San Francisco Streetcar (photo by Kevin Connors, courtesy of morguefile.com)

Gourmet Retailer is calling it “a Woodstock for foodies” as 50.000 people gathered in San Francisco over the Labor Day weekend for the Slow Food Nation event held “to celebrate food and protect the future of sustainability in the U.S. and abroad. “ The four-day event was the work of Slow Food USA.

The article in Gourmet Retailer reports:

Highlights of the festival included a speaker series featuring Slow Food luminaries like the movement's founder, Carlo Petrini; Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food; Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope; author Wendell Berry; and Slow Food Nation founder, chef and slow food activist Alice Waters.

The article explains that the “modern slow food movement was born in Italy...In 1986, Italian journalist and philanthropist Carlo Petrini began to speak out against the industrialization of food.” He believes fast food has been “wiping out authentic culinary traditions, and the richness and enjoyment of access to a diverse and unprocessed diet. Petrini's Slow Food Movement is grounded in the belief that food should be good, clean and fair.”

If you’d like to read the Gourmet Retailer article cited above go to: Slow Food USA Kicks Off First Major Event

If you'd like to purchase landmark books on slow food by Carlo Petrini & Michael Pollan go to:

"Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair" by Carlo Petrini

"In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan

"Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan