Of Cows and Men: Ideology and Rhetoric in the Slowfood Magazine

The Slow Food association has developed from a regional Italian social club into a worldwide association and movement. But what does food mean within the Slow Food universe? The aim of this article is to investigate the ideological perspective of the Slow Food association through an analysis of the rhetoric and discourse within their official publication Slowfood between 2007 and 2009. The analysis showed that despite their seeming emphasis on food, the Slow Food association is really concerned with people. The ideology of the association is the primacy of human labour and human relations, of society and community over the disembodied forces of industry and nature. Food, rather being in the focus, is the frame through which these concepts are structured.