Celebrity chef and Slow Food guru Darina Allen has written to Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney to clarify that the Slow Food movement does not support fish farming projects such as the proposed Galway Bay salmon farm.

The Ballymaloe Cookery School proprietor’s comments came after Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the state agency which is seeking to locate the 500-hectare organic farm in Galway Bay, included references to the Slow Food movement in the farm’s environmental impact statement (EIS).

Slow Food is an international grassroots membership organisation, which seeks to promote good, clean and fair food for all and oppose “the standardisation of taste and culture”.

In the EIS, Clare salmon producer The Burren Smokehouse was one of six fish businesses profiled. The profile stated, correctly, that The Burren Smokehouse was a member of the Slow Food movement.

However, this reference to Slow Food, said Ms Allen, caused much confusion amongst members of the public, many of whom interpreted its inclusion as a vote of support for the Galway Bay salmon farm by Slow Food International…..

Galway Independent 09/07/2013 Read the article ‘ Allen puts brakes on BIM Slow Food claim’

Celebrity chef Darina Allen
Celebrity chef Darina Allen