Rock star? Self-help guru? Superchurch preacher? Carlo Petrini – or Carlin, as he is affectionately known by friends and fans - is none of these, yet in his native Italy he commands a following few others can match. Once every two years, foodies and farmers flock to Turin from all over the world to attend an event that was launched by Petrini, a one-time journalist who used to write restaurant reviews for Italy's communist dailies, back in 1996. Salone del Gusto, the Slow Food movement's biennial jamboree, is now one of the world's leading food fairs attracting more than 180,000 people over its five days. Since 2004 it has been joined by Terra Madre, a conference for a global network of small-scale farmers wedded to the slow food principles that aim to buck the ever-present threats of homogeneity, globalisation and environmental unsustainability.