How is Italian “slow food” facing the growth of the “fast food” industry?
Slow food reminds me of the Italian Slow Food organization, that with Petrini doing a great job has been very successful here in the United States. I think with areas like New York and San Francisco, slow food is something that has a great future. In this concept of slow food with the Italian products and diet, the main idea is enjoying the food rather than eating and rushing back to business. This concept works very well with the Italian Mediterranean diet. How does the importation in the US of counterfeit food products affect the Italian export industry? This is quite a big issue in the Unites States. Just to give you an idea of how much the counterfeit food products affect the Italian export industry, I will mention two figures. In 2008 the export of authentic Italian food and wine totaled in value $3.5 billion. The fake Italian products in the United States reached a value of $4.5 billion. So the value of the fake products is actually greater than that of the authentic goods. This
