Yale Welcomes Petrini

Slow Food International President Carlo Petrini’s tour of top US East Coast universities continued on Friday with a visit to Yale, after being hosted by Tufts and Harvard Universities earlier in the week.

Petrini began the visit with a lecture in the university’s Italian Department, and went on to meet the many students involved in the Yale Sustainable Food Project, one of the most cutting edge university initiatives in the US. He was given a tour of the on-campus organic farm run by the project and enjoyed some excellent pizza’s cooked using the farm’s produce.

The visit continued with a conference held in the Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, delivered to 300 Yale community members, academics, chefs, local Slow Food members and a large number of students. In his speech, translated by the Atlantic Monthly journalist Corby Kummer, Petrini called out to young people to be the protagonists of the change that is already gaining force within the US, but which needs the strength of the country’s youth to take it to the next paradigm. The conference was considered to be a great success, and ended with a hug between Carlo Petrini and Sam Levin, the Massachussets student that touched the heart of many in his speech at the Terra Madre world meeting in 2008.

That evening, the well-attended dinner hosted by the Yale Sustainable Food Project put local and seasonal produce at center stage.

Petrini’s tour continues today at Princeton University and at Union Square’s Farmers’ Market in New York where he will meet local Terra Madre food communities.