Why Slow Food?
This non-profit organization has made it a top priority to combat the ways of fast-food and fast life that have completely engulfed modern society… Something that many in the Western world have integrated so intensely into their lives that they don’t even realize the consequences of their consumption.
Now, I hate to be preachy, but, not only is fast-food ultimately unsatisfying (we’ve all hugged a toilet bowl), the negative repercussions of eating that quadruple bypass burger outWEIGH the 30 seconds of enjoyment one gets while eating fast foods.
A little too much lovin'
Almost 30 years after its initial founding in 1989 by Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food movement has become a cornerstone non-profit organization that works in Europe and abroad to preserve sustainability and ethics within the food industry. Sadly the reason it was ultimately started was in protest of a McDonald’s opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome… but if anyone has been to Italy, McDonald’s locations are beginning to eat that country alive….
NONETHELESS the Slow Food movement has succeeded in communicating its goal to promote Ecogastronomy
Ecogastronomy: A branch of the ecology movement and as well as the culinary side of the anti-globalization movement.
Not only is the movement against fast food consumption, both on a personal and societal level, but also the production of these products. How much energy do we waste in producing mass amounts of food that will ultimately go to waste? Where has the culture behind cuisine vanished to?
I speak from the American perspective, but as a general society our relative loss of interest in food, and its origins may be one of the connections to our increasing body masses. When we no longer feel any real connections to the foods we eat, we break the chain in our relationship to the environment, our personal cultures and histories, and our health.
A quick exercise: Open your refrigerators for a moment. How many of the products that blankly sit on the shelves have readily identifiable ingredients? (if you answer is: “I only keep produce in the frigde”) Fine, how many of you know where that produce came from? Was that zombie GMO tomato grown in Mexico 3 months ago or was it grown organically by a local farm?
If you are interested in this subject and would like to join your local Slow Food chapter, become a member Here!!!!!!!
The movement has become wildly influential in Europe and abroad, with over 100,000 members in 132 countries, but together we can help it grow even further!
In the chaotic and unpredictable world we live in, it feels nice to be a part of something positive.
So eat well, and please, chew slowly 
