Carlo Petrini, a 60-year-old Italian, is on a mission: He wants cheap, mass produced foods laced chemical fertilizers and artificial flavors to be replaced by safer, high-quality, and higher-priced, fare.
For the past 20 years, Petrini has been promoting ecological, sustainable food production, distribution and consumption as founder and chairman of Italy-based Slow Food International.
"We're overproducing food for 12 billion people, double our population, and 1 billion people are suffering from hunger," Petrini said during a recent Tokyo visit to promote his book "Slow Food Nation: Why our Food should be Good, Clean and Fair" ("Suro Fudo no Kiseki: Oishii, Kirei, Tadashii"). The Japanese version will be released Nov. 20.