Carlo Petrini

The voice mail system at Slow Food USA’s Brooklyn, N.Y., offices warns callers that no one answers the phone in early afternoon because the staff is sitting down to lunch. Together.

In a city better known for the “New York minute” than leisurely luncheons, Slow Food, an organization dedicated not only to ecologically sound food and the culture of the kitchen table but “to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life,” seems somewhat out of place.

But Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food International, says he sees potential for Slow Food USA across the country, from the hustle-bustle of New York City to the notoriously casual Northwest — and every place in between.

Petrini, one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for 2004,” is famous for his gusto in all matters food, whether enjoying the sensual pleasures of eating or welcoming participation in Slow Food activities from indigenous producers and international corporations alike.

In discussing the work of his “eco-gastronomical” organization, Petrini faces up to the enormous challenges confronting food producers and eaters around the globe. Citing a study published in early 2005 by the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Petrini rattles off striking statistics on declining water quality, soil health, species and ecosystems.

He says the FAO’s 1,400 scientists concluded that without change, the human race will face extinction in just 300 years. Petrini translates the magnitude of the FAO’s statement in personal terms: “To say our species is extinct in 300 years is like saying I will be dead in two minutes.”

But the statistics seem to buoy Petrini’s enthusiasm for the work of Slow Food International. Petrini has spoken repeatedly in interviews and talks about the “obligatory” connection between environmental quality and embracing unique, local food, not just for the well-to-do gourmand, but for entire cultures and communities.

His solutions range from rediscovering the joy of leftovers, to connecting Tibetan yak herders with Italian and Swiss cheese makers, to rethinking food at a homeless shelter in San Francisco.

On a recent visit to Portland, the home of Slow Food USA’s first chapter, or “convivium,” Petrini speaks with his trademark blend of hard-nosed realism and unfettered creativity on a range of topics:

The future of Slow Food USA

I’m seeing here in the United States that Slow Food has taken a huge step forward... The [next] challenge is transforming consumers into coproducers... Our first strategy is to educate the consumer.

A co-producer is a consumer who knows and understands problems of food production: quality, economics and processing requirements, the culinary aspect.

It’s not just someone who consumes. It’s that they want to know. The Latin language puts these two very close to each other: ‘taste’ is sapor, and ‘to know’ is sapere. We have to cultivate a sense of taste and knowledge.

Politically, Slow Food will have to evolve and change all over the world. Less time at dinners and tastings and more time at education — how you make cheese and bread and beer; how to grow fruits and vegetables; how to fish and, as we see here especially, you have a very strong culture of winemaking. And so we have to explore and advance our studies in other areas.

What no one knows here in the United States is that the American public is hungry for this kind of knowledge. And no one is producing a response to this need. When Slow Food begins to produce this response, thousands will want to learn. But it’s not done in schools, no longer passed down [between generations], but when Slow Food begins to do this kind of work, we’ll see huge changes.

Forms of knowledge

In the Western world, we have destroyed traditional forms of knowledge by favoring the industrial model. It’s possible to reconstruct these forms of knowledge. But we have to change our production system completely. Form alliances with science, because, so far, science has been at the service of agriculture for the last 40 years and they believed farmers had no knowledge to offer And now we find ourselves impoverished for it...What we need to do is create a dialogue between the two kingdoms: traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge.

Beer and farmers markets

What I’ve understood of American culture is it’s very linear, and this issue is more complex. There is a dialectical relationship, the dialectic between new and old ideas and this will create a new form of reality. We live in this ocean of complexity and we have a boat we’re trying to steer in this very tempestuous movement.

Slow Food was born because there was fast food. There will also be a response. This is the dialectic that will create new realities.

If I had told someone 10 years ago that there would be thousands of microbreweries in the United States… they wouldn’t have believed me. If I had told them about farmers markets reaching nearly every corner of this country, or that there would be a huge market in raw milk cheeses... If I’d said, ‘In America, the bread is better than Italy.’

It’s a dialectic process, a natural process — the regeneration of ideas.

How to make change

By becoming a member of Slow Food. One must begin to read, get to know and patronize farmers, visit the farmers market, and always become more curious. The moment at which this curiosity begins to reap its own rewards, that’s when pleasure will come.

Associations exist for the purpose of helping individuals in a collective way. No one is alone. We must also understand this. When someone says, ‘I can’t,’ it’s just an excuse. He who wants to can begin slowly. Slow Food can help one travel that path and it can help make knowledge a more pleasurable pursuit.