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June 2009
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In
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Slow Food
key
words
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Good,
Clean and Fair
Slow Food’s approach to agriculture, food production
and gastronomy is based on the concept of food quality
defined by three interconnected principles: good, clean
and fair.
Good food is tasty and flavorsome, stimulating
and satisfying for the senses;
Clean food is produced in a way that
respects ecosystems, animals, biodiversity and the landscape;
its consumption is not harmful to human health.
Fair food production is respectful of
social justice, meaning fair pay and conditions for all
involved; prices must be affordable for consumers and
fair for producers.
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From land to table... |
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Terra
Madre Tanzania
The first national
gathering of the network |
Tanzania - More than 150 producers, cooks,
academics and researchers, and others involved in organic
production and fair trade, from across Tanzania as well
as Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar and Somalia came together
in Dar el Salaam over May 29-30 for Terra Madre Tanzania.
Delegates participated in workshops and conferences, sharing
their experience and discussing the best local solutions
for sustainability, biodiversity protection and food sovereignty
in their region. On the second day a producers’
market was held at Slipway, where delegates were able
to display and sell their produce: organic fruits, mushrooms,
cheese, herbs and spices.
Terra Madre Tanzania revealed a country that is rich in
biodiversity, which still has strong ties to its gastronomic
traditions and is extremely active on sustainability with
many ideas for the future. One of the key outcomes was
the commitment to increase the activity of the Terra Madre
network locally, by increasing opportunities to share
information and work together. 56 people became members
of the Slow Food association for the first time during
the meeting, and several other new convivia are due to
be born in the following months across the country.
This first regional gathering of Tanzania’s Terra
Madre network was organized by Italian NGO CEFA, the Slow
Food Foundation for Biodiversity and Fairtrade as part
of the “Sustainable agriculture, biodiversity protection
and fairtrade, together against poverty (ONG ED/2006/120-817)”
project.
Click
here to read more about the event on the Terra Madre
site.
Click
here to view a selecion of photos from the event.
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Gujarat’s
Heritage
Recording food traditions through film, broadcasts
and print in this north-western region of India |
India - Young women from the region of
Gujarat are about to embark on a project to document their
regional food culture through film, broadcast and print,
gathering information from elders - mothers, grandmothers,
mothers-in-law, aunts and great aunts - and ensuring it
is passed on to younger generations and new mothers. The
project is exploring local food and agriculture through
three key themes: harvest festivals, such as Uttarayan
(Kite Festival) held to mark the wheat, rice and
lentil harvests; food traditions of other festivals, such
as Diwali—the five-day Festival of Lights
held in October; and food for women during childbearing
years.
This joint project between Slow Food and the Self Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA), aims not only to preserve
food biodiversity and local culture, through traditional
recipes and foods, across the region, but also to enhance
the importance of women in protecting the future. SEWA
Video has been running a project in which they teach women
to use film and video for some time, passing on skills,
ideas and job prospects for their future.
For further information, please contact:
Elena Aniere
e.aniere@slowfood.com
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10
Gardens for 10 Tent Cities
Slow Food takes
action to help victims of the earthquake in Abruzzo
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Italy –
Following the earthquake which devastated the central
Italian city of L’Aquila during the night of April
5-6, Slow Food Italy and its network of members have been
raising funds to assist those devastated by the disaster.
The Slow Food National Secretariat welcomed the proposal
to invest these funds in rebuilding the city’s covered
market, since the existing one had collapsed, and to create
an alliance for managing the market according to the Earth
Market model with the direct involvement of producers.
In addition, the “10 gardens in 10 tent cities”
project has been initiated to involve older people and
children living in temporary tent cities in a useful and
rewarding activity. These gardens will not only provide
fresh, healthy produce on-site but also highlight the
importance of local agricultural biodiversity and agricultural
sustainability as the region is being restored. The gardens
- which have already been prepared and sown with seeds
- are a symbol of revival and a way of strengthening bonds
between people. Trainers from the Slow Food Convivium
Gardens network and experts from the Gran Sasso and Monti
della Laga National Park will assist volunteers to look
after the gardens.
To make a donation to the project, click
here.
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A
Unique Brewery
How prison inmates
become master brewers |
Italy - When the prison doors close behind
you, your sentence starts and your sense of time changes.
However relief can sometimes be found through practical
projects that are grounded in developing useful skills.
To this end, the Saluzzo prison in Piedmont has setup
a special artisan brewery - a small operation with a focus
on high quality beers. The Pausa Cafè cooperative,
an organization that has been successfully operating a
coffee and cocoa roasting facility in Turin’s Vallette
prison for several years, has established the brewery
with the essential collaboration of the prison authorities.
Learning a specific skill such as that of master brewer
can be very satisfying in a prison environment and can
lead to more secure work prospects when released. Currently
four prisoners are working in the microbrewery, with sentences
of at least two years.
Pausa Cafè is also looking at the whole production
chain in this project, seeking top quality raw materials
with a focus on environmental sustainability. Tapioca,
amaranth, quinoa, basmati rice are sourced from Slow Food
Foundation projects in the Global south, providing a fair
price to the producers. And of course the project’s
benefits extend to beer lovers, who are able to enjoy
an excellent brew!
Paola Nano
Slow Food Press Office Director
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Fruit
and Juice Party
A project to
connect school children with local produce and a
healthy diet |
Uganda - In April 2009, 164 children
and 17 teachers from 10 nursery and primary schools, and
five secondary schools across the Mukono district in Uganda
attended a ‘Fruit and Juice Party’, organized
by Slow Food Mukono and the DISC project. The day was
focused on introducing the children to the region’s
many wild fruits through tastings and preparing fresh
juices, as well as workshops about nutrition and sustainable
agricultural projects. For some students, this workshop
offered their first opportunity to actually taste the
wild fruits that their grandparents used to collect. Representatives
from the National Agricultural Advisory Services, Uganda
Action for Nutrition, and the local council also attended.
Project DISC—Developing Innovations in School Cultivation—was
started in 2006 by Mukiibi Edward, leader of Slow Food
Mukono, to support school garden projects to produce good,
clean and fair food for Ugandan school children, with
a greater vision of improving nutrition and changing student’s
attitude towards agriculture. ‘Their participation
in food production not only enhances their taste experience
and diet, but can also lead to social change. By building
a positive attitude towards cultivation, children can
in turn help to reverse the existing food shortages,’
said Mukiibi.
Follow the project at www.projectdiscnews.blogspot.com
To view a gallery of images, click
here.
Edward Mukiibi
Project coordinator & Slow Food Mukano convivium
leader
ediemukiibi@gmail.com
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Sustainability
Course
September Program
at UNISG Pollenzo Campus Inaugurates School of Higher
Studies in Food Policy and Sustainability |
Italy - A three-day study program to
be held over September 11-13 at the University of Gastronomic
Sciences Pollenzo Campus is launching the new School of
Higher Studies in Food Policy and Sustainability. This
course is the first in what will be an annual part of
a summer program, developed in cooperation with the other
universities of Piedmont and the collaboration of the
Council of Universities and Research of the Region of
Piedmont.
The program includes participation from sustainability
policy experts such as Eric Holt-Gimenez, Tim Lang, Luca
Mercalli, Loretta Napoleoni, Clara Nicholls, Raj Patel,
Ezio Pelizzetti, Carlo Petrini, Vandana Shiva, Nancy Turner,
and Richard Wilk, and will be divided into eight disciplinary
areas: economics, law, environment, social systems, production
systems, traditional knowledge, evolution and co-evolution,
and policy practices. Lead by Professor of Ethnobotany
Andrea Pieroni, the interdisciplinary program is focused
on overcoming the limitations posed by agricultural policy,
in order to find practical answers to the complexities
of food policy, and is intended for those in the both
the public and private sectors.
For complete details of the September program,
including application instructions, please click
here, or email:
convegni@unisg.it
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The
Future of Seeds
Discussion
of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture |
Tunisia - At
the third session of the Governing Body of the FAO International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,
convened in Tunis from June 1-5, Slow Food was invited
to open the meeting of countries who have ratified the
treaty (121 countries), which was also attended by representatives
of civil society.
The session opened with three speeches by representatives
of governments and three by selected organizations, including
Slow Food, and continued with difficult negotiations.
The key issue of the treaty at present is its funding
strategy. The deadlock was shifted by a European stance
which affected the initial position of France, Germany
and Switzerland, and by small farmers’ organizations
and civil society, which focused attention on the role
and the rights of farmers. In the end a funding objective
of $ 116 m from July 2009 to December 2014 was fixed with
the agreement of all countries. It will now be necessary
to check that each country keeps to the agreement. Each
signatory country is required to pass a law on seeds and
farmers’ rights, but very few have already done
so. In addition governments must fund activities to protect
local biodiversity and we will have to urge them to do
this in order to ensure that support for projects isn't
just on paper.
Read Slow Food’s submission here.
Click
here for more information
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Local
Alternatives
The Brazilian
network expands its initiatives to promote short
food supply chains |
Brazil - At the end of May the Piracicaba
Convivium in the Brazilian state of San Paolo, organized
a Slow Food week to celebrate its second anniversary.
The program included a range of initiatives to promote
a short food supply chain and support local products.
Cooks in the Slow Food network set up at the city market
and presented recipes using local organic produce. Other
interesting activities included a series of lectures on
a short food chain, Taste Workshops to discover local
products and fruit from the Atlantic Forest, and a screening
of Marie-Monique Robin’s film The World According
to Monsanto. The program closed with dances, a photographic
exhibition and readings from local and French books to
celebrate French Year in Brazil.
The following weekend in Antonio Prado, Rio Grande do
Sul, the first national seminar was held on Earth Markets,
the international network of markets developed by the
Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity to bring together
good clean and fair producers with consumers in their
region. This meeting was attended by all the Brazilian
convivium leaders as well as advisers to the Brazilian
Ministry of Agricultural Development.
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Voices from Terra Madre
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Slow
Food and Me
Madieng Seck,
journalist, editor of the agricultural magazine
Du Mensuel Agri and Slow Food Convivium leader
in Senegal tells us his story... |
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Senegal
- When I discovered Slow Food
seven years ago I was already very involved
with press and journalism work on agriculture
and rural culture in Senegal. With my
farming origins I still felt closely attached
to the land. I loved to walk along the
paths that cross the fields, meeting farmers
and writing down what they told me about
their work. Some of my colleagues called
me “ the journalist of the savanna”
after I wrote an article in 1997 about
farmers following a noble occupation,
now neglected by many of my fellow Africans
who are more intent on scurrying after
ministers and heads of state, holding
forth in lavishly-decorated palaces about
the need for African development.
Through my constant work with small producers
I discovered a different world: a world
of practical farming knowledge which was
relevant and farsighted....... |
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Madieng
Seck
syfia@orange.sn
Click
here to read the rest of Madieng's story
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Food
Traditions
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One
Vineyard, Many Varieties
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Austria –
Just beyond the city of Vienna and the River Danube,
is an area of steeply falling rows of vines where you
can admire the view of the city from taverns in the
midst of the vineyards offering pork, sauerkraut and
dumplings with white wine. This unique place is home
to 700 hectares of vineyards surrounding the city, cared
for by 300 wine makers, all in within the Municipality
of Vienna.
The area boasts an equally unique tradition - Gemischter
Satz, or mixed grape blend. This ancient technique is
still practiced on around 50 to 70 hectares with different
grapevines (up to as many as twenty) growing in the
same vineyard. It is nothing like the cuvée method
or normal blending: here the mixing is in the vineyard.
All the grapes are white, but they play different roles:
there are basic grapes (such as Pinot Blanc and Grüner
Veltiner), grapes providing acidity (such as Rhein Riesling)
and others for aromaticity (such as Muskateller and
Traminer).
Until the 1990s the wine was considered of little value,
a light wine to be drunk young. Now a group of about
20 producers has shown that Gemischter Satz wines can
have great personality. Leading the way was Fritz Wieninger,
who cultivates his “mixed” vineyards with
the skill of an orchestral conductor. Wieninger tells
us that it is important to mix late and early varieties,
know when is the right moment to harvest the grapes,
add the right dose of exotic aromas with freshness and
acidity. It is a complex balancing act demanding the
experience and sensitivity of a great wine grower.
A Presidium was created in 2007 to defend and
promote this tradition: in December it will be one of
the participants at the Vignerons d’Europe event
in Florence.
< Return to
Index >
In
Print, On Screen
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Terra
Madre People
A glimpse
into the four days of Terra Madre 2008
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Produced by Stefano Scarafia and
Paolo Casalis for Slow Food, the Terra Madre People
video offers all of us a glimpse into the four passionate
and colorful days which unfolded at Terra Madre 2008,
when thousands of farmers, producers, cooks, academics,
youth and musicians came together in Turin in support
of sustainable agriculture and food production. Listen
to an Indian academic, fisherpeople from the Netherlands,
a breeder from Scotland, a cook from Brazil, a farmer
from Mali, a writer from the USA and many others speak
passionately about their work, the Terra Madre network
and our food future.
Click here to view Part
One and Part
Two.
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Soil
not Oil
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In her book Soil Not Oil -
Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis,
Slow Food vice-president Dr Vandana Shiva discusses
the connections between humanity’s most urgent
crises - food insecurity, peak oil, and climate change
- and why any attempt to solve one without addressing
the others will get us nowhere. Condemning industrial
biofuels and agriculture as recipes for ecological and
economic disaster, Shiva champions the small independent
farm instead. Soil Not Oil calls for a return
to sound agricultural principles—and a world based
on self-organization, community and environmental justice.
Soil Not Oil - Environmental Justice in an Age
of Climate Crisis, Vandana Shiva, 2008, South
End Press Cambridge, Mass. (www.southendpress.org)
Click
here to read an extract of the book.
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The
World According to Monsanto
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An interesting interview with Monique
Robin, the French journalist who wrote the book and
film The World According to Monsanto, is published
in the Sloweek section of our website
here.
< Return
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Food
for Thought
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GM
Foods Pose Serious Health Risks
The American
Academy of Environmental Medicine speaks out for
the first time |
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM)
has published a document in which it states that “GM
foods pose a serious health risk” and advises
against their consumption.
Genetically modified organisms have only been used commercially
for 13 years and no thorough studies have been carried
out into their long-term effects on humans. Experiments
on animals have shown worrying results such as allergies,
immune dysregulation, fertility problems, infantile
mortality, insulin problems and behavioral changes.
For these reasons the AAEM asks for a moratorium on
GM food and invites physicians to advise their patients
to avoid consuming genetically modified foods.
The academy also wishes to promote a campaign for clear
labeling. The main GM foods cultivated are soy, corn,
rapeseed, cotton and sugar cane, but many other GM crops
are beginning to appear on the market, such as papaya,
tomato, potato and zucchini.
Read the AAEM
document here.
< Return to
Index >
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Fast Food, Low Grades
First study
to show a connection between consumption of junk
food and student’s performance |
A new study on the consumption of junk food and academic
performance, involving 5,500 10 and 11-year-olds, has
found that a higher-than-average consumption of fast
food can have a significant impact on students' academic
ability. The study, led by Vanderbilt University in
Tennessee, is the first to show a conclusive connection
between high-fat and sugary foods and low academic results.
Read
more here.
< Return to
Index >
Campaigns
International Slow Fish Campaign
Don't
forget the Slow
Fish Challenge! Send us your
recipes which use local sustainable fish
and information about your event, photographs
etc. to be published in an online worldwide
recipe collection.
Pescado
sin Precio
Terra
Madre cooks in northern Spain present their
recipes for sustainable fish in the marketplace
Spain - Slow Food
Garraf and Terra Madre cooks from Catalunya
in northern Spain have held two Slow Cook
Jam Sessions this year, with a focus on
utilizing pescado sin precio (undervalued
fish). With the Boqueria di Barcelona market
providing a lively backdrop, the chefs present
their own recipes for little-known, sustainable
fish species - alternatives to those species
which are disappearing due to overfishing
such as tuna, swordfish and cod. These recipes
will be published online as part of the
Slow Fish Challenge. They will also appear
in a book on this theme, coordinated by
the cook Pep Nogué and to be published
in 2010.
The
Right Fish
The
Madrid convivium joins the Slow Fish Challenge
Spain – The Carpe
Diem convivium of Madrid, which boasts the
second largest fish market in the world
(after Tokyo), recently organized a fresh
seafood dinner. Taking pride of place were
the fishermen of Lira, creators of a fishing
reserve on Galicia’s Costa da Morte.
Thursday's catch arrived was delivered to
the city on Friday and was cooked on Saturday
with the help of creative improvisation
by cook Miguel López Castanier, after
selecting the most “sustainable”
and good value produce. The rich and varied
menu included potatoes, seabream roe, mussels,
angler fish liver and dried fish from Formentera,
another Ark of Taste product. The meal finished
with a traditional caldeirada, a dish based
on potatoes stewed on board with the fish
of the day, which has various names according
to the area, and is eaten on almost all
Spanish fishing boats.
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TERRA MADRE DAY
On June 13 and 14 this year, forty Slow Food International
Councilors from twenty different countries met at
the Alberese Farm in the Maremma National Park,
Tuscany to discuss the association’s future
strategies. They focused particularly on the relationship
between Slow Food and Terra Madre and the greater
involvement of young people.
Terra Madre has enabled us to progress beyond culinary
and sensory issues and see the political, environmental
and cultural dimensions of food, and important role
in social interaction, communities and providing
a meaning to life - to some extent as a response
to the concerns and anxieties of our everyday lives.
The International Board has therefore decided to
organize a worldwide Terra Madre Day. The first
edition will be on December 10 2009, Slow Food International’s
twentieth anniversary, and it will be an effective
way to celebrate Slow Food’s connection to
the earth. How you celebrate is not important: you
can organize something at home, promote events in
schools, in cities or rural areas.
The most important thing will be to focus on “eating
local” and to emphasize some key points:
• Food is a right for all
• All people have the right to decide what
they grow and eat (food sovereignty)
• Small-scale agriculture in local communities
is the way of the future
• Agricultural, food and cultural biodiversity
must be preserved
• Agriculture and the environment must be
seen as being strongly interdependent (agriculture
cannot be considered simply as an economic sector,
producing materials subject to the laws of supply
and demand)
• Trade must be fair, supportive and sustainable
i.e. local
In a speech given during the opening ceremony of
Terra Madre 2008, Sam Levin, a high school student
from the US, said: “We will be the generation
that reunites people with the earth”. This
globally significant idea was put forward by a young
man of just 15 years and he became interested in
this issue through a very simple activity: he created
school garden with his friends.
These are our present challenges! This is what Terra
Madre Day will bring to our tables and lives!
Carlo Petrini
President of Slow Food International
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| Join
a great international |
community
that defends sustainable agriculture, fishing
and breeding.
Celebrate the pleasure that the finest foods in
the world offer us in all their variety.
servicecentre
@slowfood.com
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CALENDAR
Eat-In
by UNISG students
July 4
Turin, Italy
Terra Madre Argentina
August 13-16, 2009
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cheese
September 18 - 21, 2009
Bra, Italia
Slow Food Nippon
Octpber 23 - 25, 2009
Yokohmama, Giappone
Terra
Madre Austria
October 28 - 29, 2009
Vienna, Austria
Slow
Fisch
November 6 - 8 2009
Brema, Germania
EURO
GUSTO & Terra Madre for Young Europeans
November 27-30, 2009
Tours, France
Vignerons
d'Europe
December 5 - 8, 2009
Firenze, Italy
ALGUSTO
– Saber y Sabor
December 11-14, 2009
Bilbao, Spain
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The seventh
edition of the event that brings together artisan
cheesemakers and cheese lovers from around the
world.
The biennial event
Cheese, organized by Slow Food and the City of
Bra, is back for its seventh edition this year,
being held over September 18-21, 2009 in Bra,
in the northwestern region of Piedmont, Italy.
The festival has become an international reference
point for dairy artisans and cheese enthusiasts
from around the world, with its presentation and
exploration of the incredible diversity of cheese,
through workshops, debates, tastings, educational
activities and markets.
Over its 12-year history, Cheese has changed consumers’
perception of the world of cheese, highlighting
the diversity of artisan production and its fragility
next to industrial producers. Since its first
edition in 1997, Cheese has been restoring raw
milk’s reputation, confirming its important
role in the relationship between a product and
the local territory and sensory quality of cheeses.
This year, Cheese is focusing in particular on
the issue of enzymes added during cheesemaking.
As milk is today subjected to strict food-safety
regulations, it is low in native bacterial flora
and standardized laboratory-made artificial enzymes
are used. This practice represents one of the
most widespread and little-known standardizations
of taste, leading to a progressive flattening
of sensory qualities. Cheese promotes the production
of milk or whey starter cultures directly in the
dairy, preserving the local microflora and so
also each cheese’s original characteristics.
Click
here to view the Cheese 2009 program in English,
Italian, German or French.
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Slow Food Almanac
The Slow Food Almanac 2008 has been
published recently in English, Italian, Spanish,
German, French. you can view an electronic version
of the Almanac here.
communication
@slowfood.com
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Slow Food and
Terra Madre
in figures
Members: 100.000
Convivia: 1.000
Countries: 150
Presidia: 306
Ark of Taste products: 813
Earth Markets: 9
School gardens: 300
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What
Slow Food and Terra Madre mean to me...
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It
was a privilege for me to attend the 2008 edition
of Terra Madre. I felt that Terra Madre has launched
a process of defending the earth, and promoting
its sustainable development by humans, which closely
involves the great majority of small producers.
This is extremely important. My country is one of
the great powers promoting "green" cultivation,
cereal production, fruit growing, and animal breeding.
I will do all I can to ensure these concepts become
the shared heritage of all my colleagues and superiors.
More producers like myself will then be committed
to the ideas of Terra Madre.
Thank you!
Yin Jian
China |
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