A World of Presidia, Slow Food’s colorful account of its international presidia project will go on sale in the USA on March 15.
The international Slow Food movement promotes and protects unique and traditional foods round the world — from the Araucana or ‘blue egg chicken’ in Chile to wild smoked salmon in Ireland to argan oil in Morocco — and the farmers, fishermen and artisans who grow and sell them.
A World of Presidia celebrates the diversity and quality of such foods and the cultures that surround them. The book features presentations and beautiful color photographs of 65 products in 30 different countries, complete with details of geographical origin and traditional ways of farming and living.
Publishers Weekly, the international news source for book publishing and bookselling, has alread reviewed the book (available online from Walmart, Amazon, Powells and Chelsea Green) as follows:
‘In southern Chile, only three fishermen still harvest the wild black-bordered oyster in the traditional way. The Slow Food Foundation is helping them preserve their technique and the oysters; to do so, it coordinates a small presidium, a local project focusing on a group of producers of a single product that develops production and marketing techniques to allow them to be economically viable. This book introduces presidia from Canada to Madagascar to Nepal. Because the foods are all so closely related to local culture, the story of a particular product is often as much about the community that uses it as about the food itself (e.g., the pages devoted to India’s mustard seed oil presidium tell of the seed’s role in Hinduism). Most of the products have been neglected or adulterated as labor-intensive processes required to produce these foods are replaced by modern efficiency and advances in technology—but each presidium aims to show that the extra effort is worth it. Occasional longer sections discussing varied subjects (eg, the importance of rice; the history of hot peppers) are scattered throughout. Anyone interested in biodiversity and sustainable agriculture, or who loves exotic and heritage foods, will find this a wonderful primer on some of the world’s finest culinary products and the societies they have anchored.’
A World Of Presidia
Anya Fernald, Serena Milano and Piero Sardo
Slow Food Editore (Chelsea Green, dist.)
$15 paper (180p)
ISBN 88-8499-085-8