Terra Madre 2006

[Devotay]

Following on the overwhelming success of Terra Madre 2004, Slow Food will once again convene a "World Gathering of Food Communities" in Torino this October 26-30. This year, in addition to 5000 farmers, fishers, brewers, winemakers, cheesemakers, beekeepers and all sorts of other food artisans from nearly 150 countries, Slow Food has invited 1000 chefs from around the world.

I was a delegate in 2004, and will be again this year (and I'll be blogging it here). Another chef present at the first one was Rick Bayless. I asked him his thoughts when he was interviewed over on the ChefTalk forum, and here's what he said about his experience.

It's important that the Terra Madre network include chefs, because they are the link between the producer and the consumer (although Slow Food prefers the term "co-producer" to consumer, because as Wendall Berry said, "eating is an agricultural act").

Terra Madre will continue to construct a global network of food communities with a vision of a better food system, one that produces food that is good, clean, and fair.

Contempraneously, Slow Food will also produce the Salone del Gusto - the largest food show on earth. Picture the NRA show but exclusively food (no EcoLab), and exclusively artisanal (no jalapeno poppers). In 5 days more than 150,000 people will attend the exhibition, sit in on taste panels and workshops, and learn what Slow Food truly is: Food that is raised with care, prepared with passion and served with love.

[rancho_gordo]

It's important that the Terra Madre network include chefs, because they are the link between the producer and the consumer (although Slow Food prefers the term "co-producer" to consumer, because as Wendall Berry said, "eating is an agricultural act").

I was a delegate too, and it was pretty life-changing. I hope it's as good this time but I think the addition of chefs is a serious mistake. They should go to Salone and leave Terra Madre to the producers. As good as TM was, the programs and seminars needed a lot of work and editing. But the fact that they were geared towards producers meant everything. Meeting a bean grower from Ghana was wild. Meeting a coop of Mexican widows involved with ag was great. I talk to chefs a lot. A lot! I can't imagine what they would add.

The other problem is the conference takes place right at harvest time for me (and a lot of my friends), making it impossible to go. I had to withdraw my application.

[Devotay]

I agree with you about the timing, but for a global conference, there really is no perfect time. It's always harvest somewhere, ya know? or planting, or holidays, or whatever. Glad you could go to the first one, and that you met some interesting people. My favorite people were a goat herder from the steppes of Khazakstan and a Bhuddist monk who made cheese from yak's milk (ever milk a yak?)

Obviously though I must disagree about the addition of the chefs (being one and all). Connecting growers and other food producers with chefs is a vital link int he food chain. It helps create markets and makes those chefs ambassadors for the cause as well. From this you'll see interesting and endangered products start to work their way onto menus all around the world. 1000 restaurants is a good start, and pretty soon their competition will take notice as well.

Your right that some of the workshops could have been done better. I felt that, like in college, the majority of the learning went on outside the classroom. The stories I heard about people's homestays on the farms surrounding Torino were amazing. Whole towns created festivals just for their foreign visitors. This kind of conviviality is incredibly rewarding.

[Abra]

Thanks for posting this. I'll be following your blog with interest.

Steve, it's too bad you can't go. Rancho Gordo beans deserve to be world-famous!

[AlexForbes]

This year Slow Food plans to put a spotlight on its Ark of Taste project,

first launched in 1996.

Just like Noah’s ark in the biblical tale, this figurative ark is intended

to give shelter to all sorts of animals, fruits, vegetables and even

foods that are threatened with either real or potential extinction.

I wrote a story on this for a Chilean magazine, which is online at

http://www.in-lan.com/en/0603/essay.html

[Devotay]

Thanks for that note Alex, and for the article, well done. The Ark is indeed an important part of what Slow Food and Terra Madre are all about, and I was honored to be the host chef for the Slow Food Ark USA committee meeting held last September here in Iowa. We tasted, then boarded another 80 foods onto the Ark with the help of Iowa's gift to the food world, Seed Savers Exchange Exchange. included, for example, were the mulefoot hog, the gooeyduck, and the scarlet runner bean.

[Devotay]

Since Terra Madre 2004, Slow Food has continued to work with food communities all over the world.

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity funds Presidia to protect and promote traditional community products threatened with extinction.

TRAINING EXCHANGES have been organized to enable food communities to share experiences, gather information and develop appropriate production methods and strategies of promotion and control. About 100 producers from 15 countries were involved in exchanges in 2004 and 2005.

Slow Food is working to support and restore FARMERS’ MARKETS. It was initiated with a project in Mali, promoted by former Minister of Culture Aminata Traoré and supported by the country’s food communities to restructure the old fruit and vegetable market in the national capital, Bamako.

Slow Food USA has created the TERRA MADRE KATRINA RELIEF FUND, with proceeds from private donations and convivium events throughout the US, to support Gulf of Mexico food communities hit by hurricane Katrina in summer 2005. The beneficiaries — 12 fishermen, farmers and restaurateurs (Leah Chase among them)— will be at Terra Madre 2006 to share their experiences with producers from other continents. To date more than $30K has been raised.

[Devotay]

And this just in from the Folks at Tadre's Poiint Creamery in Zionsville, Indiana:

Slow food International has accepted the nominations of seven farmers from the Traders Point Green Market to represent Central Indiana at Terre Madre 2006.  Terre Madre is a world gathering of small sustainable farmers that takes place in Turin Italy every two years.  It is truly a gathering of small farmers from around the world and such places as Ecuador, Mongolia, Niger, and the Caribbean.  Two years ago our local convivium, Slow Food Indy, sent three farmers to the Terre Madre and I was lucky enough to be one of them.  The diversity of cultures, networking opportunities, information exchange, and education that took place over the five-day conference was an eye opener for all of us Hoosier farmers.  We came back inspired and set to work to advocate and orchestrate action to support small local farms and the creation of a more vibrant local food economy.  The seven nominated to go to Terre Madre this year, are all Green Market vendors, and include Alan and Mary Yegerlehner (the Swiss Connection), Roger and Beverly Sharritt (Sharritt Market Gardens), Debbie and Braden Apple (Apple Family Farm) and Jeff Evard (One Sky Farm). 

      The housing, food, and conference costs for the five-day event is paid for by Slow Food International and the Italian government.  This leaves only the round trip airfare to be covered by the participant farmer. Slow Food Indy is raising money to help provide for the travel expenses of sending Indiana’s seven representatives to Terre Madre.  For our first event we will hold a benefit dinner at the Huddleston Farmhouse Inn Museum, just east of Richmond Indiana, on Sunday, July 16, at 5PM.

keep up the good work, SFIndy!