Slow Food in a Fat Society: Satisfying Ethical Appetites

Slow Food in a Fat Society Using historian Hillel Schwartz's utopian conception of a "fat society" as inspiration, this essay considers the potential contribution of the Slow Food movement to American notions of dietary ethics. In the United States, eating has been morally evaluated l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Paxson, Heather Anne
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: University of California Press 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64493
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8429-5429
Description
Summary:Slow Food in a Fat Society Using historian Hillel Schwartz's utopian conception of a "fat society" as inspiration, this essay considers the potential contribution of the Slow Food movement to American notions of dietary ethics. In the United States, eating has been morally evaluated largely in terms of self-control, in relation to personal health and body image. In contrast, the dietary ethos of Slow Food is notable for its disregard of bodily aesthetics and secondary attention to nutrition. Slow Food might offer a path for redirecting moral consideration of food and eating away from the narcissistic, singular body, and toward a culinary ethic emphasizing our responsibilities to human and animal others, to cultural heritage, and to the environment.