b'For some commercial pursuits, there would seem to be no such thing as money that is too fast. A small, diversified, organic farm is not one of them. In fact, such a farm serves as a kind of acceleration-free zone, a demilitarized zone, as it were, between economic forces and natural systems. We might even think of a small, diversified, organic farm as an economic decelerator. The value of knowing when to slow down was articulated notably in Italy in 1989, when delegates from 15 countries penned the Slow Food Manifesto: Slow Food ManifestoBorn and nurtured under the sign of Industrialization, this century first invented the machine and then modelled its lifestyle after it. Speed became our shackles. We fell prey to the same virus: the fast life that fractures our customs and assails us even in our own homes, forcing us to ingest fast food.Homo sapiens must regain wisdom and liberate itself from the velocity that is propelling it on the road to extinction. Let us defend ourselves against the universal madness of the fast life with tranquil material pleasure. Against thoseor, rather, the vast majoritywho confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of an adequate portion of sensual gourmandise pleasures, to be taken with slow and prolonged enjoyment. Appropriately, we will start in the kitchen, with Slow Food. To escape the tediousness of fast food, let us rediscover the rich varieties and aromas of local cuisines.In the name of productivity, the fast life has changed our lifestyle and now threatens our environment and our land (and city) scapes. Slow Food is the alternative. . .11'