Americans are familiar with fast-food but how about slow-food? The Slow Food Movement was founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini in Italy and in his book, Slow Food Nation, he describes his plan for taking back control of our food. Based on the aim of promoting local foods and traditional gastronomy and food production, Petrini develops his ideas for changing the way we produce, buy, and consume food in an ecologically and economically responsible way.
After describing the problems facing the world’s food supply, Petrini calls for a redefinition of the gastronomy that draws from a wide variety of disciplines from botany and other natural sciences to anthropology and cooking. He asserts that a gastronome must be able to make correct choices about food and goes on to define quality as applied to food, which includes taste and clean food as well as a fair price. Petrini develops his concept of co-producers who will share ideas and knowledge and presents and form a network that will work for the common good.
The book is an excellent source for learning about the Slow Food Movement from the originator himself. The book is dynamically written and full of diary entries that describe the real life situations that led the author to develop his ideas. If new trends in healthy food and using locally grown and environmentally sustainable produce, Slow Food Nation is a must read.
To buy Slow Food Nation from Amazon.com Click Here.
Karen Meyers