Food & Freedom
How the Slow Food Movement Is Changing the World Through Gastronomy
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Inspiring the global fight to revolutionize the way food is grown, distributed, and eaten. In the almost thirty years since Carlo Petrini began the Slow Food organization, he has been constantly engaged in the fight for food justice. Beginning first in his native Italy and then expanding all over the world, the movement has created a powerful force for change.
The essential argument of this book is that food is an avenue towards freedom. This uplifting and humanistic message is straightforward: if people can feed themselves, they can be free. In other words, if people can regain control over access to their food—how it is produced, by whom, and how it is distributed—then that can lead to a greater empowerment in all channels of life. Whether in the Amazon jungle talking with tribal elders or on rice paddies in rural Indonesia, the author engages the reader through the excitement of his journeys and the passion of his mission.
Here, Petrini reports upon some of the success stories that he has observed firsthand. From Chiapas to Puglia, Morocco to North Carolina, he has witnessed the many ways different peoples have dealt with food problems. This book allows us to learn from these case studies and lays out models for the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Petrini, author of the previous nonfiction book Slow Food Nation, which introduced readers to the "slow food" movement, returns with his follow up, covering "the gastronomy of liberation'" how the movement has evolved and its potential to change the way we produce and eat our food. Petrini's philosophical tome takes on ideas about biodiversity in a globalized world, offering a mini-manifesto, "The Ark of Taste to Save the Universe of Flavors." He somewhat dryly offers a scientific stance on furthering the Slow Food movement as well as a practical one (promoting scientific training of experts, reintroducing "endangered" products, encouraging use of these products in signature dishes.) Though Petrini makes efforts to break the stereotype of the gastronome as elitist, the writing and tone on occasion fall into the trap of perpetuating it: "In 1998, I made a very interesting trip to New York City, where I was taken on a tour of its gastronomic wonders I was welcomed as a guest in luxury apartments and converted lofts." Such writing creates an image of Petrini as removed from the "empathy with indigenous peoples" that is one of the principles of the Slow Food movement. However, the heart of the project is in the right place, working to raise awareness of the ways we can transcend a system in which food has "Lost all its complex values and become a commodity" and fighting to change this through eco-gastronomy.
