Slow Food, fast genes: timescapes of authenticity and innovation in the anthropology of food

This article is an attempt at focussing on issues and questions of timescapes, responsibility and creativity with regard to the issue of the production and consumption of food in contemporary Italy. I shall present the issue as it arises from the field, fresh of observation. I do not aim, at this point, at stating conclusions, nor at giving clear answers as much as I hope to establish links between the realms of the anthropology of the senses, the anthropology of food, the emergent issue of an “audit culture” and how this ties in with creative attempts at, one the one hand, re-inventing food as heritage, and, on the other hand, inventing new ways of deciding about and assessing “new” foods, especially GM crops.