The subtle power of the Slow Food movement, illustrated by an elegant, cheerful cup of Cuban slow coffee

Introduction

In this "Sustainability Story from the Field", I share an account of my experience at the 2022 biannual Slow Food event, Terra Madre, in Turin, Italy, along with my discovery of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition and the voluntary, participatory certification process that is seeking to shorten, transform and humanise coffee value chains. I also explore the subtle power of the grass-roots Slow Food Movement that is quietly realizing its vision of good, clean, fair food for all in its own unique, compelling way.?

Here are some of the trends, take-aways and questions this article explores:

-???????The economic injustice resulting from long coffee supply chains with multiple intermediaries is a material issue for the industry. The first results and learnings of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition in Cuba suggest that shorter, participatory and “humanised” supply chains bear fruit in the form of trust, high quality products, happy consumers, and ethical & sustainable outcomes.

-???????The Slow Food Movement’s theory of change - raising consumer awareness and inviting citizens and other stakeholders to be active, grass-roots participants in experiencing and co-creating more sustainable food systems - is a powerful example of how to translate a compelling vision & values into action at scale.?

-???????Could a similar recipe of magic ingredients transform consumption patterns and supply chains in other sectors? What might that look like?

Experiencing the Slow Food Coffee Coalition first-hand

There was a buzz in the air as I waited in the wings for the start of the session on the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, a highlight of the 2022 Slow Food festival,?Terra Madre, in Turin’s Parco della Dora. The previous session on the sustainable fishing and consumption of mackerel in Norwegian seas (The Mackerel Paradox) was just wrapping up, and as the speaker explained the challenge of convincing distributors and retailers to take small quantities of sustainably sourced fish that didn’t match their profit-driven, bulk-only business model, a fine specimen of mackerel with shiny gold-blue skin was dangled enthusiastically by the tail in front of the participants seated just in front of me.?

For the next 20 minutes, a diverse array of participants, organisers, members of the press and stakeholders from the Cuban coffee value chain swarmed exuberantly across the makeshift stage. Just as I was wondering whether the potent mix of Italian and Cuban culture was compatible with the organizational challenge of a timely start, the stage miraculously cleared, and the speakers and moderator took up their places.?

Edward Mukiibi from Uganda, President of Slow Food International, kicked off the session with an overview of the key characteristics of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, which is already active in many countries, including Malawi, the Philippines, Uganda and Cuba, where the pilot project being presented had begun 17 months earlier. The objective of the Coalition is to bring actors across the coffee value chain together to co-create an approach based on transparency and trust. The intention is also to put a spotlight on the coffee producers who do the work but traditionally have had no way to communicate with their consumers and haven’t reaped fair economic rewards or recognition for their important contribution. As a farmer himself, Mr. Mukiibi, could speak from personal experience.?

A voluntary certification scheme, collaboratively designed and implemented

It was then the turn of Giuseppe Lavazza, the Vice President of Lavazza Group, to share more details about the Coalition and its origins. The fruit of a long-standing collaboration between Slow Food International and the Lavazza Foundation - which was created in 2004 at the time of the first Terra Madre event - the Slow Food Coffee Coalition set out to break down barriers in the value chain and “achieve the impossible” through unprecedented collaboration between stakeholders. The Cuba project, for example, was co-designed and is now being implemented collectively by the Lavazza Foundation, Cuba’s Ministry of Agriculture, scientists, and key players in agricultural processing, distribution and retail, all the way through to the baristas serving coffee to consumers.?

Another differentiating feature of this project, we heard, is that the certification scheme is both voluntary and participatory, with the goal of giving farmers full ownership of the process and helping them build their capacity. The different stakeholders choosing to participate in the certification process first receive training and then divide the assessment roles between them to ensure the coffee produced is good, clean and fair, in line with the purpose and values of the Slow Food movement. Ultimately, the certification enables a transparent 360-degree view of the quality of the organic coffee, along with the social, environmental and economic aspects of its production and processing. Another key driver of transparency is the use of blockchain to trace the flow of coffee along the different stages of the production process.

A shorter supply chain and a fair deal for the coffee farmers

Giuseppe Lavazza went on to explain that unlike projects in the past which sought primarily to improve yield and increase revenue,?the Cuban Slow Coffee project set out to address one of the material issues the industry faces, namely the economic injustice for farmers whose share of the profit is diluted by over-extended supply chains with multiple intermediaries. It achieves this by sourcing the coffee directly from the farmers, who are co-designers of the whole certification process and beneficiaries of a fair share of the profit.?

Maury Echevarria Bermudez,?Cuba’s Deputy?Minister of Agriculture, spoke next and announced how proud and moved he was to be presenting the culmination of this project, which had been years in the making and was the result of a strong alliance blending culture, science and organic agriculture in a way that supports local development. This moment was particularly special, he added, because several of the Cuban coffee farmers were present in person to receive recognition for their valuable work.?

At this point the row of Cuban farmers in matching green overalls sitting to my right stood up in unison, beaming and nodding, and the conference area erupted into thunderous applause that lasted well beyond the brief conventional response of polite acknowledgement. A wave of emotion swept through the audience in a poignant moment that felt like a genuine flash of deep collective awareness. As consumers and lovers of coffee, we had the rare opportunity to experience first-hand the human impact of a far more sustainable and human alternative to the average soulless commercial supply chain.?

More applause soon followed as various other groups of participants in the Cuban production and certification process stood up and received recognition for their contribution. Representatives of the entire Cuban coffee value chain were in the room, it seemed, jumping vibrantly off the page of what, under most normal circumstances, would have been just another run-of-the-mill press release.?

The apotheosis: Reserva de Tierra Cuba

After some additional remarks by Michele Curto, President of the Agency for Cultural Economic Exchange with Cuba, and Madelaine Vasquez, Leader of Slow Food Cuba, it fell to Giuseppe Lavazza to wrap up the session. In a skillful Italian swirl and crescendo of superlatives to describe the fermentation stages with natural yeast and the high-quality selection of hand-picked coffee cherries, Dottore Lavazza guided us to the final apotheosis: an “elegant, cheerful and captivating” cup of?Reserva de Tierra Cuba, which we were now invited to enjoy in person at the Lavazza coffee stand. I was relieved to see that a shorter supply chain had not diminished the passion, charisma and powers of persuasion of value chain actors further downstream.?

Delving deeper into the Slow Food Movement and its impact

Later in the afternoon after a slow saunter past rows of food stands piled high with Sicilian cannoli, pastries, parmesan, barbecued meat, pesto-laced focaccia and gorgonzola-and-sausage-topped farinata – and not forgetting endless arrays of exotic-sounding beers and a demonstration of hand-made mozzarella by a man with an impressively bushy moustache – I had the pleasure of meeting some of the team members of Slow Food International and Slow Food Italy.?

I heard about the work ongoing in the Ark of Taste program to protect endangered species of grains, seeds, fruits, vegetables, animal breeds, cheeses and many other foods that sustain local cultural heritage, agricultural biodiversity and small scale, family-owned food product systems. The Ark of Taste is complemented by the ‘Presidia’ program, I was told, which bestows an official label or denomination on special foods and animals that are unique to their places of origin. Chefs, restaurants and shops participating in the global Slow Food movement commit to use and showcase the related products and their stories in order to support their distribution and consumption.?

I was beginning to see how the Slow Food Coffee Coalition and the Slow Food Wine Coalition that had followed hot on its heels (to name just two - there are also campaigns focusing on Slow Meat, Slow Fish, Slow Bees, Slow Cheese…) were manifestations of a deeply rooted common set of values and an inspiring vision for a more ethical and sustainable food value chain that culminates in the very human pleasure of consuming good, clean, fair food. I was bowled over by the passion and dedication of the team members I met from this unique NGO, representing an impressive global network of members and supporters worldwide. I found it to be a remarkable example of what can be achieved when a group of people who care come together in a grass-roots movement and set their intention to enhance the way we live, work and eat for the benefit of everyone involved, and the planet.?

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We are a common people connected together to create a joyful revolution. Building good, clean and fair food systems takes all of us. It takes you - whoever you are, however much time you have. Be part of the change."

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Reflections on the magic recipe for success

I finished my day at Terra Madre accompanied by Gaia, my appropriately named host from the Slow Food team, who showed me around the Biodiversity and Regenerative Agriculture spaces where visitors can learn more about these important themes. There were also several educational areas where whole classes of school children were invited to explore interactive games designed to teach them how sustainable farming works in practice.??

Everything I had learned during the day brought me back to the key question I ponder constantly when it comes to the Sustainability Transition so many of us are seeking to bring about: What will it take? What are the magical ingredients for success? I couldn’t help feeling that the folks at Slow Food were really on to something. By seeking to connect consumers like you and me with the visceral and emotion?feeling?of satisfaction and pleasure that comes from the awareness of what good, clean, fair food means, they are helping us to project forward into the experience of a sustainable future, thus both imagining it and co-creating it at the same time.?

Perhaps there is something fundamental we can learn here that will help us collectively figure out how to transform the cold, impersonal, mass-scale, profit-oriented supply chains and consumption experiences we have created over the last 100 years or so into something more warm, personal, direct, sustainable, and meaningful. Could some of the same active ingredients in the Slow Food recipe be applied to other sectors to transform our experience of the clothes we wear, the electronic goods we use, etc.? As I write this, I’m aware of the fact that countless companies and organizations are working towards this kind of vision. And I’m wondering what kind of shift in thinking and behaviour will enable us to do it at scale across all sectors.