Slow Food was founded in 1986 by a handful of passionate Italians, who fought the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Rome, smack dab in the middle of a medieval, cobbled square. Carlo Petrini (Read More), the leader of this resistance group, saw this as an opportunity to tell the world how important food cultures are. He recognized that in order to preserve regional traditions, the mere act of slowing down is absolutely critical. We are in danger of losing ourselves to globalization and an overwhelmingly hectic pace of life.

Slow Food was born to identify, preserve and promote small, agricultural producers and to educate the public about their distinctive regional food traditions. It is about discovering and sustaining those farmers and communities that make our food, trying to understand and potentially make a difference by supporting them and making choices that ultimately benefit them and us all.

It is about educating our young people as to where our food is from and encouraging all ages to participate, in one way or another, in the production of food.