Revenge of the Slow

The article “Revenge of the Slow,” by Bruce Sterling, fore tells how the Slow Food Movement is combating the fast food industry. He says, “McDonald’s is a multinational corporation: it retails identical food products on the scale of billions, repeatedly, predictably, worldwide. Slow Food, the self-appointed anti-McDonald’s, is a “revolution” whose aim is a “new culture of food and life” (Sterling). He explains how Slow Food began with a clique of famous Italians, along with the radio personality, Carlo Petrini, began protesting along the streets of Rome against the unhealthy food that its citizens were being served. Today, Slow Food is as global as McDonalds but they use networking rather than being hierarchical. Having built this distribution net, Slow Food offers grants to needy producers for things like barns, butcher shops, and tractors. Slow Food is a non-profit organization who has about 150 full time employees and has a budget of about $37 million a year. It also publishes tourist guidebooks and recipe books. It has many criteria including: is the product nonglobalized, is it artisanally made, is it sustainably produced, is it high quality, and is it likely to disappear from the planet anytime soon. Sterling explains, “But while McDonald’s mechanically peddles burgers to the poor, Slow Food acculturates the planet’s wealthy to the gourmand quality of life long cherished by the European bon vivant” (Sterling).
This article was neat because it explained more about the Slow Food movement in Europe as opposed to the US. I also found out that they have criteria and are almost as global as McDonalds. I think it’s interesting, that out of all the fast food restaurants in the world, everyone tends to agree that McDonalds is the biggest enemy. I guess that’s because they are the largest and guiltiest of having unhealthy food globally.

Sterling, Bruce. "Revenge of the Slow." Meltropolis Magazine Mar. 2008: n. pag. Web. 16 Apr 2010.