International Network of Street Papers of large international organizations, thus bringing attention to what we coined as “food sovereignty”, or the right of each population to decide their own food policies. By doing so, we sought to protect and restore dignity to sustainable practices that were not merely synonymous with profit but were also synonymous with good nutrition, ecology, solidarity and development. It is a model that has supported the circle of life in its many manifestations. The Connection Between Plate and Planet Carlo Petrini is a gastronome and writer who is a committed supporter of sustainable agriculture. In 1989, he set up Slow Food, an international movement aimed at safeguarding local cuisine and food quality. Here, he looks back on the changes in the food industry that have taken place in Italy over the last 25 years and argues that an ecologically sensitive approach is the only way forward. By Carlo Petrini Writing about the evolution of the conversation around food over the last 25 years is not an easy task, not even for someone like me – and I’ve made food the centre of my personal and professional life! Food is indeed a complex thing: along with water and air, it’s something that enables us to survive on this planet – but unlike water and air, it’s also a source of sensory pleasure. It’s also something that goes beyond mere survival and pleasure: it’s something that indirectly enables us, as a race, to handle major issues such as law, economics, politics, society and culture. In short, food is such a complex thing for us all, to the point that each of us, if we wanted to, could describe our own identity and relationship with the outside world by referring to the foods that have been present on, or absent from, our table. It is with this in mind that I shall now begin my reflections – and apologies in advance if I get lost in my own world of food at times! The food scene in Italy at the end of the 1990s was characterised by the gradual spread of fast food and discount food outlets. These two new players weaselled their way into our customs and routines, making us believe that food was merely a commodity and, as such, that is was acceptable for it be produced on an industrial scale. At the same time, the European Union introduced HACCP, a system that more or less forced producers to comply with a number of strict health and hygiene requirements. This promoted standardisation at history. There was much at stake: there were the small-scale artisanal products and producers who were guardians of the range of knowledge of Italian food and its flavours, and they could not be allowed to disappear from our tables. In an attempt to provide a concrete response to the problem, Slow Food organised the first Salone del Gusto in 1996, followed by the Arca del Gusto – a project that set out to list endangered products. This project came to fruition in 1999 in the form of Presìdi, a brand that today stands for gastronomic excellence. Sustainable nutrition As we welcomed in the new millennium, we witnessed first-hand how the intensification of production continued to be the driving force in the food industry. In Europe, GMOs [genetically modified organisms] were once again being discussed: they risked transforming our fields into factories full of mass-produced food, which, although theoretically perfect, lacked any harmonious link with nature and the hands that had worked so hard to cultivate the land. The same dynamics also pervaded livestock farming, where negative consequences were quick to appear; we had the scandals of mad cow disease, bird flu and, lastly, swine flu in 2009, which proved the dangers of extending the mechanisms of mass capitalism to every sphere of society. It is no coincidence, therefore, that it was precisely in those years that the Manifesto on Global Food Rights was drawn up and the Terra Madre network was born. Slow Food understood the importance of extending its field of action from the tables of Italian restaurants to those Page 13 the relationships, expense traditions quality and all that embraces diversity, social and of Overconsumption There’s another type of consumption that started to take hold in the same time period, and it skyrocketed in the decade that’s just come to an end. It’s the visual, or media, consumption that can be enjoyed from the comfort of our television screens. At first, it was mainly lunchtime programmes showing us how to make simple but tasty recipes that people could replicate at home. Then, however, the offer of food programmes extended, and I dare say, with increasingly adverse impacts. They fooled people into believing the idea that food is omnipresent, and there was a particular tendency to broadcast shows that transform the kitchen from a welcoming and convivial place into a scene akin to trench warfare where war is waged to the tune of deep fat fryers and insults. Personally, I don’t really empathise with this spectacle, but it’s difficult to ignore it when it’s making such a clamour in our day and age! Screens aside, the discourse around the issue of food has undoubtedly grown in the last ten years, and it has now become more focused on sustainability and demonstrating a greater awareness of key issues, although in some respects it continues to be contradictory and not very inclusive. On the one hand, we see individuals and institutions alike paying much more attention to the link between food and health by choosing organic and local products, as well as the spread of farmers’ markets. On the other hand, the current system is progressively fuelling climate change, systematically eroding away the quality of our soils and the biodiversity of our ecosystems, generating unacceptable amounts of waste, and ultimately creating social injustice that spills over from the fields onto our dinner tables. Illegal and inhumane practices, such as illegal recruitment processes, are still all too common, while the distribution giants impose insupportable price conditions on producers and, partly as a result of the pandemic, around 8% of Italian families (but alas, I think there are many more) are now faced with food poverty and are unable to access adequate food on a regular basis. I would like to conclude by saying that in the last twenty-five years, food has acquired the central role it deserves, but for me, until it stops damaging the environment and until the industry starts providing fair working conditions for producers and access to food becomes a right for all, then food is not being respected as it should be. But let me give you an ingredient that, in my view, can lead to the resolution of these seemingly impossible paradoxes – integral ecology. As Pope Francis reminds us, we must have an awareness and understanding of the fact that everything on this Earth that hosts us is intimately connected and that the well-being of the individual is a mere illusion unless it leads to the common good. I therefore hope that in the coming years, individuals and institutions will well and truly immerse their tables and minds in this awareness. If we want to create a food system in which respect, nourishment and care for people and the planet are universally recognised and guaranteed qualities, then the only way forward is an ecological approach. Translated from Italian by Catherine Algar Courtesy of Scarp de’ tenis / INSP.ngo
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