Story by Jessica Jorgensen
Photos Courtesy of Slow Food Eugene 
Of the 202 contacts in my phone, I can recall the faces of only half of them.
It is a sad paradox that the more contact people have with resources, people and information, the more disjointed they feel. There is a 21^st century craze to know everything that is happening everywhere at all times. As a result, people are no longer paying attention to the here and now.  Food, health and relationships are losing value. However, individuals all over the world are now stepping forward with pledges to reshape this trend. They are part of the Slow Movement, which is about living intentionally in a world oriented to speed and productivity.
“Slowing down judiciously, at the right moments, can help anyone, including college students, to work, play and live better,” said Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness.
It’s hard to pinpoint the specific origin of Slow. When our country first gave way to industrial factories, big business and specialization in the 1800s, there were a few skeptical conservatives who were not ready for the changes it would bring. Some say the Slow Movement began then, with the people who had opposed the need for speed since its inception. However, the movement gained real ground twenty years ago with Slow Food. Carlo Petrini founded the organization in Italy after McDonalds staked its claim on the Spanish Steps of Rome. He wanted to protect Italian culture from the corporate food industry. He didn’t want people to forget the farmers, traditions and love that contribute to every meal.
“Slow Food isn’t a diet. It’s a lifestyle,” said Tom Barkin, leader of Slow Food Eugene and they are trying to show that this lifestyle is accessible to everyone. Even with a small budget, people can cook healthy homemade meals. They can use only local, in-season vegetables and make an effort to know about the farm that produced them.
“Everyone eats, so the kinds of food and how they get to you should matter,” said Whitney Taylor, founder and communications director of Slow Food UO (SFUO), which had its first meeting Wednesday October 26th. Forty-five universities now have a Slow Food chapter and the University of Oregon is on its way to becoming the 46th.
“Anyone who is interested in living and eating sustainably should come to a meeting and see what we’re all about,” said Taylor. Everything they do ties back to Petrini’s precept that food is a gift to be valued.
Slow Food demonstrates one way to live responsible and intentional lifestyles, but the Slow Movement has grown to encompass even more groups with a similar mission. Paolo Saturnini, a Tuscan Mayor, liked Petrini’s tenets of Slow Food so much that he conceptualized a plan to apply it, more broadly, to cities. In 1999, Petrini and the Mayors of  Bra, Greve in Chianti, Positano and Orvieto signed the charter and Cittaslow (pronounced “cheetah slow”) was born.
Since then Cittaslow has been adopted by 130 towns in 20 different countries. Sonoma, California is the first member in the United States. Virginia Hubbell, City Director, discovered Cittaslow while visiting Italy in 2005. She realized that she could apply this concept to the Sonoma Valley. Upon return to the United States, she began enlisting support from leaders of the Environmental Movement and Alternative Energy Movement to get the ball rolling.
The impetus came from the private sector but eventually bridged to their municipality. They had to work alongside the Mayor to meet Cittaslow’s 55 criteria with a 50% or higher pass rate. Some of the criteria include having a population of 50,000 or less and creating plans for the development of organic farming.
“The bottom line is that we are trying to keep a distinctive quality to our city. So you can look around and know you’re not in any-town USA,” said Associate Director Alana Coburn. Coburn lived in the Silicon Valley for ten years.
“I lived in the speed capitol of the world where people are a blur. Everyone I talked to was burnt out.  They were making a lot of money and doing a lot of things, but they weren’t happy,” Coburn said. That was her wakeup call. Now Coburn is working with Hubbell to develop the framework for Cittaslow USA.
“We are about 80% of the way there,” Coburn said. They created an American English translation of the Cittaslow criteria. Once it is approved, Cittaslow USA will have the solid foundation it needs to acquire new members and partners. Coburn has already received inquiries from cities across the nation wanting to know how they can get on-board.
“It’s exciting to be part of this movement so early in the game,” said Coburn. This year they developing an internal currency called Sonoma Jacks. This system will encourage people to spend their money and resources locally. With internal currency, the average dollar is exchanged four times before it leaves the community.
This enters the realm of Slow Money, which is a national movement to connect investors to their investments. On October 12- 14, Slow Money had its 3^rd National Gathering in San Francisco.  More than 100 speakers presented ideas that varied from how to invest in small food enterprises to how to monetize ecosystem services. One workshop explored local currency as an alternative to globalization.
“In a world hardwired for speed, the tortoise still has a lot of persuading to do,” said Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness. People misinterpret the movement as lazy or hedonistic, but slow visionaries are not advocating a backward society. They fly planes, write e-mails, own cell phones and care about the planet as much as the next person.
“People are looking at life and saying I’m not going to turn myself into a machine. I will work hard and play hard, but I will take time to do both,” said Coburn. There are some things that need to be done quickly in order to make time to do other things slowly. Coburn argues that technology can help strike this balance. People associate technology with speed. However, with a different user approach, people can actually use the efficiency of technology to gain more free time.
Recently the Dean of undergraduate studies at Harvard wrote a letter to the incoming freshman, entitled “Slow Down!” In his letter, he explained to students that excellence is not a result of doing too many things all at one time. Pick something and be good at it. Schedule down time.
“And that’s Harvard, not an aromatherapy cooperative, telling college students to put on the brakes,” said Honoré.
However, it takes a brave person to stand out against the crowd. On top of that, those who do are often sucked back into the frenzy.
“We feel constrained by a mixture of greed, inertia and fear to keep up the pace.,”  Honoré said. It’s hard to get away. It seems like once you’re in, you’re in for good.
“But the world can change if we want it to,” said Honoré. Slow Food, Slow Money, and Slow Cities are just some of the bigger examples of people involved in the movement. There are student unions, farmer’s markets, urban designers, thrift stores, restaurants and thousands of other groups who are also changing the way they think.
“I think the Millennials are going to get it,” said Coburn, “more so than GenX or the Baby Boomers.”
The question now is when will these visionaries no longer be visionaries, but part of a collective subconscious? When will the Slow Movement give way to a Slow Revolution? That’s the thing about Slow. It’s going to take a little time.