I have always thought I was born a generation too late and believed the 60’s were the last great chance for political activism. Nothing since has ever grabbed me and made me want to put all my heart into fighting for a cause. After being in a room full of 6000 people and listening the Slow Food’s founder Carlo Petrini speak at the opening ceremonies (attended by Italy’s President and various other governors, mayors, and policy makers), I can imagine what it must have felt like to listen to Martin Luther King or Che Guevara. The power of being in a room with so many people who think the same way and are united under a leader whose every word resonates with vision, kindness, justice, passion and common sense is what fuels revolutions. The buzz from our common passion to save diversity, culture, and good food made us all believe we were touching the one weapon powerful enough to bridge political differences and create a thriving global sustainable food network.

I believe that the “food movement� is at the heart of the counter culture movements and is a commanding global force in combating the omnipotent powers of the false democracy of the industrialized nations and the power of money that allows corporations to run the world. The Slow Food movement encompasses other counter culture movements- environmental, peace, social justice, and education reform- but it has a secret weapon: it is motivated by pleasure and taste.* A quote from Alice Waters printed on the walls of the Olympic ice skating rink sums it up perfectly: “Loving food is the most personal and least abstract way to be an environmentalist.�

Through workshops, farm stays, shared meals, and opportunities to attend Salone del Gusto, participants had ample opportunities to discuss methods of production, marketing, and processing and share their traditional wisdom and knowledge. As an observer at Terra Madre (I’m a freelance writer, founder of The Ecogastronomy Initiative and leader of Slowfood in the Tetons I have identified the following themes from Terra Madre. What am I missing? Do you have something to add? Please comment..

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par Gilles Renoust, membre du Convivium Les Bituriges Vivisques, Bordeaux

Ca y est, j’y suis ! Depuis l’Assemblée Générale Slow Food France à Tarbes et son université d’été en pays basque, je me l’étais juré, foi d’escargot : je participerai à Terra Madre et au Salone del Gusto de Torino en octobre. Une semaine de pèlerinage en terre sainte pour comprendre et m’imbiber du Slow Food ! J’irai simplement en camping-car, réglant d’un coup les problèmes de transport et d’hébergement, d’autant plus que ces véhicules sont acceptés aux alentours immédiat du Lingotto, où se tiennent tous ces événements.
Arrivé sur place, on est impressionné par ces visages que l’on a vus à la télé ou dans les livres de géographie : des gens de la terre entière, de pays méconnus, dans leurs saris, robes, kimono, manteaux ... Puis on découvre une fourmilière de journalistes et de cameramen. Slow Food est si connu ici ! Muni du pass d‘“observer", je pénètre enfin dans le salone. Les portes franchies, l’odorat est assailli de nouvelles sensations, jamais perçues avant. L’Å“il prend alors le relais : la clé est sur les étals des produits sentinelles : légumes, charcuteries, fromages, viandes, poissons ... leurs couleurs, formes ... Tout est nouveau ici pour l’humble “gastropode” frachouillard que je suis.

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Era l’ottobre del 2004, e dal palco di Terra Madre chiudevo la prima edizione del meeting prospettando la nascita della “rete”: una
speranza, una necessità, un desiderio di non disperdere questo meraviglioso capitale umano. Oggi, a distanza di due anni e con la
seconda edizione ormai alle spalle, vedo su questi territori virtuali una delle possibili realizzazioni di quel sogno.

Ammetto ancora qualche “imbarazzo” nel cimentarmi con internet, blog e compagnia informatica, eppure da qualche mese ho preso a bazzicare
ogni mattina queste pagine che m’informano, mi emozionano, mi tengono in contatto con un’umanità che crede al nostro stesso sogno e lo
realizza nel quotidiano: nei campi, sulle barche, nelle stalle ma anche qui, seduti dietro una tastiera, con la voglia di informare e
di informarsi, di scambiarsi ricordi e conoscenze dell’eterogeneo mondo di Terra Madre.

Ora, queste mie poche righe vogliono essere un ringraziamento, a delegati e volonatri del meeting torinese, per l’emozione che
continuano a darmi ogni mattina, e un invito a continuare, a tenersi in contatto, a consolidare qui e altrove la rete.
Con un augurio di un 2007 più buono, pulito e giusto. E soprattutto felice.

---

It was October 2004, and from the main stage at Terra Madre, I was speaking at the closing ceremony of the first meeting about the birth of the “network”—a hope, a necessity, a desire to not waste this wonderful human capital and all the information . Today, two years and a second edition later, I see in this virtual sphere one of the possible ways to realize this dream.

I must admit that I don’t find it so easy to make my way around on the Internet, in blogs and other new web technologies. And still, for several months, I’ve been checking these pages every morning. They inform me; they move me; and they keep me in contact with those that share the same dream and make it a reality every day—whether in the fields, on boats, in stalls or here, seated behind a keyboard, with a desire to inform and to inquire, to share memories and knowledge of the vast, diverse world that is Terra Madre.

These few lines are intended to be a kind of thank you to the delegates and volunteers of Terra Madre for the profound feelings they stir within me each morning. I hope—I urge—you to continue, to keep in contact and to reinforce the network here in the Blog as well as elsewhere.

I wish you a Good, Clean and Fair new year, and above all, a happy one.

It’s already been a month and a half since Terra Madre and food communities have been busy back at home:

In Brazil at the beginning of December, communities gathered from all over the country at the Salone of Rural Territories to get to know each other and what is happening in food and agriculture in other regions, while in Bulgaria, the Smilyan food community held a bean festival in their village.

This Sunday, Slow Food Minnesota will host “Tales of Terra Madre”. Terra Madre 2006 delegates will talk about their experiences and show pictures of the conference and the Salone del Gusto. In addition to a mini farmers’ market, there will also be a potluck, and the convivium will provide a lamb tagine with Promised Land lamb and a coq au vin with Callister chicken.

What have you been up to since October 30? Which delegates are you in touch with? What projects are you working on?

In 5 giorni di conferenze di Terra Madre ho raccolto più informazioni di quante ne potrei assimilare in 5 anni di scuola. Ma la cosa più “impressionante� di cui mi sono reso conto é che la classe più importante al mondo, colei che regola lo sfruttamento delle risorse terrestri, è quella dell’agricoltura, del contadino,
e che tutto e tutte le economie mondiali ruotano attorno ad essa.

Ho notato che i problemi che ci sono in seno all’agricoltura di tutto il mondo sono gli stessi che hanno le nazioni civilizzate, chiaramente con le dovute proporzioni. Incredibili le tecniche e gli sforzi dei paesi poveri per arrivare a fornire dei prodotti di qualità per realizzare forse un domani qualche sbocco commerciale in più per sfamare alcune centinaia di bocche. Noi non ci sogneremmo nemmeno di fare un così grande sforzo per avere un così piccolo risultato. I rappresentanti dei paesi poveri sono venuti fino a Torino (con grandi sforzi finanziari per loro ma soprattutto per Slow Food) per avere solo un po’ più di speranza da riportare a casa loro.

Mi sono ritrovato alla cerimonia di chiusura sul palco a fianco dei vari D’Alema, Bertinotti, Napolitano, ma il più acclamato era un certo Petrini (ai più uno sconosciuto a parte i partecipanti di Terra Madre), il quale, quando apriva bocca, veniva ascoltato da una platea incantata dai suoi discorsi come fosse un Dio, come se fosse il portatore della speranza per tutti quei popoli che muoiono di fame. L’emozione è stata talmente forte che in alcuni frangenti avevo le lacrime agli occhi e la “pelle di gallina�, io che sono una persona che di solito tende a nascondere le proprie emozioni. Spero che anche altri abbiano percepito le cose che ho percepito io, per comprendere meglio il lavoro svolto dalla mia, nostra categoria.

Arrivederci a tutti tra 2 anni a Torino, consiglio a tutti una visita al Salone del Gusto per comprendere meglio quanto sopra.

Giorgio Speziale
alpigiano e allevatore di capre della Valle Maggia.

E’ in corso una raccolta firme che riguarda la Comunità dei Pastori Vaganti Piemontesi, in seguito ad un articolo comparso sul numero di ottobre 2006 de “L’Informafiume. Notiziario del Parco fluviale del Po e dell’Orbaâ€? intitolato “Pecore, Parco e territorio: una convivenza sempre più difficile. Il pascolo vagante e abusivo è un grande problema nel Parco del Po. Ed è giunto ad un punto di non ritornoâ€? a firma di Carlo Carbonero, Responsabile della Vigilanza del Parco.
www.parcodelpo-vcal.it/images/Pubblicazioni/informafiume23%20ottobre2006%20.pdf

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Carmen Tedesco, one of the convivium leaders of Slow Food San Francisco and also the man behind the excellent video interview of Kamal Mouzawak, produced this wonderful 10-minute film of Terra Madre 2006. 

I am an italian lucky member of Terra Madre 2006.
I work as a zootechnical and agronomical technician in an organic farm in the wonderful hearth of Maremma, the south part of Tuscany. Besides I am taking a PhD in Animal Production in Pisa.

In my experience I have noticed that we have to restore the ancient agricultural practices used for thousands of years by local peasants, going backwards before looking beyond! And this is essential in order, on one hand, to maintain soil fertility – and today unfortunately it is not enough – and, on the other, to have also a positive economical balance at the end of the year (obviously I am talking about organic farming).

So I have searched (and I am searching, sometimes in a such of compulsive way…) for old books, manuals, publications and everything deal with an eco-compatible way of life based on products diversification, crop rotation, appropriate seed varieties, manure management, local breeds, animal welfare, grazing technique, homeopathy…

For me that is very important, because every living creature can expresses their own best productivity in the original environment of selection: and I think it is the best reason why “NATIVE IS BETTER�!

Every place have its native/local reality, different from region to region, and we have the duty to search, find, use and finally optimize it, creating a successful mixture of ancient practices and actual knowledge.

I am afraid of my not correct English, but I hope you have understood what I tried to communicate.

Jacopo Goracci
jgoracciATvetDOTunipiDOTit
jacopogoracciAThotmailDOTcom

[Clicca sotto per il testo in italiano.]

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[Presented at the US regional meeting]

Sit down at the table with your countrymen & friends
And ask your lips, tongues, minds & bellies some questions,
Questions that remind us that our bodies & spirits
Are either nurtured by place
Or swallowed up by tasteless placelessness…

Ask aloud: Just what exactly is it
That we want to have cross our lips,
To roll off our tongues & down our throats
To be transformed & conjured into something
Altogether new by thousands of gut microbes
To surge into our bloodstreams
To be carried along with insulin for one last wild ride
& to be lodged within the very cells of our bodies?

Just what do we want to be made of?
What do we claim as our tastes?
& what do we want to taste like
When we, in our own turn, are eaten
by wolf, vulture, raven, condor, coyote or bear?

I, for one, & perhaps you as well,
Wish to taste like the very country in which I reside:

Like great plains bison wallowing amidst the prairie turnips,
Like salmon running up a cold and clear mountain stream,
Like gators crawling into a swamp stewing with sassafras leaves,
Like wild rice hand-harvested from the azure waters of a northern lake,
Like maple syrup gleaned from woods where Robert Frost once walked,
Like cactus fruit falling off a tall saguaro into a handmade basket below.

These plants & animals are asking us
to pledge allegiance to what is local, what is loved,
to what is seasonal, what is unique to each American place .

If old Walt Whitman were sitting at our table,
Supping with us today, he’d be celebrating
That wild old slumgullion stew that all of us together make,
Singing a song that goes like this:
“Taste America’s uniqueness, taste this earth,
Taste our terroir, savor its worth,
And by tasting, you will see!â€? 

Gary Paul Nabhan
Renewing America’s Food Tradition