The EU hygiene legislation should have made the rules more equal between the different EU countries and clearer for all dairy producers. But it seems every country applies the rules to their own interpretation.

It would be good to have a clear comparison how the different EU countries apply the hygiene legislation for dairy products. How often they audit, what do they audit, what are the costs, what administrative forms have to be filled in, etcetera.

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My husband Alex and I were two of the extremely fortunate participants in both Terra Madre events.  There really hasn’t been a separation in the two events for us happily it has been a continuation.  So, I have to start talking about Terra Madre 2004 in order to tell our story of Terra Madre 2006.

Terra Madre 2004. 
We spent our first day in Torino at the Palazzo di Lavoro watching as people from around the world poured through the doors.  They came by the bus load: groups from Mongolia and Brazil, the Congo and Sweden.  As the day wore on we became increasingly aware that this was going to be an experience like no other.  We were in a room, a giant room, with farmers literally from every corner of the world.  Just being in that room, was an incredibly powerful experience for me.  We were all just “thereâ€? in a proverbial sea of humanity.  As confusing and chaotic as it seemed at times that day I think it was the perfect way to begin. We were all reminded just how much communication can take place simply by looking another person in the eye and wanting to understand.  At one moment I stood face to face with a farmer from Afghanistan. We looked each other in the eye, we understood each other, we touched hands. I will remember the moment forever.

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A dinner, forum and farmers market in honor of Slow Food Minnesota’s delegates to the Terra Madre conference
Sunday, December 17 :: Martin Luther King Recreation Center :: Minneapolis

The sun shone through the south-facing clerestory windows of the meeting room at Martin Luther King park onto 70 Slow Food enthusiasts seated at long communal tables topped with deep green cloths and set with our convivium’s white dinnerware. Guests enjoyed a cheese course as the program began. (One cheese was the first Big Woods Blue produced by Shepherd’s Way Farms since an arsonist set fire to their property two years ago. The flavor was magnificent! We drank freshly pressed apple cider — floral, and not-too-sweet — which was a perfect foil for the cheese [given that alcohol was not permitted].)

The first speakers were Slow Food Minnesota’s delegates to Terra Madre 2006, Lori and Alan Callister of Callister Farm, Dave and Florence Minar of Cedar Summit Farm and Tammy and Steve Schotthofer of Promised Land Farm. They discussed their experiences in Turin and showed pictures. Stephen Read of Shepherd’s Way, a delegate to the 2004 Terra Madre conference added his thoughts. Ron Huff moderated. Everyone agreed that being among thousands of artisanal producers and seeing and tasting the foods they make was inspiring.

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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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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

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.