustaining the uniqueness of each individual city.

Brá, Italy, has about 30,000 inhabitants and is located about 50 kilometres south of Turin, in a gastronomic region known for, among other things, its wines, truffles and cheese. Brá is one of the founding cities in the Cittaslow movement. The inspiration to create slow cities came from the Slow Food movement with international head office and own restaurant in Brá. Earlier the city contained major footwear industry, but today the slow movement is the highest-profile business.

Cittaslow is Italian for "slow city" and is an international network of towns founded in Italy in October 1999 initiated by Carlo Petrini. The Cittaslow movement aims to rediscover aspects of urban life by creating space for "the good, slow life”, with room for thought, a sustainable environment, and quality food, music and building culture.The concept is about protecting the environment, about promoting local goods and production, and about preserving the uniqueness of the individual city.

Food Market in Bra, 2 Nov 2007, By Rachel Black, Flickr, Creative Commons

In 2004, the University of Gastronomic Science opened outside the city of Bra. The university's objective is to pass on the Slow Food movement ideas – that everyone has a fundamental right to good food. Meaning local food produced under local traditions by small local producers. The focus is on the season's locally produced raw materials, to preserve the diversity of raw materials and simply good food must be produced with minimal environmental impact. Hence, the Slow Food movement is a response to the fast food concept, to the mass production and standardisation of food with no local characteristic. The blooming of the Cittaslow movement has meant that organic farming is on the way forward in Italy. The objective of Cittaslow towns is to combat stress, noise, traffic and to promote bio architecture, production of local products without chemical additives, protect local traditions and small shops with the old craft traditions.

”Regeneration and re-use are priorities, rather than modernisation and redevelopment for the sake of change” Cittaslow Charter 1999
“A network of towns where quality of life is important” Cittaslow Charter 1999

Bra: Slow food - slow city

Cittaslow er et voksende netværk af mindre byer over hele verden, der arbejder hen imod at opretholde bylivets kvaliteter. Cittaslow bevægelsen er inspireret af Slow Food bevægelsen og er et oprør imod standardisering og masseproduktion. Målet er at beskytte miljøet, fremme lokale varer og produktion og opretholde det unikke i hver enkel by.

Cittaslow, er italiensk for "langsom by" og er et internationalt netværk af byer som blev grundlagt i Italien i oktober 1999 på initiativ af Carlo Petrini. Cittaslow bevægelse har til formål at genopdage aspekter af byliv ved at skabe rum for det gode langsomme liv, hvor der er plads til tanker, et bæredygtigt miljø og kvalitets mad, musik og bygnings kultur. Konceptet drejer sig om at beskytte miljøet, om at fremme lokale varer og produktion og om at undgå den ensartethed, som rammer alt for mange byer i den moderne verden.

Brá, Italien, har omkring 30.000 indbyggere og er beliggende cirka 50 kilometer syd for Torino i en gastronomisk region kendt for blandt andet deres vine, trøfler og ost. Brá er en af de medstiftende byer bag Cittaslow bevægelsen som udsprang fra Slow Food bevægelsen, som har internationalt hovedkontor samt egen restaurant i Brá. Tidligere havde Brá en omfattende skoindustri, men i dag er den højst profilerede erhvervssektor ’Slow bevægelsen’.

Food Market, 2 Nov 2007, By Rachel Black, Flickr, Creative Commons

Fem kilometer fra Bra centrum, åbnede i 2004 University of Gastronomic Science. Universitetet har som mål at videregive Slow Foods ideer om, at alle har en fundamental ret til god mad, forstået som lokal mad produceret på baggrund af lokale traditioner og af små lokale producenter. Der er fokus på årstidens lokalt producerede råvarer, på at bevare diversiteten i råvarer og i de hele taget på, at god mad er mad, der er produceret med minimal miljøbelastning.

Slow Food-bevægelsen er et modsvar på fast food-konceptet, en modstand imod masseproduktion og standardisering. Der skal være tid til refleksion og til at gå på opdagelse. Cittaslow bevægelsens blomstring har betydet at det økologiske landbrug er på vej frem i Italien. Målsætningen for Cittaslow byerne er at bekæmpe stress, støj, trafik samt at fremme bioarkitektur, produktionen af lokale produkter uden kemiske tilsætningsstoffer, beskytte de lokale traditioner og små butikker med gamle håndværksmæssige traditioner.

”Regeneration and re-use are priorities, rather than modernisation and redevelopment for the sake of change” Cittaslow Charter 1999

“A network of towns where quality of life is important” Cittaslow Charter 1999

Slow food, By Thera, Flickr, Creative Commons

Local food is sustainable in many ways and gives food products a uniqueness which is highly appreciated.

Living slow can create economic opportunities.

Join the Cittaslow movement or the slow food movement and support the transformation of the quality of food and the city.

Country: Italy

Continent: Europe

Population: aprox. 30.000

Aerea: 59 km2 (23 sq. mi.)

Density: 468,5 (pr. square km.)

Homepage for slow cities [1]

Cittaslow homepage [2]

Slow food homepage [3]

Slow Planet homepage – Building the global hub for the slow revolution [4]

Svendborg, Denmark is a cittaslow [5]

People and power

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