Carlo Petrini has been named one of the eight winners of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth award – the UN’s flagship environment award that recognizes outstanding visionaries and leaders in the fields of policy, science and civil society action.
On September 18, 2013, during a ceremony in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner will officially award the prize to the founder and president of Slow Food. As Petrini cannot be there in person, Richard McCarty, President of Slow Food USA, will receive the trophy on his behalf.
Outlining their motivations for choosing Petrini, the UNEP said:
“With this Prize, we recognize your remarkable accomplishment as the founder of the Slow Food Movement covering a network of over 100,000 supporters in over 150 countries. With the critical issue of sustainable consumption and production in the context of global food security, your movement has become a formidable force that defends local food traditions, protects local biodiversity, and promotes small-scale quality products with an increasing focus on investments in the South. Through the Presidia projects and the Terra Madre network of food communities, you have also helped focus attention on the important role of indigenous peoples in upholding food traditions as well as being the custodians of irreplaceable inherited knowledge”.
Find this story on the UNEP website here
Find more about the award here