It’s about 5:45 pm on Sunday the 29th of October. I’m outside Salone del Gusto, sitting on a piece of concrete and the sky is lavender. Dark gray clouds pensively float past the red ferris wheel–like bridgey thing that’s omnipresent here at the Lingotto. I just left the Terra Madre Network area—Blogland, I’ve been calling it, since I’ve been facilitating blogging there by TM delegates over the past few days. The Terra Madre Blog is Slow Food genius Winnie Yang’s baby, and I am oh-so-proud to have both posted here, and as of now, helped a few other people do the same, some for the very first time.

I like blogging. I believe in it for myself and for others. And I also know there are a lot of barriers to doing it for the first time. Technology for one (especially when odd things happen with wifi access timing out), but also writing confidence, having a sense of who you’re even blogging to, access to a computer in the first place.... The list goes on. But seeing all those first- and second-time bloggers posting has done this quasi-geek’s heart a world of good, and makes me believe all those barriers are eminently surmountable.

Some may believe that there’s too much information already online, that we can’t possibly read it all and it doesn’t serve the reader. But blogging isn’t just for the reading community, it’s also a process for the person blogging to feel that their ideas and their words are valuable. Maybe it’s just an exercise in ego, but a lot of egos can do with some exercise, and building up a little muscle about what you believe in is a pretty damn worthwhile effort. Especially around food.

So to all those of you who blogged for the first time (or blogged when you didn’t want to, but did anyway ‘cause I made you), I salute you and thank you. I’m proud to have met you this Terra Madre and look forward to seeing more blogposts from you in the future.

David Szanto
UNISG
(hey! check out MY blog: And the Dichot)