Slow food UK has only been part of the international Slow Food movement since 2006 and in that time it has certainly experienced a far from smooth ride.
The movement was struggling while based at its previous headquarters in Ludlow, but a couple of years ago it is rumoured that the parent organisation based in Italy quietly stepped in and ordered some much needed changes including a move to London and a new leader in the UK.
It now seems that the UK based movement is finally started to prosper and a large part of this is due to those changes that were made, including the appointment of Catherine Gazzoli as leader, the move of their head office to Neals yard in the trendy Covent Garden area of London and also the reconnection of the organisation with the many local groups throughout the country that make up the membership.
Slow Food UK has for too long been seen as an elitist grouping, biased towards all aspects of Mediterranean food and culture and neglecting the home grown food culture that we had been loosing in this country since the 1950s.
However this previous neglect has largely been changed due to a lot of hard work by the many small Slow Food groups located in cities, towns and villages throughout the country. Groups now actively promote small local producers, advertise local village and farmers markets and get involved with trying to promote good, clean, healthy food with children's organisations and schools
Slow Food might still get a bad press and it does come in for its fair share of criticism but it I think it will eventually surprise its critics when they see the changes that have taken place throughout the whole organisation.