UK Food Festival Celebrates 100th Ark of Taste Product

 A joint event organised by Slow Food England and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) was held Wednesday, July 20, 2016, at Highgrove Royal Gardens in the presence of the HRH The Prince of Wales.

The event focused on the Ark of Taste – Slow Food’s international project created to save foods at risk of extinction and to safeguard the world’s agro-biodiversity – and on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s initiatives – which monitor rare and native farm breeds and promote the breeding and registration of rare and native breeds.

The 100th UK Ark of Taste product, the British Saddleback Pig, was announced at the event, with certificates being presented to the breed society to mark the occasion.

Dan Saladino, producer of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme and of the Ark of Taste series (all the clips are available here) chaired a conference to discuss the importance of these projects in such a challenging post–Brexit scenario for UK farmers and small-producers. Protecting livestock breeds and plant varieties, food products and gastronomic traditions is a critical priority, particularly as the loss of biodiversity becomes more and more of an emergency.

Shane Holland for Slow Food in the UK, and Tom Beeston for Rare Breeds Survival Trust led the meeting. Among the people who attended the conference were Iltud Dunsford, Director of Slow Food Cymru, and Cyrus Todiwala of the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance, as well as Slow Food producers, farmers and other chefs of the Chefs’ Alliance in the UK.

They discussed native breeds at risk of extinction, encouraging the consumption, and also the use of these breeds by chefs, sustaining in this way England’s diverse biological, cultural and culinary heritage.

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

internationalpress@slowfood.it – Twitter: @SlowFoodPress

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

Ester Clementino, e.clementino@slowfood.it

Giulia Capaldi, g.capaldi@slowfood.it