The Slow Food Ark of Taste on the BBC Food Programme @SlowFoodHQ

Every week a different product on the Slow Food Ark of Taste will be presented during a weekly slot on the BBC Food Programme . The first clip was aired on April 13 and featured  Geitost, a Norwegian cheese, on April 20 the protagonist was the Sea Island Red Pea from the USA.

Since 1979, Radio 4 has broadcast weekly episodes of The Food Programme, a 30-minute show dedicated to reporting food stories and issues from all over the world. The weekly programme is one of the longest running features of BBC Radio 4.

The collaboration between Slow Food and the BBC started during the last edition of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, in 2014. On that occasion, the BBC was present with a booth where a team from The Food Programme met and interviewed producers and farmers representing some products from the Ark of Taste.

Now BBC Radio 4 wants to broadcast those stories from the Ark of Taste for BBC radio audiences around the world. Interviews with food producers from all continents will be aired every week. Each episode will explore the history of the product, its specific qualitative characteristics, the reasons why it is at risk of extinction, and more about its connection to the territory and local traditions. These stories will give insight into the problems inherent in the current food system – such as meat production, the vanishing of bees and land grabbing of Indigenous People’s territories – as well as into the environmental and social challenges that farmers and producers are facing around the world, threatened by industrialization and restrictive political regulations.

 Furthermore, on May 1, on the occasion of the 15th BBC Food & Farming Awards, a special event will be held to celebrate the Ark of Taste project. As part of Bristol’s Food Connections festival (May 1 to 9), four of the UK’s top chefs will prepare a dinner using ingredients sourced from the Ark. Tom Hunt, Thomasina Miers, Giorgio Locatelli and Paula McIntyre have already selected their favorite ingredients from the Ark of Taste and will create special dishes. At the Ark of Taste dinner , the chefs will then explain why they have chosen these particular ingredients, and why they are unique, as each dish is served up with the help of the City of Bristol College. All profits from the evening will go towards the Slow Food 10,000 Gardens in Africa project. 

For further information, please contact the Slow Food International Press Office:

Paola Nano, +39 329 8321285 p.nano@slowfood.it

Slow Food involves over a million of people dedicated to and passionate about good, clean and fair food. This includes chefs, youth, activists, farmers, fishers, experts and academics in over 158 countries; a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide (known as convivia), contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize; and over 2,500 Terra Madre food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.