Customer Reviews

Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture for Eating and Living

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The Slow Food Movement is a response to Fast Food and the homogenization of food. The movement seeks to rediscover the conviviality of food, aims to preserve regional cuisines, and addresses agricultural issues. This book offers a good account of the development and the complex structure of Slow Food. The authors clearly lay out the philosophy and objectives of the movement and discuss a variety of food-related topics such as biodiversity, genetically modified food and food in relation to socio-economics. The book is augmented by a well selected bibliography, a glossary and a chronology of the movement. A personal interview with Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food Movement reveals more about Petrini's own relationship to food and raises controversial issues such as the contribution of Slow Food to the battle against hunger in the world.
However, quotations are sometimes too long and the first two chapters of the book that describe the roots of the movement contain a lot of detailed and excessive information. From chapter 3 onwards, the material gets much richer in content. Terms such as biodiversity and genetically modified food could be explained in more detail. The overall tone sometimes lacks objectivity and the title "Slow Food Revolution" doesn't seem quite adequate for a movement which is growing, but is probably not going to "revolutionize" eating habits. A more detailed discussion of how the philosophy of Slow Food can be integrated into daily life would be useful in this book.
I can recommend the book to anyone who is interested in discovering more about alternative approaches to food. For me it has been an inspiration to reflect upon my personal eating patterns and I've gained some knowledge about nutrition and agriculture. The authors invite their readers to re-think conventional eating habits while highlighting food as a way to experience conviviality and pleasure.

Very nice edition, great information, but to many words spoiled, to many useless anectdotes.