Presidia

The psychological success of any food culture lies in preserving its artisan foods. These artisan foods are the avant garde of any food culture, and assisting them in any way possible is the worldwide focus of Slow Food.
The Presidia created by Slow Food are designed both to protect and promote specialist food products which are marginalised or under threat, and which deserve protection and promotion because of their culinary excellence.

Pictured Right is Presidia Meeting 2007

To Put it Simply...
The Ark, acts exactly as Noah's one was meant to! It is a place where we can store existing treasures to avoid ther extinction. In this case it is an archive of food traditions, rather than species of animals. The hope is that by storing them here, the traditions will live on!

Following from this the Presidia, are active groups seeking to both promote, and bring back to life various food traditions and types.

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Proposed New Presidia

Boxty
Fresh Blood Pudding
Irish Seaweed
Irish Wild Flower Honey
Kiln Toasted Irish Oatmeal

Proposed New Presidia

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Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium

Irish cow's raw milk cheeses, continually harassed by the hyper-hygienist obsessions of the food bureaucracy, are a perfect example of a food under threat. Their excellence as a foodstuff, their link to their place of origin, and their individual differences, also mark them out as outstanding food products. Thus ICRMC (Irish Cow's Raw Milk Cheeses) are a perfect subject for a Slow Food Presidia.
'Be aware that once the knowledge, skills and committment of this culture have been lost, they can never be regained'. (Sir Julian Rose, Manifesto in defence of Raw-Milk Cheese.)

John McKenna

Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese

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Irish Smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon

The Irish Smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon Presidia was the first Presidia to be convened in Ireland. Its formation represented a collaboration between Slowfood Ireland, Slow International in Bra, Italy, and four founder artisan producers (listed on the sub-page), who were facilitated by the Coomhola Salmon Trust of Bantry, County Cork, specialists in wild salmon education initiatives. The Irish Wild Smoked Atlantic Salmon (ISWAS) Presidia was launched, together with the draft Presidia Protocol, to great acclaim at the biannual Salone del Gusto in October 2002. It was hoped that the formative work which has been undertaken will ease the way for the creation of further Irish Presidia.

Owing to a range of complicated issues surrounding the fishing for Wild Atlantic Salmon, the work of this Presidium has been temporarily put on hold, for details see:
Irish Smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon