The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Carlo Petrini, an Italian, founded the international 'Slow Food' movement in 1989 in response to the opening of a McDonald's at the Spanish Steps in Rome. Its head offices are in Piedmont, in the north of Italy. Today, the organization boasts more than 77,000 members in 48 countries, including the United States, which claims 74 local chapters. The main thrust of Slow Food is to preserve and encourage traditional foods, beverages and recipes that are "endangered by McNuggets and Monsanto," Petrini says, referring to both our obsession with unhealthy fast food and the increasing and uncertain role of biotechnology. "It's a union of education, politics, environment and sensual pleasure," says Petrini. The goal: The propagation of leisurely, more epicurean eating habits, and a more enlightened and patient approach to life in general. "Slow Food is an international movement dedicated to saving the regional cuisines and products of the world," says Patrick Martins, president of Slow Food USA. "It could be style: barbecue, cajun, creole, organic Ñ anything that's fallen by the wayside due to our industrial food culture." Slow Food advocates are settling in for a long struggle, but they say victory will eventually be theirs. On the day fast food dies, says Martins, "We will raise a glass of organic wine."
