More than twenty years ago, when Italian Carlo Petrini learned that McDonald's wanted to erect its golden arches next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, he developed an impassioned response: he helped found the Slow Food movement. Since then, Slow Food has become a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring the likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. Now, it's time to take the work of changing the way people grow, distribute, and consume food to a new level. In Terra Madre, Petrini shows us a solution in the thousands of newly formed local alliances between food producers and food consumers. And he proposes expanding these alliances-connecting regional food communities around the world to promote good, clean, and fair food. The end goal is a world in which communities are entitled to food sovereignty-allowed to choose not only what they want to grow and eat, but also how they produce and distribute it.

This book describes 1,600 Food Communities in 150 countries: from the hatahata fishermen of Kitaura in Japan to the raisin producers of Herat in Afghanistan; from Ethiopian forest coffee pickers to Mexican vanilla growers. Farmers, shepherds, fishermen, pork butchers, vine-dressers...all people who embody a new idea of agriculture based on taste quality, sustainability and social justice. All they demand is fertile soil, clean seas, sufficient water and the free circulation of information, knowledge and produce. Of these communities, 300 are Slow Food Presidia, developed worldwide to save food products in real danger of extinction.

Written by one of the leading experts on food activism, this is the only independent, full-length study of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food is a grassroots organisation that embraces a slow way of life, linking the love of food with community and environmental support. Based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork inside Slow Food's international headquarters in Italy, Valeria Siniscalchi reveals what really goes on behind the scenes of this enigmatic organization. Observing daily meetings, decision-making processes, and major events, she explores the contradictions, complexities, and ambiguities of the movement – as well as the passionate commitment of its employees, members, and leaders. Through talking to insiders and people who have 'broken' with Slow Food, Siniscalchi makes a major contribution to our understanding of one of the most high profile and controversial food movements in the world – and to our knowledge of activist organizations more broadly. This is an essential read for students and scholars in food studies, anthropology, geography, and sociology and anyone interested in Slow Food.

Inspiring the global fight to revolutionize the way food is grown, distributed, and eaten. In the almost thirty years since Carlo Petrini began the Slow Food organization, he has been constantly engaged in the fight for food justice. Beginning first in his native Italy and then expanding all over the world, the movement has created a powerful force for change. The essential argument of this book is that food is an avenue towards freedom. This uplifting and humanistic message is straightforward: if people can feed themselves, they can be free. In other words, if people can regain control over access to their food—how it is produced, by whom, and how it is distributed—then that can lead to a greater empowerment in all channels of life. Whether in the Amazon jungle talking with tribal elders or on rice paddies in rural Indonesia, the author engages the reader through the excitement of his journeys and the passion of his mission. Here, Petrini reports upon some of the success stories that he has observed firsthand. From Chiapas to Puglia, Morocco to North Carolina, he has witnessed the many ways different peoples have dealt with food problems. This book allows us to learn from these case studies and lays out models for the future.

This cultural history of Mussolini's dictatorship discusses the meanings of modernity in interwar Italy. The work argues that fascism appealed to many Italian intellectuals as a new model of modernity that would resolve the European crisis as well as long-standing problems of the national past.

World-renowned environmental activist and physicist Vandana Shiva calls for a radical shift in the values that govern democracies, condemning the role that unrestricted capitalism has played in the destruction of environments and livelihoods. She explores the issues she helped bring to international attention—genetic food engineering, culture theft, and natural resource privatization—uncovering their links to the rising tide of fundamentalism, violence against women, and planetary death. Struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancun and in homes and farms across the world have yielded a set of principles based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons, and freely sharing the earth’s resources. These ideals, which Dr. Shiva calls “Earth Democracy,” serve as an urgent call to peace and as the basis for a just and sustainable future.

The definitive expert guide to ethical brand practice from the prestigious Medinge Group, Brands with a Conscience dissects the philosophies underpinning sustainable brands to arrive at a set of eight clear guiding attributes which can be used as the foundation of a strategy for responsible growth. These attributes span the public persona of an organization, the actions to take when things go wrong, the effort invested in developing relationships, the promotion of core values and balancing measures of success across economic, human, social and environmental factors. They are then used as the criteria to assess twelve carefully selected case studies, which include Dilmah Tea, H&M, Dr. Hauschka, Merci and the John Lewis Partnership, amongst other leading international brands. Because the potential to have bad practice unmasked or to have successes amplified online is greater than ever, it pays to adopt a strategy that builds customer loyalty and trust. Brands with a Conscience inspires via examples of brands which not only exhibit a genuine desire to operate ethically, but also have seen impressive success in terms of engagement with consumers, reputation, and return on investment. The book includes a range of practical tools to bring together the main concepts in an easy-to-adopt framework for building a brand strategy based upon real world experience. If you are a brand manager or marketing professional seeking a conscientious approach to consumer engagement, then Brands with a Conscience will support you every step of the way.