SLOW FOOD FOUNDER, CARLO PETRINI: “GASTRONOMY CAN NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED A SIMPLE RECREATION, BUT AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM THAT CONNECTS CULTURE AND THE SOCIALITY OF MAN TO THE NATURAL PROCESSES OF OUR PLANET”

What is the true meaning of gastronomy? The founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, explained it perfectly and in just a few concise words during the 5th world congress of the movement, held recently in Mexico. “Gastronomy can no longer be considered a simple recreation, but as a complex system that connects culture and the sociality of man to the natural processes of our planet”.

Petrini went on to trace the coordinates of the “new” philosophy of the international association, which aimed to reveal the complexities that still have their roots in the movement’s Manifesto that was first published in 1989.
“The strong criticism within the Manifesto of the modern means of production, that modify our life and threaten the environment and landscape, could not have foreseen the definitive stronghold of the crisis by the current model of development. The time has come to change philosophy; it is nature that is setting limits on the economy, contrary to what dominant western thought has always preached, from Cartesio to the present.

“This change will come about solely through the rediscovery of popular cultures, on which the development of many local economies that are capable of respecting man and nature, of exploiting sensibly resources and of produce real wellbeing, will be based. The local economy, as opposed to that of the market, will help man recuperate his wisdom, to not lose that ancient, peasant knowledge that has taught us how to live in harmony and that has forged our identity.
“Identity that is expressed and interacts within the great worldwide network that the movement is trying to construct, uniting its members with its farmers and producers of Terra Madre. In this way, it will be easy to guarantee an international exchange of stories, knowledge, projects”.

It is an exchange, concluded Petrini, “that will have increasingly more young protagonists, allowing them to enter into contact with those who work the land, so that the sacred passion that animates the most humble producers of good, clean and correct food is transmitted: gratifying, sustaining and not full of social injustices”.

And, the final conclusion made at Puebla: “It is necessary that the young return to the land, because if this does not happen we will have no future”.