Catherine Gazzoli, who never wastes a single minute in any day, has recruited no fewer than three new assistants to help her in promoting Slow Food’s educational programme. They explained their mission in the very elegant surroundings of Prue Leith’s Cotswold home at Slow Food’s AGM today. Three missionaries are needed because one deals with tiny tots, one with school children and one with undergraduates. We were told that there is now firm scientific evidence that the food which a mother consumes during pregnancy can have lasting effects on a child’s well being and that this justifies a Slow Food campaign to educate expectant mothers on what they should or should not eat. The audience consisted mainly of “baby-boomers”, whose own mothers were blissfully unaware of ant of these strictures and who smoked and drank contentedly throughout their pregnancies. Ironically this is the same generation who are now accused of living too long and whose pensions are, apparently driving the country into bankruptcy as a result of their longevity. The same generation who have endured a succession of pious entreaties from the government as to what we should or should not eat, mostly to do with dairy products and animal fats, all of which has proved to be tosh. I’m sure that more than one member of the audience wondered whether the new “scientific” advice being handed out by Slow Food will suffer the dsame fate. “Good, clean and fair” is all I need to know.
The video show the Slow Food delegates enjoying a picnic lunch on the terrace in Prue Leith’s lovely garden.

Of all the well known names we came across at the Chelsea Flower Show, I was particularly pleased to meet Bunny Guinness. We are on the same wavelength as far as gardening is concerned, not least on the subject of Slow Food. In today’s Telegraph Bunny Guinness manages to devote three whole pages in praise of Slow Food. She quotes a speech made by Prince Charles at a Slow Food event at Highgove in which the Prince says:
“The point about the Slow Food movement is reminding people about the enjoyment of proper food and how it is all linked to the management of the landscape and the countryside with all the intimate connections between food production and culture. So, I wanted to say that it’s not just Slow Food but Slow Agriculture, Slow Healthcare and a few other things beside. All these things are linked.”

Which is about as good a definition of Slow Life as we are going to find.

I wonder if, when Marco Pierre White became the spokesman for Bernard Matthews Turkeys anyone said: “That’s a principled decision. I respect him for that” ? That thought came to mind today when it was announced that Slow Food is to be sponsored by Booth’s supermarkets. Now, as far as supermarkets go, I know that Booths are marginally less evil than the rest. And as it’s five years since I ventured inside a supermarket I thought I’d better check and see, in case I was hopelessly out of date and they have become, as the press release implies, a paragon of virtue. So I popped into Booths in Ulverston. They have a fresh meat counter from which they sell beef which is labelled “From the region”, which is as vague as it gets, and as no breed is specified, you can be certain that it is the usual suspects- i.e. Limousin and Charollais- in other words beef bred for size with no regard for quality. There are other token gestures to local and seasonal food, but the overwhelming mass of the goods on offer is the usual junk, with whole aisles devoted to pre-packed ready meals and BOGOF frozen pizzas. I picked up a pack of lasagne which had a meat content of 23% with no indication as to where the meat came from.
The principles of slow food are “Good, clean and fair”, where “good” means “not junk”, “clean” means “free of chemicals and preservatives and excessive doses of salt and sugar” and “fair” means that the producer gets a fair price for his produce. All supermarkets talk a lot about ‘local ‘ and ‘organic’, but they make their money by piling up the junk food, which is full of chemicals, preservatives, sugar and salt. Booths survive in this very competitive world with more of the same. I’ve no objection to their trying to become the Waitrose of the Northwest but I wish they wouldn’t do it at the expense of the principles of Slow Food.