Taste, like identity, has value only when there are differences.

Taste, like identity, has value only when there are differences.

If food was no longer obliged to make intercontinental journeys, but stayed part of a system in which it can be consumed over short distances, we would save a lot of energy and carbon dioxide emissions. And just think of what we would save in ecological terms without long-distance transportation, refrigeration, and packaging--which ends up on the garbage dump anyway--and storage, which steals time, space, and vast portions of nature and beauty.

Any gastronome who is not an environmentalist is stupid, and any environmentalist who is not a gastronome is sad.

Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature.

A gastronomer who is not an environmentalis t is just stupid. Whereas an environmentalis t who is not a gastronomer is sad. It's possible to change the world even while preserving the concept of the right of pleasure.

Food history is as important as a baroque church. Governments should recognize cultural heritage and protect traditional foods. A cheese is as worthy of preserving as a sixteenth-century building.