Slow Food is the international movement that urges people to take time over food preparation and eating, and to resist the homogenisation of processed convenience food. Founded in Italy in the 1980s as a protest against fast food, it champions local food cultures, traditional methods, biodiversity, and the pleasure of the table. Its projects include the Ark of Taste, cataloguing endangered foods, and Terra Madre, gathering small-scale producers worldwide. Slow Food argues that fast, cheap food has hidden costs in health, environment, and culture, and that good, clean, and fair food is worth paying for and waiting for. It is part philosophy, part activism, and entirely about eating as a conscious, joyful act.