Carlo Petrini is the founding father of the Slow Food Movement. It all started in Italy in 1986 when he saw that food was being standardized by industrialization and thousands of food varieties were disappearing. Petrini wanted to show people they had choices beyond fast food and supermarkets. Following the Slow Food principles of good, clean and fair, encourages a rediscovery of and respect for traditional foods and artisan production, supports environmentally sustainable agriculture and ensures that producers are recognized for their work and receive a fair wage.
Petrini is the mastermind behind Terra Madre: the world meeting of food communities. This groundbreaking event, held every two years in Turin, brings together more than 5,000 producers, 1,000 cooks and 400 teachers and university representatives from around the world to share their knowledge. He also created the University of Gastronomic Sciences, the first academic institution to offer an interdisciplinary approach to food studies. In 2003 the non-profit Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity was created to defend food biodiversity and gastronomic traditions around the world.
Carlo Petrini was listed by The Guardian newspaper in January 2008 as one of ’50 People Who Could Save the World’. Slow Food has 86,000 members in 130 countries.
