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A growing field of research is documenting the political investment of the consumer. Yet, consumers are invested of political responsibilities in many different ways, which respond to different visions of politics and consumption, culture and the economy. In this article we critically explore the particular stance of an increasingly international actor such as Slow Food, placing it in the context of current debates on the scope of alternative food networks and on the moral boundaries of the market. Starting from the Slow Food core in Bra, Italy, and through a variety of qualitative sources, both primary (interviews) and secondary (publications, public speeches), we show that while Slow Food contributes to the current political investment of the consumer, it does so in distinctive ways which bear witness to its gastronomic origin and middle-class constituency. Slow Food rhetoric works out a politically-thick vision of taste refinement: its imagined consumer is an 'eco-gastronome', someone who adds ecological concerns onto a continuously trained aesthetic appreciation of food. The article considers the scope of what Slow Food has defined as the 'right to pleasure' in the face of a tension between inclusion and exclusion running through contemporary consumer culture. It concludes by exploring Slow Food's current shifts towards issues such as economic growth, access to resources and environmental protection - crucial in defining the complex world of critical consumption - through a politico-aesthetic problematization of food consumption.

By now most of us are aware of the threats looming in the food world. The best-selling Fast Food Nation and other recent books have alerted us to such dangers as genetically modified organisms, food-borne diseases, and industrial farming. Now it is time for answers, and Slow Food Nation steps up to the challenge. Here the charismatic leader of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, outlines many different routes by which we may take back control of our food. The three central principles of the Slow Food plan are these: food must be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, those who produce the food must be fairly treated, and the food must be healthful and delicious. In his travels around the world as ambassador for Slow Food, Petrini has witnessed firsthand the many ways that native peoples are feeding themselves without making use of the harmful methods of the industrial complex. He relates the wisdom to be gleaned from local cultures in such varied places as Mongolia, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, and Puglia. Amidst our crisis, it is critical that Americans look for insight from other cultures around the world and begin to build a new and better way of eating in our communities here.

By now most of us are aware of the threats looming in the food world. The best-selling Fast Food Nation and other recent books have alerted us to such dangers as genetically modified organisms, food-borne diseases, and industrial farming. Now it is time for answers, and Slow Food Nation steps up to the challenge. Here the charismatic leader of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, outlines many different routes by which we may take back control of our food. The three central principles of the Slow Food plan are these: food must be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, those who produce the food must be fairly treated, and the food must be healthful and delicious. In his travels around the world as ambassador for Slow Food, Petrini has witnessed firsthand the many ways that native peoples are feeding themselves without making use of the harmful methods of the industrial complex. He relates the wisdom to be gleaned from local cultures in such varied places as Mongolia, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, and Puglia. Amidst our crisis, it is critical that Americans look for insight from other cultures around the world and begin to build a new and better way of eating in our communities here. « Menos

Take a breath.... Read slowly.How often in the course and crush of our daily lives do we afford ourselves moments to truly relish-to truly be present in-the act of preparing and eating food? For most of us, our enjoyment of food has fallen victim to the frenetic pace of our lives and to our increasing estrangement, in a complex commercial economy, from the natural processes by which food is grown and produced. Packaged, artificial, and unhealthful, fast food is only the most dramatic example of the degradation of food in our lives, and of the deeper threats to our cultural, political, and environmental well-being.In 1986, Carlo Petrini decided to resist the steady march of fast food and all that it represents when he organized a protest against the building of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Armed with bowls of penne, Petrini and his supporters spawned a phenomenon. Three years later Petrini founded the International Slow Food Movement, renouncing not only fast food but also the overall pace of the "fast life." Issuing a manifesto, the Movement called for the safeguarding of local economies, the preservation of indigenous gastronomic traditions, and the creation of a new kind of ecologically aware consumerism committed to sustainability. On a practical level, it advocates a return to traditional recipes, locally grown foods and wines, and eating as a social event. Today, with a magazine, Web site, and over 75,000 followers organized into local "convivia," or chapters, Slow Food is poised to revolutionize the way Americans shop for groceries, prepare and consume their meals, and think about food.Slow Foodnot only recalls the origins, first steps, and international expansion of the movement from the perspective of its founder, it is also a powerful expression of the organization's goal of engendering social reform through the transformation of our attitudes about food and eating. As Newsweekdescribed it, the Slow Food movement has now become the basis for

Founded in Italy in 1986 by charismatic Italian gourmand Carlo Petrini, Slow Food has grown into a phenomenally successful movement against the uniformity and compromised quality of fast food and supermarket chains. With nearly 85,000 members in 45 countries around the world, Slow Food has developed from a small, grassroots group into the most influential gastronomic movement in the world. Known as the "WWF of endangered food and wine," Slow Food not only focuses on a slower, more natural and organic lifestyle that complements nature, but also works to preserve dying culinary traditions, conserve natural biodiversity, and protect fading agricultural practices threatened in this age of mass consumerism. The book takes the reader on a gastronomic journey through the practices and traditions of the world's ethnic cuisines, from the artisanal cheeses of Italy to the oysters of Cape May and the native American turkey. It includes testimonies from Slow Food representatives-such as Alice Waters of Chez Panisse-illustrating exactly what they are doing-and what still needs to be done-to preserve them.

Slow Food: An Interview with Carlo Petrini Abstract Carlo Petrini is the Founder and President Emeritus of Slow Food, a movement that was founded in Italy in 1986. Slow Food has grown to become an international non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization with the aim to halt the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

More than twenty years ago, when Italian Carlo Petrini learned that McDonald's wanted to erect its golden arches next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, he developed an impassioned response: he helped found the Slow Food movement. Since then, Slow Food has become a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring the likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. Now, it's time to take the work of changing the way people grow, distribute, and consume food to a new level. On a global scale, as Petrini tells us inTerra Madre, we aren't eating food. Food is eating us. Large-scale industrial agriculture has run rampant and penetrated every corner of the world. The price of food is fixed by the rules of the market, which have neither concern for quality nor respect for producers. People have been forced into standardized, unnatural diets, and aggressive, chemical-based agriculture is ravaging ecosystems from the Great Plains to the Kalahari. Food has been stripped of its meaning, reduced to a mere commodity, and its mass production is contributing to injustice all over the world. InTerra Madre, Petrini shows us a solution in the thousands of newly formed local alliances between food producers and food consumers. And he proposes expanding these alliances'connecting regional food communities around the world to promote good, clean, and fair food. The end goal is a world in which communities are entitled to food sovereignty'allowed to choose not only what they want to grow and eat, but also how they produce and distribute it.

'Slow Food' preconiza uma nova gastronomia. Ao gastrônomo cabe o papel que Carlos Petrini denomina 'coprodutor' - alguém conhecedor da agricultura e pecuária; das condições dos trabalhadores do campo; da procedência dos produto. Ser uma pessoa ativa na mudança do planeta - rejeitar alimentos provenientes de exploração humana, de meios de transporte poluidores em excesso, de empresas que arruínam culturas locais ao se instalarem nas comunidades. Tudo isso para que um mundo mais justo e sustentável se torne realidade.

Originally published in 2002, this was one of the first books on the Slow Food movement. We are offering this wonderful volume in paperback for home cooks who strive to preserve the traditions of growing, cooking, and eating good food. With 15 profiles of artisans plus 45 time-tested recipes by chefs and cooks (Alice Waters, Rick Bayless, and more), this cookbook promotes regional heirloom foods that feature local ingredients and/or have been prepared the same way for generations

"From Buildings to Cities: Techniques for the Multi-Scale Analysis of Urban Form and Function The built environment is a significant factor in many urban processes, yet direct measures of built form are seldom used in geographical studies. Representation and analysis of urban form and function could provide new insights and improve the evidence base for research. So far progress has been slow due to limited data availability, computational demands, and a lack of methods to integrate built environment data with aggregate geographical analysis. Spatial data and computational improvements are overcoming some of these problems, but there remains a need for techniques to process and aggregate urban form data. Here we develop a Built Environment Model of urban function and dwelling type classifications for Greater London, based on detailed topographic and address-based data (sourced from Ordnance Survey MasterMap). The multi-scale approach allows the Built Environment Model to be viewed at fine-scales for local planning contexts, and at city-wide scales for aggregate geographical analysis, allowing an improved understanding of urban processes. This flexibility is illustrated in the two examples, that of urban function and residential type analysis, where both local-scale urban clustering and city-wide trends in density and agglomeration are shown. While we demonstrate the multi-scale Built Environment Model to be a viable approach, a number of accuracy issues are identified, including the limitations of 2D data, inaccuracies in commercial function data and problems with temporal attribution. These limitations currently restrict the more advanced applications of the Built Environment Model."

hanks to everyone who has shared links and leads to webinars and other programs! To clarify. I will post the final list of FREE webinars and other distance learning programs late next week. I will also post separate lists of FOR-FEE online degree programs, certification programs, and fee-based distance learning programs. Examples of these include Ryerson University's Certificate in Food Security and Green Mountain College's new Masters in Sustainable Food Systems. So, please do continue to send me examples of all of the above! Cheers, Duncan -----Original Message----- From: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group [mailto:SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU] On Behalf Of Duncan Hilchey Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 12:59 PM To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU Subject: [SANET-MG] Food System Webinar Compilation Dear SANET List, Below is what I've collected so far toward a compilation of free webinars and distance learning programs of potential interest to food system and agricultural development professionals.  I do not believe this is exhaustive by any means. However, this is based on what folks (on COMFOOD, SANET, and FOOD PLANNING lists) led me to and what I was able to glean on my own from the Internet. I excluded some recommendations which I felt were too limited in scope. On the whole, the sustainable/organic agriculture and "good food" communities seems to have done an excellent job getting comprehensive programs online. I was less successful in identifying webinars and distance learning programs on food security. I do not know if there's a niche to produce these or whether I was simply not looking in the right place. In any case, please continue to send me links and leads-as well as corrections (I did this rather hastily). I will post the final compilation in the next few weeks-once your suggestions are exhausted. I would eventually like to see a one stop shopping clearing house created where e

Turning Hydropower Social: Where Global Sustainability Conventions Matter Anders Hjort-af-Ornas 0 Resenhas Springer, 2008 - 145 páginas This book emphasizes the importance of involving stakeholders in data formation related to assessments of hydropower development. This is a prerequiste if projects are to be sustainable. The study targets policy formation after the UNCED and UNSSD conventions, and how a discrepancy emerges between policy and its implementation by using hydropower development as an extended case. At global and national levels new policies make it mandatory for implementing agencies to introduce or expand social considerations far beyond old practices. This calls for new emphases in problem areas as well as methods to optimize the access information required by policy for proper implementation. By drawing on about a dozen project cases, with among others Swedish Sida support, examples show how policy change has gradually influenced project design and implementation, but also how this change process is slow and reliant on approvement from the dominating technical and economic traditions for project assessment. The reader will find a detailed account giving insight into the reality behind policy changes as they have evolved during the last decade and gradually permeated current policy, as expressed in the call for new data formation methods. The book provides a unique account for sustainable development related policy enforcement. It shows how the sustainability drive combines with democracy and grassroot involvement to influence the stakeholder formation of project details.