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The newsletter for all members of the Terra Madre
network, defenders of sustainable
agriculture, fishing and breeding
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Projects
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Sweet Potatoes as an Antidote
to Hunger |
The world food crisis is becoming dramatic. The continuous,
unaffordable increases in the prices of wheat (+120%),
corn, rice (+75%) and soy are causing havoc across the
world, especially in poor developing countries, where
most people spend more than half their income on food.
The situation is further aggravated by the drop in global
production and overall rise in the demand for food.
Annual per capita consumption of rice in Indonesia is
around 139 kilograms and it is forecast that the population
will increase from 230 to 425 million by 2030. This will
cause a huge crisis in the country’s ability to
provide sufficient food for everyone.
Pak Adi Kharisma, coordinator of the community of Bali
rice and sweet potato growers, attended Terra Madre 2006
in Turin. Concerned about the alarming prospects for Indonesia,
Pak Adi, along with others, came to the conclusion that
the only way to avert the looming crisis was to reduce
dependence on rice as a staple food by 100% and replace
half of it by alternative foods grown locally.
The first step was to find a crop that was local, sustainable
and nutritious. He enterprisingly began to carry out research
and trials, and came upon a possible solution: sweet potatoes
(ubi), a traditional food of the area. Of the 20 varieties
of ubi that he identified, Pak Adi selected four (white,
yellow, purple and orange). After further experiments
he managed to make a tasty and nutritious food composed
of 50% rice, 30% purple and yellow ubi and the remaining
20% of locally produced peas, soy seeds, long beans and
peanuts.
Last year Pak Adi opened a small restaurant, Warung Sela
Boga, and launched a range of food products in Denpasar
(capital of the province of Bali, Indonesia).
And this is not all: he has also set up a training program
to turn local students in their last year of high school
into productive and successful small farmers, as well
as a project to teach village women to prepare food products
they can sell locally. Pak Adi created this initiative
because he knows how crucial it is to teach women about
nutrition, hygiene and basic economics.
For information about
the project, contact:
Pak Adi Kharisma
Coordinator, Community of Bali rice and sweet potato growers
adi_kh@hotmail.com
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Shepherds Meet |
‘We have a lot in common: the way we interact
with people, our work, the way we like getting together
with friends, and our dedication to our animals. Mountain
areas produce the same sort of culture wherever they
are. People are more genuine and kind.’
These were some of the sentiments expressed during the
first meeting of the Pastori e pastori project,
held from April 8 to 12 in Sardinia, in which six young
shepherds from Abruzzo hosted by six from Sardinia.
The twelve got to know each other, worked together and
made the most of the opportunity to exchange information
about their traditions and working methods. During this
first visit they discussed a range of issues—some
shared, others different—that are currently causing
adverse effects for pastoral farming.
Pastori e pastori is an initiative set up by
the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park with
the collaboration of Slow Food Abruzzo and Slow Food
Sardinia to acknowledge the high number of young people
involved in the Abruzzo and Sardinian cheese presidia.
Apart from encouraging an exchange of knowledge and
skills, the aim is to create a network among young people
working in agriculture who, albeit based in different
regions, are linked by the same type of work.
The friendships and ideas developed during this first
meeting will grow. The next will be held at the beginning
of September, when the Abruzzo participants will repay
the hospitality they received in Sardinia.
The twelve shepherds’ participation at Terra Madre
2008 confirms the importance of young people for agriculture,
one of the basic themes of the event.
For further information:
Anna Sulis
President Slow Food Sardinia
slowfood.Sardinia@gmail.com
Silvia De Paulis
Governor Slow Food Abruzzo and officer of the Gran Sasso
and Monti della Laga National Park
silviadepaulis@gransassolagapark.it
Focus on...
Food Miles
The concept of food miles was introduced
in the 1990s by Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at
London’s City University, to highlight the huge
distances traveled by food before it gets to our tables.
It illustrates the ecological impact and sustainability
of the food we eat every day and is a component of much
wider considerations, involving conflicting issues and
a whole range of social, ecological and economic implications
of food production processes.
The concept of food miles was prompted by concerns
about pollution and the responsible use of resources
when endeavoring to satisfy people's food needs without
inflicting irreversible damage on our planet. Food miles
are therefore intrinsically connected to the concepts
of local food (the essential underpinning for
local independent economies, where production, processing,
distribution and consumption are integrated and enhance
a specific area) and of food’s ‘carbon
footprint’ (which refers to the environmental
impact of human activity in terms of CO2 emissions).
A carbon footprint reflects the way food is transported
(the distance traveled and the type of transport used)
and produced (greenhouses and fertilizers require a
lot of energy and emit significant quantities of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere).
From France comes an example of local food production
that shows how the landscape, animal species and occupations
can be regained, and relationships between people and
nature revived.
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The Taste of Wild River
Fish |
For too long we have neglected
the flavors of wild river fish, mainly eaten where they
caught and at one time eaten by everyone in the local
area.
‘Wouldn't it be more sensible to eat fish from
a nearby river rather than from depleted fish stocks
brought to our tables by fleets of industrial fishing
boats after a journey of thousands of kilometers?’
ask the 14 Loire fishermen in a Terra
Madre community.
The project
pursued by these ‘river gardeners’ aims
to promote and develop their fisheries, traditional
occupations and methods. They will create a sustainable
fishing activity, provide customer satisfaction, regenerate
the environment and develop a responsible tourism initiative.
Five Slow Food convivia are involved in this venture,
which is coordinated by the Slow
Food Tours Val de Loire convivium, WWF
France (Rivières Vivantes program)
and a group of local public bodies (regions, provinces,
municipalities and so on) already working on the Plan
Loire Grandeur Nature project. As a result of this
joint effort, fish species such as the allis shad and
lamprey have increased significantly in just a few years,
from a few hundred to 90,000.
In April the Loire Fish Month was launched,
an initiative featuring lectures, TV programs and local
and national press coverage, together with theme dinners
and tastings of migratory and sedentary Loire fish promoted
by over 30 restaurants working closely with local fishermen.
The aim is to encourage locals and visiting tourists
to rediscover the pleasures of eating native fish, while
learning about the river and sustainable fishing.
The professional fishermen use selective, eco-friendly
artisan techniques and have formed an association with
a brand name, Poissons Sauvages du Bassin de la
Loire. This guarantees that the fish is extremely
fresh, is of high quality and comes from a healthy environment.
The commercialization of these products favors the creation
of virtuous systems of sustainable local production,
sale and consumption. The fishermen’s association
has succeeded in developing a direct supply network
which enables them to sell their fish to local restaurants.
For further information click here
or contact:
Philippe Boisneau
Coordinator of the Loire Basin Fishing Community
philippe.boisneau@wanadoo.fr
Stéphane Merceron
Leader of the Slow Food Tours-Val de Loire Convivium
slowfood-tours@wanadoo.fr
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Slow Food
key words |
Learning Community
A learning community is composed
of various people interested in food, who organize educational
projects. It is not only a question of creating relationships
around a particular initiative, but of forming a community
where learning is understood as a constructive, mutual
process of learning and educating.
A school garden is an example of a learning
community. The garden is a catalyst for creating relationships
between people (grandparents, teachers, students, families,
members of the public, the local authority, the convivium
committee, local producers and so on), who, through
their shared experience of the garden, exchange ‘non-material
gifts’, i.e. knowledge and skills. They thus create
a dynamic and vital cooperative endeavor. At the same
time, this community becomes a collective entity defending
the agricultural, food and gastronomic culture of the
local area.
Voices from
Terra Madre
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Placing food at the center of your value system
doesn't mean you are a hedonist. It means
you are choosing a primary human need which
defines identity (we are what we eat), as
your main perspective on the world and on
what is involved in producing food, from agriculture
to social relationships. Food is a key for
envisaging a different sort of society, food
unites where religion and money divide. |
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Mirco Marconi
Leader of the Reggio Emilia Convivium and
Coordinator of the Cappello del Prete Squash
Growers Community
info@slowfoodreggio.it
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Food Traditions
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Sweet
Rice Crackers |
Rice (Oryza sativa) is grown widely in Pakistan’s
Punjab Province. The growing season for this cereal, the
main food for Pakistani people, begins in June and extends
until the end of October/November.
Two main types of rice are used: fine and coarse. Fine
rice is sold in Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle
East, while coarse rice is mainly exported to African
countries. Many products are made from rice—cooked
rice, breakfast cereals, biscuits, rice flour—and
it is also used to make beer and sake.
Sweet rice crackers are a traditional Pakistani specialty,
particularly common among farming communities. They are
a cheap snack made using coarse rice blanched in water,
rinsed, baked in the oven and mixed with cane sugar syrup
previously heated to a dense mass. Cardamom flowers are
also added to the mixture, which is then cut into pieces
and left for about an hour.
This crunchy and tasty snack is eaten with tea, coffee
or cold drinks and is particularly popular with children.
It is a 100% natural product, rich in starch, glucose
and natural fragrances, and without any chemical additives
or preservatives.
Ijaz Ahmad
Slow Food member and agricultural consultant
drijaz@agrodynamics.org
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TELL US ABOUT
YOUR TRADITIONS!
Describe your community,
your regional dishes and the occasions
on which you eat them. We'll post
the best entries in this section:
communication@slowfood.com
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The
Centrality of Food
What is the value
of food? Everyday things tend to be taken for
granted because they’re always there. We
only notice them when a crisis sparks and shortages
snap us out of our habits.
People struggling on a daily basis to get enough
food don't need others telling them how important
food is in their lives. Every day is a day of
reckoning. However, a situation of abundance—or
rather, a situation where people are used to abundance—doesn't
allow most people to be aware that food is not
only a question of survival. It is an expression
of what we are and what our society is. It is
a reflection or a cause of many of the large and
small problems that surround us.
Since the agrifood industry set itself up as our
main provider, this awareness has been handed
over to food companies so they can make profits.
But profits do not follow the laws of nature,
and this incompatibility creates disruptive unsustainability.
The economic value of food is also increasing:
the price of wheat, for example, has risen dramatically.
Increases in worldwide consumption of meat (in
countries where they didn’t use to eat it)
and the boom in biofuels are among the main causes
for soaring prices, which show no sign of moderating
and are beginning to create social tensions in
both the global North and the global South.
This has happened because we have forgotten the
value embedded in the act of eating and what it
represents. Its sanctity has been eroded, reducing
it to the level of any other consumer product
that follows the rules of a market economy opposed
to nature.
Bringing food back to the centre of our lives
is an immensely responsible act, as well as a
benefit for ourselves. It means beginning to think
together, learning to share knowledge and act
in full awareness of global destiny. Our own destiny
starts from our own particular situation—what
we decide to put on our plates, the seeds we decide
to plant in our fields. We need new responsibilities,
based on the centrality of food in our lives.
That is something the Terra Madre communities
know very well and it is what their network can
teach the rest of the world.
Carlo Petrini
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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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Your Questions Answered
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How
do food communities meet and exchange experience
and knowledge at Terra Madre?
Nils
Runemberg
n.runemberg@gmail.com
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The various parties involved in quality
food production who attend Terra Madre have the opportunity
to share their experiences, develop ideas and projects through
the Earth Workshops. These are seminars dedicated
to broad issues (biodiversity, water, sustainability, traditional
knowledge, food education, agro-ecology) as well as specific
products and particular areas.
The middle days of Terra Madre 2008 will
be dedicated to Earth Workshops: on Friday October 24 delegates
from the different geographical areas will be able to meet
in regional meetings, while on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26,
28 theme seminars will be held, translated into the eight
languages of Terra Madre. Each workshop will be preceded by
an online forum, which will be activated in June.
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Did
You Know that?
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The Peruvian army eats potato
bread |
The cost of wheat has increased 35% in one year, affecting the
price of bread. The constant increase in prices has had significant
consequences for Peru, a country which does not produce its
own wheat but has to import it.
As a reaction to the soaring prices of flour, Peruvian soldiers
have begun to eat bread made from potatoes.
Since January papapan (potato bread) has also been
served in prisons and some school canteens. The government wishes
to save—and also promote—the cultivation of potatoes
(a traditional product of the Andean region) to boost domestic
agriculture, particularly in the poorest rural areas.
At the beginning of March, Plaza Vea, one of the main Peruvian
supermarket chains, started selling papapan at a price
of 5.10 soles (about 1.15 euros). The state-owned company making
the bread bakes a range of loaves and pastries of various sizes
every day.
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