The school was founded by Slow Food International cooperation with the Italian regions of Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna, in 2004. It is ministerially recognized and is a private non-profit institution. It's goal, in addition to educate young people who is "food-obsessed" the importance of humanity's impact on our produce, ingredients, culture, and biodiversity.
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As of 2005, the school has welcomed more than 400 students from 50 different nations, with an age range of 22 to 66. Furthermore, from September 2013, four distinct streams in the Masters in Food Culture and Communications program, will be offered. Subjects like human ecology, commercial communication, artisanal production, while maintaining consistent focus on ecogastronomy; which is "the art and appreciation of preparing and eating good food."
According to the University of New Hampshire. It is the "art and appreciation," or food that can't be separated from our agriculture, environment, and the myriad of social, economic, political, and ethical issues associated with food production and eating, "ecogastronomy represents a highly innovative and interdisciplinary approach to studying our food community."
RHETORIC
The language in this section of Slow Food, in my opinion, is a little more "reassuring" for me. It's reassuring because it displays their ability to be emotionally vulnerable by showing the personal accounts of someone that has studied there and who's made it. There are three small "diary-entries" or case studies, if you will, and this is the type of rhetoric that I think would make their campaigns more captivating to people, rather than making it statistically impactful.
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A case study that was illustrated on the page is an example that expresses what I am talking about. Luca Parigi, an Italian student that attended the school in 2011, said that it was a "stimulating, food-obsessed environment with plenty of knowledgeable people (both professors and students), which opened his mind to other people's food cultures." According to an interview from the university, this openness he was able to practice in his degree allowed him to translate his skills that uses today, working in marketing and innovation department for Barilla's operations in Asia, Africa, and Australia.
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Even though this recollection isn't as encompassing as I would've liked it to have been, it shows the idea that I'd like Slow Food to adopt in many other areas of their movement, especially on their website and their social media. It's also reassuring to me because it is "real" and believable for the audience. The more realistic and vivid a picture is painted in the audiences' mind, the easier it is for people to support your idea; and this, for me, works.