Slow Food Foundation

The mission of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is to organize and fund projects that defend our world's heritage of agricultural biodiversity and gastronomic traditions. The Foundation's main programs are the Ark of Taste and Presidia.

The Ark of Taste aims to rediscover, catalog, describe and publicize forgotten flavors. The Ark is a metaphorical recipient of excellent gastronomic products that are threatened by industrial standardization, hygiene laws, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage. Slow Food's Ark of Taste has cataloged hundreds of extraordinary products from over 120 countries and is the testament of our world's agricultural and cultural diversity.

Because a catalog wasn't enough to guarantee the survival of these foods and their cultural stewards, Slow Food created Presidia (Latin for garrison), the working arm of the Ark of Taste. Presidia are local projects that support a group of producers of a single food, developing production and marketing techniques to allow their work to be economically viable. The Presidia program is the tool that Slow Food uses to assist producers directly in the commercialization, protection and promotion of their products.

Slow Food's Spanish Ark of Taste includes six endangered heritage foods and four Presidia, two of which are in the Basque Territories.

The Tolosa Black Bean, produced in Tolosa, Oria River Valley is a tiny roundish bean, a beautiful deep black broken with a single white dot. The Tolosa Balck Bean does not require soaking and, once cooked, a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt transform it into a velvety perfumed stew. It has always been cultivated in small fields flanking the Oria river, and the center of production is the Basque city of Tolosa, just south of Bilbao.

The Euskal Txerria Pig is the only pig breed native to the Basque territories that has survived to this day. With short legs, an exaggerated profile, long swinging ears, and black dots on its head and rear end, this pig lives free in the forest eating acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and grass. Its feed is enriched in the last two months before slaughter with corn, fava beans and fiber. Its meat is made into flavorful chorizo (aged seven months, 70% lean and 30% fat, sweet paprika, salt, garlic and nothing else), lomo (aged five months), salsición (eaten fresh), and cured hams.

To learn more about the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, visit www.slowfoodfoundation.com.