Unit 54 Slow Food Movement The International Slow Food Movement was founded in 1986 by leftist journalist Carlo Petrini in a determined effort to wage intellectual war on the homogenization of food around the world. Spurred by the opening of Italy's first McDonald's in Rome, Carlo started the organization determined to save regional foods and small producers from extinction and to revive taste and the senses. The backbone of the non-profit organization are groups of people who meet informally to share and promote local small producers, to learn about culinary traditions and cultures, and to arrange tastings. An important aspect of Slow Food was introduced to identify and publicize endangered foods such as tuna roe and Moselle red peaches, and to encourage people to seek them out, with the theory that if the market demands, supply will increase. Another important component of Slow Food is the commitment to teach children about taste and food and to develop their senses and their appreciation of food and the pleasures of the table. Slow Food Festivals are broad-reaching, not only acknowledging and encouraging individual artisans, but also celebrating the role of food throughout every aspect of culture. Workshops where tastes are explored in their cultural context are an important component of the International Slow Food Movement. For instance, the Germany's Festival had 30 different ones, each about an hour and half long. They sell out quickly too. A speaker at a head table discoursed on the history of dishes people were eating, and the relationship of food, work, and eating to the life and culture of the German province of Schleswig Holstein. In an attempt to popularize the Slow Food Movement in the United States, Carlo Petrini made a 10-day trip across the United States, ending up as the honorary guest at the Berkeley meeting, slow, 10-course dinner celebrating simply prepared, regional products. Guests sampled appetizers of ferns, sipped wines and chatted, before sitting down to salmon with lime oil, followed by white asparagus in herbs. This dish was preceded by a dining-room demonstration of chef Jean-Pierre Moulle showing how to clean the fish without cutting it open, a performance cheered by the group, a collection of over 50 enthusiasts seated at long tables. To defend biodiversity we have to defend small producers. The Slow Food Movement is different from ecological movements and from gastronomy movements. Gastronomical movements don't defend the small producers and their products, and ecological movements fight the battles, but can't cook. Slow Food Movement has both at the same time. The Slow Food Movement has been likened to Don Quixote fighting the windmills, but if the recent enthusiasm for this complex organization with its ecological and gastronomical goals and sense of fun is any indication, the quixotic figure of Carlo Petrini may be triumphant.
The last/final straw 忍无可忍,使人最终崩溃的一击
Until I'm blue in the face 任凭你磨破嘴皮
To make a mountain out of a molehill 小题大做
To turn something upside down 把……翻个底朝天
Off the hook 脱身
In the blink of an eye 一眨眼之间
A recipe for disaster 后患无穷
Bored at work? Sue the boss! 工作无聊怪老板?
Online Shopping 网上购物-英语点津
Knee-jerk reaction 本能反映
There's method to my madness 我有一个不合常理的办法
One good turn deserves another 以德报德,礼尚往来
Close, but no cigar 几近成功
Pain in the neck 令人讨厌的事情或人
Lights! Camera! English! 灯光,摄像机,英语!
You're pulling my leg! 你在愚弄我!
Are you addicted to your phone? 你是不是玩手机上瘾了?
A cashless society 无现金社会
Pull something out of the hat 突施妙计
Would you let your baby sleep in a box? 你愿意让自己的宝宝在盒子里睡觉吗?