Miren Gutiérrez interviews PAOLO DI CROCE, head of Slow Food International – IPS/IFEJ “The day we all decide to eat fresh and local, to eat less meat… we will have a revolution,” says Paolo di Croce, secretary-general of Slow Food International. BELLAGIO, Italy, Jul 27 (Tierramérica).- Slow Food, obviously, is the opposite of fast food. And it’s a movement now with more than 100,000 members in 132 countries. But what does “slow food” mean in practical terms? The question was put to Paolo di Croce, secretary-general of Slow Food International, who spoke about the challenges ahead for “good, clean and fair” food, and the movement itself. IPS/IFEJ: The Slow Food movement presents itself as a defender of biodiversity. But what exactly have good cuisine, tradition and culture to do with coral reefs, polar bears and rainforests? And what has the movement done to contribute to protecting biodiversity? PAOLO DI CROCE: I think that one key issue for good food is the promotion of diversity. Globalization, the endangerment of species, the standardization of the markets tend to homologize, reduce diversity. It is estimated that all apples that we eat belong to only four varieties. However, hundreds of varieties of apple exist. It is fundamental for environment, history and culture to preserve the variety of food. Slow Food has lots of projects around the world to fight against the extinction of species. For example, there is a Slow Food project in the Amazon rainforest to protect the Bertholletia excelsa, a nut that grows on 40-meter trees in indigenous communities. We try to create markets for the nut, and so preserving its existence. Another reason to preserve biodiversity is because we all are personally affected by this. For example, if we continue to eat tuna at this rate, in a few years there will be no more tuna. Food is fundamentally related to agricultural diversity. Wolves and polar bears are not our main priority, but people who are associated with us care about them too because the ultimate goal is to preserve our cultural identity and our environment, including wild species. In fact, we also have programs that have to do with traditional music and clothing, indigenous languages… |
Leave a Reply
About the author
From 1990 until 1996, Miren Gutiérrez was based in Hong Kong as an EFE correspondent, covering the South East Asia, Korea and Pacific region, in charge of a group of contributors. She then spent five years in Panama in charge of the business section of La Prensa, the Panamanian newspaper of record. Miren coordinated or edited investigative business stories. Several of these stories were award-winners. A year of free-lancing in New York followed, writing for different media, such as El País, The Nation, UPI, Gatopardo and Offshore Alert. She covered the Sep. 11 attacks for El País. She joined IPS as Editor in chief in January 2003. She published her first novel in 2007.
Categories
- Articles by IPS (44)
- Blogroll (2)
- Conferences and Seminars (12)
- General (28)
- Interviews by the Author (33)
- Interviews with the author (6)
- La Ciudad de las Cigarras (13)
- New links (1)
- New links (21)
- Uncategorized (1)
Meta