I think that most Americans would respond that dirt is just dirt no matter where you find it. Other variables like fertilizer and water are considered minor. And a potato is a potato is a potato. When all is said and done, if a farmer plants a half basket of Red Norlands in Connecticut, and another farmer plants the same variety in Maine, they will each end with more or less the same product. Should we expect a difference in each potato’s taste and texture? To most, that seems doubtful. After all, Connecticut’s growing conditions are not THAT much different from Maine’s seasons and soil. Or are they?
The idea that “somewhereness” affects the taste of food, questionable logic to most Americans, spurred an Italian to lead a revolution. The story begins in the late 1980s as McDonalds proposes building a restaurant near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Carlo Petrini, indignant that an outpost of American industrial food might undermine Italy’s fine local cuisine, stages a protest. Petrini not only stops McDonalds; he goes on to build an international association, Slow Food, that combines food politics with culinary pleasure.
A non-profit organization, Slow Food, is based on the concept of “eco-gastronomy;” that is Slow Food encourages its members to recognize “the strong connection between plate and planet” and to celebrate the unique productions of local sun and soil throughout the world. Over the years, Slow Food has recruited more than 100,000 enthusiastic associates in a hundred countries.
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