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| Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity |
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08/04/2010 |
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The Brittany which is holding on between the land and the sea
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A leading French maritime region, Brittany is also a region where intensive industrial agriculture has been forcefully promoted since the 1970s, with adverse environmental and social consequences that are now all too evident. There are four pigs for every inhabitant; in spite of the large area of pasture land, both beef and dairy cattle are raised in enormous sheds and fed on imported corn and soy (often GM). Water is contaminated by nitrates, biodiversity has been significantly reduced, as have the small family farms which formerly underpinned the region’s socioeconomic fabric.
The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, represented by its President Piero Sardo, Mariagiulia Mariani and Olivier Porte for Slow Food France, has just completed a visit to the southern part of the region to see and support some initiatives opposing these trends.
Near Lorient, some small farmers continue to cultivate and sell to local customers an ancient cabbage variety, Lorient cabbage, with links to the town's history and identity. In collaboration with the Cohérence network (http://www.reseau-coherence.org), Slow Food is considering how to respond to the desire of local farmers to improve seed selection and promote this symbolic local vegetable on the market and in restaurants.
 In two historic locations for oyster farming, Ria d'Etel and the Gulf of Morbihan, a small group of oyster farmers is fighting to defend the natural flat and concave local oysters from an invasion of triploid oysters which have been genetically altered and reproduced in the laboratory. This recent issue will be the subject of special study and communication as part of the Slow Fish campaign (www.slowfood.it/slowfish)
At Guérande (Loire Atlantique), marine salt produced using traditional artisan methods guarantees the conservation of coastal landscapes and waters. It represents a significant source of income for the producers, or paludiers. Some of them are members of the NGO Univers Sel, sharing their knowledge of salt production practices with solar methods in some African countries (Benin, Senegal and Guinea Bissau) and are willing to join the Slow Food Foundation in future projects.
Around Brittany many breeders of traditional local animals are part of the Slow Food network (Rennes Coucou Chicken farmers, Western White Pig, Froment de Léon cattle and Nantaise cattle).  The breeders of Breton Pie Noir, a black and white beef and dairy cattle breed formerly widespread in the whole region but now reduced to 1500 animals, are interested in helping it to recover its importance, both as a breed and for its transformed products, starting with its particularly rich milk. The Breton Pie Noir Presidium is therefore being created to improve communication about the distinctive characteristics of this breed, to promote the involvement of young farmers, and to improve the sensory characterization of products made from its milk (fermented milk called gwell, the creamy and slightly acidic cream, and raw milk cream butter with Guérande salt) and in future also the beef.
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