Visionary, public intellectual, friend of the Pope (Francis), founder of an Italian university, author of numerous books, founder of a social movement, and genuinely an influential friend and mentor to many. These are only some of the ways to describe Carlo Petrini (or as those who knew him well, Carlin). Few can claim to have started a movement. Carlo Petrini did. While its roots began in the Italian Left of the 1980s, one of its greatest strengths has been its ability to stretch across political divides (thus providing a new language to describe our connection to food and food as a political force). Perhaps, it is far too soon to write with any certainty just how influential and powerful it will ultimately become. This is the funny thing about social movements. The big ones remain small, until they transform societies. It takes a recipe of time, timing, vision, and action. None of this would be possible without Carlo Petrini.
A student of history, literature, gastronomy, and more, Carlo Petrini was in many ways a renaissance man as much as he was a community organiser. With a remarkable knack to know when to push, and when to pull, he was vigorously devoted to pluralism, humour, song, and the dignity of ordinary people (overlooked by big food) punching far above their weight.
On the eve of the 2026 World Biodiversity Day, Carlo Petrini finally succumbed to the health woes that have slowed him down in recent years. In 2022, he retired as Slow Food President, making way for protegé and the organisation’s first President from Africa — Uganda’s Edie Mukiibi. Nevertheless, he remained, as he always will, the founder of Slow Food.
This sentiment has inspired our global community of practice: farmers markets. After all, they reap that “reality” Carlo describes, repeatedly, as business commences in parks, squares, piazzas, carparks, and streets all over the planet. Driven to do what is possible — to bring farmer and consumer into closer proximity on a recurring basis and beneath an agreed set of rules that benefit each — the sight of a farmers market in your community is an indicator that Carlo Petrini’s vision for protagonists to emerge from the concept of the co-producer (farmer and consumer united) is alive and well. When you observe not just three but ten varieties of tomatoes in your farmers market this season, think of Carlo. He lives in all of our farmers markets
