- CANDIDATE: Angie Dodd

INTRO

As a founder member, Secretary of Slow Food Cornwall and organiser of several local events, Angie is passionate about authentic food and an energetic supporter of the movement's aims and amibitions. She is delighted to have the opportunity to stand for the position of Leader and hopes to be at the helm of an involving Convivium that offers its growing membership a wide range of thought provoking, exciting and convivial events.


MANIFESTO - Slow Food Cornwall Leadership Manifesto


In Cornwall we enjoy a unique advantage over nearly all of the rest of the UK – we have largely been ignored by the chains of shops and restaurants, with their standardised ranges of products, that now dominate most towns. We still have good local butchers, great fishmongers, greengrocers and a growing number of fantastic farm shops, independent food outlets, and restaurants specialising in authentic, quality food that is almost exclusively locally produced and processed. We live in a county extensively bordered by the sea and with over 80% of its land arable, our connection to our food is visible all around us. We have a lot to protect.

Unsurprisingly this has not gone unnoticed and last year The Observer acknowledged what many who live here already know: Cornwall is the best place in the country to be a `foodie’. A wonderful accolade but also an arbiter of changes which may be welcome and unwelcome in equal measure as we begin to increasingly attract the attention of those ‘fast food’ businesses that have previously left Cornwall in splendid isolation. Fitting then, that 2005 also saw the launch of a Slow Food Convivium in Cornwall, which although only just over a year old, is already the sixth largest of the UK’s thirty eight Slow Food groups.

When my partner and I joined Slow Food two years ago, we didn’t know about local Conviviums, events and memberships, we just knew that we strongly supported its objectives and work in the 100 countries in which Slow Food is active. So when we read that Bob Lindo was setting up a Cornwall Convivium we instinctively knew that we wanted to volunteer and get involved.

Being a founder member and helping Slow Food Cornwall take its first steps during its inaugural year, has already been an exciting journey. It is a privilege to be involved with an organisation that has made a notable contribution to a growing body of work in Cornwall that connects us more closely with producers, with the land and with our collective agricultural heritage

For a nation constantly bombarded with fast, processed food - disconnected from its source, disassociated from its purpose and devoid of authenticity - Slow Food offers us a way back to the simple truth often denied to us by modern intensive farming and highly sophisticated industrial food production and marketing methods.

Slow Food, both as a concept and as an organisation, is new to a lot of us, but like all cultural revelations and revolutions, I believe it has captured the zeitgeist with its simple yet compelling message of protecting the pleasures of the table from the homogenising effect of modern fast food and fast life.

I anticipate that as members of Slow Food you will be interested in enjoying an affordable range of interesting events; visiting producers to learn more about traditional food production; talks, debates, demonstrations, hands-on activities, campaigns and, of course, eating! If elected I am keen to lead an active committee that facilitates an active convivium which reflects your interests, so I look forward to getting to know you and ensuring those interests and Slow Food Cornwall’s aims and objectives are one and the same.

As Convivium Secretary and as the organiser of two of the last year’s three events, I have experienced Slow Food as a wonderfully convivial and culturally stimulating vehicle for very important ideas. If you are also inspired by the opportunity we have to come together to share food, conversation and ideas, whilst further exploring the links Slow Food creates between agriculture, the environment, politics, ecology and food, then please vote for me as leader of Slow Food Cornwall.

Angie Dodd
Secretary
April 2006




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