Take a breath.... Read slowly.
How often in the course and crush of our daily lives do we afford
ourselves moments to truly relish-to truly be present in-the act of
preparing and eating food? For most of us, our enjoyment of food has
fallen victim to the frenetic pace of our lives and to our increasing
estrangement, in a complex commercial economy, from the natural
processes by which food is grown and produced. Packaged, artificial, and
unhealthful, fast food is only the most dramatic example of the
degradation of food in our lives, and of the deeper threats to our
cultural, political, and environmental well-being.
In 1986, Carlo Petrini decided to resist the steady march of fast food
and all that it represents when he organized a protest against the
building of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Armed with
bowls of penne, Petrini and his supporters spawned a phenomenon. Three
years later Petrini founded the International Slow Food Movement,
renouncing not only fast food but also the overall pace of the "fast
life." Issuing a manifesto, the Movement called for the safeguarding of
local economies, the preservation of indigenous gastronomic traditions,
and the creation of a new kind of ecologically aware consumerism
committed to sustainability. On a practical level, it advocates a return
to traditional recipes, locally grown foods and wines, and eating as a
social event. Today, with a magazine, Web site, and over 75,000
followers organized into local "convivia," or chapters, Slow Food is
poised to revolutionize the way Americans shop for groceries, prepare
and consume their meals, and think about food.
Slow Food not only recalls the origins, first steps, and international
expansion of the movement from the perspective of its founder, it is
also a powerful expression of the organization's goal of engendering
social reform through the transformation of our attitudes about food and
eating. As Newsweek described it, the Slow Food movement has now
become the basis for an alternative to the American rat race, the
inspiration for "a kinder and gentler capitalism."
Linger a while then, with the story of what Alice Waters in her Foreword
calls "this Delicious Revolution," and rediscover the pleasures of the
good life.
