Many of you will remember Michael Pollan’s stirring words at the opening ceremony of Terra Madre, not to mention at the US regional meeting and other sessions both at TM and Salone del Gusto. He is the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”, a much-lauded book that is landing on a number of top-books-of-the-year lists, including the NYTimes’ 10 Best Books of the Year. He is also a Terra Madre delegate from Berkeley, California.

For anyone who ever wondered “What’s for dinner?”, this is the book to read.

Read more about Michael Pollan on his website.

Early last Tuesday morning Glencolton Farm near Durham, in Grey County, southwestern Ontario, Canada, was raided by the officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Natural Resources who impounded milk operations equipment and forbade farmer Michael Schmidt from selling raw milk to his cow share program consisting of 150 raw milk consumers across the province.

At a press conference on his farm on Thursday, Schmidt announced that would go on a hunger strike until all of the equipment, documents and other items removed from this farm have been returned.

Read the full story here.

Find out how you (especially if you’re Canadian) can help Schmidt in his fight against the government for food sovereignty—go to www.glencoltonfarms.com and download the Freedom of Choice petition or write to the Ontario premier in support of consumers’ right to purchase raw milk. You can also read more about the raid and current developments at the site as well as find out how to send Schmidt a donation to support him while government actions keep him from producing his milk and selling it.

Yesterday, Terra Madre 2004 and 2006 delegate Jamie Kennedy, a chef-restaurateur in Toronto, hosted a press conference for Schmidt at his restaurant. Michael Schmidt raises the Canadienne cattle breed, which is on the Slow Food Ark of Taste.

Slides from the presentation.

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When asked what I experienced at Terra Madre, for me, the most relevant underlying drive behind what Carlo Petrini is supporting is an awareness of social injustice/justice in the food industry. From the very small to the very large, from the way soil is treated, to the product itself: it is all about people.

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Dans ce monde de bouleversements
Où l’homme se déshumanise
Et où il devient la victime “consciente” de la marche irréversible du temps vers sa décadence

Tenons nos engagements à l’égard du consommateur
Encourageons la saine nourriture grace au labeur
Respectons la vertu de la Terre Mère
Revoyons les comportements avec rigueur
Assurons la protection de la nature

Ménageons la Terre Mères des nourritures
Allons à la cadence de l’agriculture biologique
Défendons les interets du producteur de façon énergique
Revalorisons les pratiques du producteur
Ecoutons l’écho des réalités des paysans

Hatons-nous vers Terra Madre!
Voyons! Partageons! Agissons avec fraternité
Dans le respect de la diversité
Pour le changement du rythme de la production
Qui entrainera celui de la onsommation
Changement du rythme de la consommation?
Oui!
Car la nourriture de la lenteur
Donnera à la consommation la douceur
La douceur donnera la saveur
La saveur de la vie
Une vie concertée, équilbrée entre producteur, consommateur et scientifique
Une vie dans la vie
Une vie avec une nourriture saine
Qui redonnera le sourire au consommateur
Comme le sourire du marié qui reçoit les orchidées
Le sourire de la vie rennaitra l’espoir
L’espoir de meilleurs lendemains pour TERRA MADRE

Boubacar Koubia Diallo

Guinée

More video from Terra Madre’s opening ceremony:

Flag procession

Aminata Traoré (Mali)

Alice Waters (USA)

You can find more of aiolozil’s video clips here.

And here, you can view many people’s photos from the event.

Traditional brewers / beers and styles - Europe

Hi,

One of the workshops this year showed how consumers / brewers and producers can work together to use the best local ingredients, with the best local brewing skills to provide execellent traditional beers for local use.

I (and my colleagues in European Beer Consumers Union) reperesent all the beer consumer organisations across Europe and we are always keen to hear from European countries where there is no consumer representation and from local brewers who want help to discuss and promote their products.

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Presentation for the ‘Native Is Better’ agro-ecology workshop, Oct 27, 2006

I am both a farmer and an ecologist. I farm with my family in the the South-east Scottish Lowlands

I want to explore why native is better and than to share with you what we do on our farm with British native breeds.

To say that ‘Native is better’ is controversial – What defines Native ?
I believe it is not helpful to think automatically because something is native it is better. It is better to consider the purposes for which animals were and are bred.

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Dear colleague participating at Terra Madre!

On the 29th of October, at the assembly “Cooks in food systems”, Claudio Bincoletto, an event chef working in London, and I presented my idea or proposal of having a Cooks of Terra Madre Day the 11th of November each year. 11th of November is a day representing peace (end of First World War) and new beginnings.

It would also be a way for us, 1000 invited cooks, to show gratitude and good will towards Terra Madre and also to promote the values and spread the knowledge of Slow Food to influential people, press and hopefully to the public. Slow Food in Practice. A way of us cooks to “get out of the golden cages” as Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, put it in his final speech.

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At Terra Madre we talked about our experience – that of a small group of restaurants, suppliers and an environment- alist - at practical implementation of good clean and fair, and how we are now working towards expanding this, creating simple collaborative networks of restaurants and suppliers. It had a great response, and a lot of people asked for copies of the presentation. So I’ve put it up here on the blog. We are feeling out way here. Focusing on practical implementation brings up lots of issues, so – please, please! – respond with comments and questions.

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