Josh Viertel
President, Slow Food USAMovement: Food Justice
Josh Viertel grew up in his parents’ kitchen, where food and love were intertwined. That led him to examine the broader issue of food and farming, and to realize that while farming is a way of manifesting love, it also has a much darker side in its current form: Farming perpetrates environmental degradation and social injustice. So Josh set about changing it. “Globally, food and farming are more damaging to people and the planet than they have ever been. To make the difference between the world we want and the world we live in, we need to change what we eat and the way we grow it,” he says. As the president of
Slow Food USA, a global membership organization, Josh is helping people create a world in which everyone can eat food that is good for them, good for the farmers who grow it, and good for the planet. “Food that is good for people and the land should be the norm, not the exception. In order to create that world, we need to transform food policy, and we need to build more community gardens, farmers markets, and school gardens than fast-food franchises.” In 2009, Josh led Slow Food in its first national campaign, “Time for Lunch.” The campaign, which was undertaken to improve the National School Lunch Program, was launched with a day of action that brought more than 20,000 people together for over 300 Eat-Ins (part pot-luck, part sit-in) nationwide.
Prior to Slow Food USA, Josh co-founded and co-directed the Yale Sustainable Food Project, which brought local, organic food to the Yale's dining halls, and established a working organic farm on campus. Josh received his AB in Philosophy and Literature from Harvard University but says he learned just as much when he took a year off to work as a shepherd in Sicily. In 2010, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader. Josh lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he tends a small garden, cooks for friends, and goes fishing when and where he can.
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