The Slow Food organization first came to public attention in 1989, in association with protests over the proposed opening of a McDonald's in Rome's Piazza di Spagna. The name “slow food” (always in English, despite its Italian origins) was thus defined from the outset in opposition to fast food and marked a rejection of both the homogenized cuisine associated with fast-food chains and the utilitarian mode of consumption associated with this type of food (designed for eating “on the run”). In November 1989, the nonprofit organization was officially launched at a ceremony in Paris, attended by representatives from fifteen countries who ratified the “Official Manifesto for the International Movement for the Defense of and the Right to Pleasure.” This manifesto, which advocated the importance of ...