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SLOW FOOD Most people are familiar with the maxim “you are what you eat,” credited to the 19th-century German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. The meaning of this phrase (that the food one eats has a bearing on one's mental and physical health) has since been distorted to capture the idea that the way we (as a society) eat reflects the values and behaviors of society more generally. Food, as with many other things in modern society, is now often produced, prepared, and eaten in haste, part of a so-called cult of speed. Global food marketing offers an impressive range of food choices that can be consumed with little effort. It is this global fast food culture and the productivist food systems that go with it that the slow food movement is rebelling against. This article explains the motivations and beliefs of slow food and its geographic spread and core initiatives and ...