2.6 Ethical Gastronomic Tourism

Two trends in gastronomic tourism stand out for their emphasis on the ethics of eating and the preservation of culinary traditions and biodiversity—the Slow Food and native foods movements. The Slow Food movement took root in Italy during a nationwide protest against the impact of fast food on Italian life. Since its inception, the movement has worked to keep local foods, culinary traditions, and local food cultures alive and thriving. It also works to recover heritage foods on the brink of extinction. The first of what has become a biennial festival, Salone del Gusto, was held in Turin, Italy, in 1996 to showcase small-scale food producers. During the first Salone del Gusto, Slow Food also launched the “Ark of Taste, a global catalog of food biodiversity at risk of extinction due to the pressure of the industrial food system and the standardization of diets” (Slow Food, n.d.-b).

In celebration of food producers from around the world, Slow Food likewise launched the international food event Terre Madre in 2004. Held in Turin, Italy, the first of what would become a biennial event brought together 5,000 small food producers from 130 countries. In addition to hosting international food fairs and festivals, Slow Food also launched the University of Gastronomic Sciences in 2004, where it teaches courses aimed at equipping its undergraduate and graduate students with the knowledge needed to create just, sustainable, and equitable food systems. Many of their graduates enter the tourist industry, some working as tour guides or helping manage the 305 Slow Cities (Cittaslow) around the world. Slow Cities adopt the Slow Food philosophy as a community in order to incorporate eco-gastronomy into daily life and to promote what the organization calls [KT]Slow Tourism[KT]. Distinct from, but informed by, Slow Tourism, the umbrella term slow travel has come into widespread use to describe tourism that entails staying longer in a given destination and also involves engagement with the community.

Yet another facet of the Slow Food movement has taken shape as Slow Food Travel, which comprises a set of guidelines to aid food producers, restaurants, hotels, and agritourism operators that wish to adopt the Slow Food philosophy in order “to develop their potential as a quality gastronomic destination” (Slow Food, n.d.-c). For example, Italian Slow Food gastronomic tour guides, artisan producers, chefs, restaurateurs, wineries, hoteliers, fishermen, and agritourism operators have worked together to create 15 designated food trails throughout the country. Functioning as a collective, the participants in each of the 15 food trails can amplify their reach and draw more tourists both through word of mouth and through tour operators. By creating cohesive gastronomic communities and connecting them with one another, Slow Food Travel works to create an ecocentric alternative to mass tourism and fast food.

In a move that intentionally links it with and celebrates Indigenous communities, Slow Food held its fifth international congress in Puebla, Mexico, in 2009. At the congress, Slow Food released its Declaration of Puebla, which describes its mission as “the protection, preservation, assessment and use of traditional knowledge in the fields of agriculture, livestock breeding, fishing, hunting, gathering and food processing, attaching particular attention to activities undertaken in collaboration with indigenous peoples” (Slow Food, n.d.-a, p. 1). Slow Food’s conscious alignment of itself with Indigenous peoples participates in a broader decolonial movement that works to promote Indigenous food sovereignty, which can be loosely defined as the capacity of Indigenous communities to grow, harvest, produce, and market the foods they consume. Around the world colonialism devastated Indigenous communities and intentionally eradicated their traditional food cultures. For example, the U.S. government forbade Blackfeet Indigenous communities from hunting bison, forcing them to slaughter and eat domesticated cattle. Women traditionally performed the work needed to transform the felled bison carcasses into food. The U.S. Government’s Office of Indian Affairs, however, took this role away from women, putting Blackfeet men in charge of the slaughterhouses where the carcasses of domesticated cattle were slaughtered and processed. The U.S. government then charged Blackfeet women with making bread. As food studies scholar Michael Wise explains:

On the Blackfeet reservation, meat provided a crucial means by which the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) worked to subordinate Blackfeet land and labor — two major goals of federal assimilation policy. By regulating access to meat, the OIA … would streamline colonization; it would enable the consolidation of reservation boundaries and the restructuring of Blackfeet patterns of subsistence to conform with the institution of wage labor and capitalism in northern Montana. (2016, pp. 59–60)

Decolonization aims to recover the traditional Indigenous foodways that were intentionally destroyed during the colonial era. In the 21^st-century turn toward decolonial ways of being, the need to reestablish Indigenous food sovereignty and recover lost culinary traditions has come into global focus.

Gastronomic tourism provides one way of funding the Indigenous food sovereignty movement, which has begun to take root and spread throughout Australia and Latin America, where Indigenous food trails and tours have begun to draw tourists from around the world. As the essay “Native Foods and Gastronomic Tourism explains,” food cannot be separated from “the ecological, sociological, cultural, political, and economic contexts in which it is produced, and so consideration of ethical and sustainable relations between producers, consumers, businesses, and governing authorities are now essential” (Higgins-Desboilles et al., 2019, p. 463). As a result, supporting Indigenous food cultures through gastronomic tourism has the capacity to “foster cross-cultural learning and engagement” (Higgins-Desboilles et al., 2019, p. 462). The Australian organization Koomal Dreaming, for example, led by Josh Whitehead hosts foraging and dining events to bring Aboriginal foodways to life for tourists. Whitehead introduces tourists to the Aboriginal six seasons and to the deep interconnections among humans, plants, animals, and landscapes that animate Aboriginal existence. To promote the native foods movement in Australia, Whitehead not only leads tours, but he also networks with internationally renowned chefs, hosting figures like Rene Redzepi and teaching audiences about foraging at international food events. Whitehead is likewise devoted to mentoring a new generation by passing down Aboriginal food wisdom.

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Key takeaways: Tourism that aligns with the Slow Food and Indigenous Food Sovereignty movements encourages visitors to engage with and learn about local communities, heritage foods, and a region’s unique taste of place (terroir). It also enhances the bond between a geographical place and the community it nourishes.
Significance to Gastronomic Tourism: Slow Food and the Indigenous Food Sovereignty movements model ethical, or responsible, ways of traveling. They encourage ways of travel that maintain a respect for the environment, work to decolonize tourism, and showcase the bond between people and the land.
Significance to Tourism: Ecocentric at heart, Slow Food and Indigenous Food Tourism model ways of traveling based on an ethics of care for the natural environment. They also showcase how experiential and educational tourism can enhance one another.
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In the United States, a concerted effort is underway to enervate the Navajo nation by reviving traditional culinary and agricultural practices. The Navajo are seeking to accomplish this task for several key reasons, including keeping their cultural heritage alive, enriching their peoples economically, and creating healthier diets. Because of their traditional connection to the land, many Native American communities are working to create agritourism foodscapes. In California, for example, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has used profits earned from the Cache Creek Casino Resort to purchase thousands of acres of its traditional range in Capay Valley, where it devotes over 22,000 acres to agriculture and conservation. In addition to walnuts, asparagus, garbanzo beans, squash, tomatoes, and wheat, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation raises 800 head of cattle and produces wine. At the same latitude as southern Italy and Greece, the Capay Valley Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation also makes award-winning olive oil. In her profile of Seka Hills, Anna Mindess explains:

Tribal members were lucky that the University of California Davis campus, only 25 miles away, has a world-renowned Olive Center and is involved with the latest research and education in this field. [Tribal members] conferred with the educators and scientists at the Olive Center and took classes in olive growing, sensory evaluation, and milling of olives for oil. To ensure the best purity and taste of their olive oil they invested in a mill, instead of having to truck the fruit to a mill located hours away. Their Italian Alfa Laval mill was built so close to their olive groves that sometimes their olives can be processed within 10 minutes of coming off the tree. (2024, para. 5)

With over 3,000 olive trees planted on 550 acres, the Yocha Dehe Wintun peoples’ mill and produce olive oil under the brand name Seka Hills. In 2012, the mill opened a tasting room where it showcases its olive oils, vinegars, nuts, wildflower honey, and beef jerky. In 2020, the Tribe’s oils were awarded gold medals by the Good Food Foundation and the California Olive Oil Council Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition. The Tribe has earned enough through Seka Hills that it is able to give back to the community. It not only invites local olive growers to use its mill, but it also donates millions of dollars to healthcare and school initiatives. According to “Case Studies in Tribal Agritourism” compiled by the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA), the Yocha Dehe Wintun peoples recommend the following actions for other Native American communities considering developing agritourism:

• • Work with local universities and agricultural outreach agencies to learn the best crops for your topography and soil.
  • Reinvest in your land. Keep an eye toward purchasing land when able.
  • Be a good neighbor.
  • Pursue sustainable agriculture. Not only is that a gift for people to come, but it is also a desirable marketing point to attract regional, domestic and intenational visitors.
  • Develop a brand. Keep it authentic to your Tribe’s heritage. Your brand isn’t just a marketing tool, it’s a way to educate the greater public about your Tribe. It instills pride with Tribal members
  • Invest in a focal point for visitors. Whether it’s a tasting room or just a beautiful area to enjoy your products, consider developing a space that encourages visitors to come to your community and purchase your products. Having your own retail outlet simplifies logistics and increases profit margin as well…. It can also create a focus for other Tribal or independent businesses such as food and art vendors. (Excerpted from AIANTA, 2021, p. 27)

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