The Slow Food movement embeds food guidance that encourages interaction with local food production and appreciation of local cuisine. It advocates critical thinking and actions that support the preservation of traditional food practices, as well as environmental considerations around food harvesting and processing. We begin by contextually situating Slow Food as a movement and a change agent. We then introduce a critical guidance tool called the Slow Food Relationship Barometer, developed by Fader and Mesmain from their experience in southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. This tool is meant for use by advocacy groups and policy makers rather than individuals. It is based on the view that identifying and assessing the multiple relationships intrinsic to a local food product—from origins to the table—can reveal pathways toward its improved sustainability. We illustrate how the Relationship Barometer can be applied to the case of wild and farmed salmon, which also underlies the Slow Fish movement.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Fader, B., Mesmain, M., Desjardins, E., (2025), "Critical food guidance from the slow food movement: The relationship barometer", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.509)

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1. food guidance
2. food movement
3. food relationships
4. Local Food Systems
5. Slow Fish
6. Slow Food
7. wild salmon

Original publication: Fader, Brooke; Mesmain, Michèle; Desjardins, Ellen. "Critical food guidance from the slow food movement: The relationship barometer." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 9, no. 1, 2022. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.509. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.