Last week, on a tour of top East Coast universities, Carlo Petrini spoke to an assembly of students, farmers and foodies at Princeton. The discussion included issues of the depletion of soil fertility, loss of farmers, loss of biodiversity, and growing concern over water availability, but he also talked about restoring lost values. We've lost the value of food when what matters the most is price. The price of industrial food is actually more than that of organic; our society bears the costs of the negative externalities. Please try to understand what's behind the price of things. Despite the growing Slow Food Movement, the economic reality for farmers is dire. We must pay farmers a fair amount if we want to attract a new generation of farmers . “Without young people going back to the land, how will we regenerate our culture?” asks Petrini. Food is sacred; how can we manufacture the sacred in a factory?

We need to set a place at the table for conviviality, for love and friendship and enjoyment. We need to restore value to our work, and not allow consumerism to rob us of our precious time. Presently our value is as consumer—the more we consume, the better. But we cannot go on consuming this way. “We have everything we want”, says Petrini, but we are losing meaning and vision. Listening to him speak, I felt at times like I was being scolded, not inappropriately, by my grandfather (had he been Italian), but his practical wisdom is ageless. Support your local economy. Buy less, waste less. Restore seasonality. Eat leftovers. Respect Terre Madre. Join Slow Food. -kp