Carlo Petrini, founder of the slow food movement, recently published his book, How Food Can Eat Us. Metro caught up with him for a discussion about food and environment.
There are many paradoxes, and among them one that says our food attitude is destroying our planet. Why?
It’s clear. Food production is the main cause of our ecosystem destruction and of our environment situation. We are at a point where we can’t ask more of our planet in matter of resources production.
But when people think about pollution and green matters, they mainly think about global warming, oil, gas, cars and garbage.
Those are some of the problems, not all the problems. We ask too much of Mother Earth, and we have to face the tragedy that half of the food we produce goes directly into the garbage.
A half, isn’t it too much?
We produce for 12 billion people, we are seven billion and one billion don’t have access to our resources. It’s more than an evidence that this is something absurd. We have two options: we could understand that this model is sick and we find the way to respect the nature rhythm and real possibility, or we could go on like we did in tha last 30 years. The second option will bring us to the end of the resources.
Being concrete, what can we do?
We need to start with a new education, but politicians have to make their part taking strong decisions. Again, we know that one billion people don’t have access to food, and our answer is to produce and waste more. A change is needed. Otherwise we will be the next to be without food.
