The Taste of Mother Earth

Slow Food’s biennial extravaganza turns 20 this year...

Three good news to start with, because we can all do with more uplifting news these days.

Rachel Kyte, a former special representative for the UN and a familiar face in the climate diplomacy circles, has been appointed the UK’s climate envoy, a role the previous Conservative government had axed. This came days after a trio of speeches by three Labour Secretaries of State that put climate and nature firmly back on the government’s agenda. 

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister who oversaw the closure of Spain’s coal industry, is going to handle some of Europe’s most important portfolios including climate in the new Commission. The socialist politician still has to be confirmed by the European Parliament and will be surrounded by right-leaning, status-quo-loving bureaucrats and politicians, but green groups are breathing a big sigh of relief. 

The High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, made up of 66 countries including the EU, Japan, Australia, Kenya, Peru, and Nigeria, reaffirmed its commitment to end plastic pollution by 2040 and implement legally-binding measures such as cutting plastic production. The WWF hopes this will push the world closer to an ambitious global plastic pollution treaty when negotiations conclude in November.  

A graphic concept for Terra Madre 2024 curated by Undesign grouping nature into four ecosystems: woodland/forest, sea/ocean, plains, and city. This one is for plains.

I had heard of Slow Food long before I turned up at its flagship event, the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, in 2018, with an empty notebook, a fully-charged camera, and little idea of what to expect. 

Organised every two years in Torino, it is a celebration of delicious food that is produced fairly and in an environmentally-conscious manner and attracts members and aficionados from around the world. I knew it would be a big event, but the scale and ambition both overwhelmed and inspired me. 

I wanted to visit every booth, talk to every farmer, taste every product, and attend every talk. It was impossible! There were thousands of attendees and hundreds of stalls, taking up every square foot of the cavernous exhibition space in Lingotto. 

The whole city came alive too, with culinary events held in and around Torino’s stunning baroque buildings and magnificent squares. 

That first experience taught me that the event, which doesn’t charge any entry fees, is a rich source of stories. 

I tasted dishes made with supergrain fonio and became a big fan of Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam who was promoting them. I learnt that nutritious local ‘weeds’ could be a solution to Cape Town’s water worries. I spoke to pastoralists in Africa about how they can be part of the climate solution. I discovered the role Zumba played in the Navajo Nation’s attempt to improve dire public health indicators. 

I also had the simplest and tastiest sandwich I’ve ever had - bread with a generous serving of out-of-this-world ham for only 5 Euros - and a delicious multi-course meal prepared by refugees attending a culinary university in a small town near Torino. My luggage on the trip home was three times heavier. So was I. 

Terra Madre 2018.

COVID-19 upended the 2020 event so the organisers brought many of the sessions online. The event bounced back in 2022, with an apt theme - “Regeneration” - and an apt location - Parco Dora, a post-industrial park that used to house automotive factories up until the 1990s and which takes its name from a nearby river that is now flowing freely again.

This year’s event, under the theme “We Are Nature”, opened yesterday (Thursday, Sep 26), again at Parco Dora. Unfortunately it isn’t a fully hybrid event but if you want to live vicariously, the website has detailed information on the events as well as the protagonists.  

I caught up with Slow Food President Edward Mukiibi about this year’s event, the two-decade history of Terra Madre, and all things farming, food systems and climate change. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

I first spoke to Edie, as he is known, two years ago when he took over the reins from Carlo Petrini, the founding father of Slow Food. You can read that issue there. 

Power To The People

Thin: Let’s start with the theme for this year’s Terra Madre, which is “We Are Nature”. What was the idea behind it?

Edie: The theme for this year's edition of Terra Madre was carefully selected to remind us that we are not in control of nature, but nature is in control of everything that we do.

When we try to go against nature, the result is zoonotic diseases and climate crisis. In the beginning we thought, “Oh it’s climate change. It’s normal, it’s happening, and it will settle.” Then it became a crisis, an emergency because we are stuck in our own bubble, thinking we are in charge of nature, we can do whatever we want. 

So this theme is actually reminding us of the reality that in everything we do, even producing food, we must understand that we are doing it at the favour of nature. We have to take care of nature, for nature also to take care of us. 

If it’s fishing, we must take care of the oceans and the seas. We must take care of the lakes and the swamps and the wetlands. If it's on the farms, we need to adopt systems that do not work against nature. 

Humans are the centre of all this. We are the ones destroying and working against nature, but we are the ones to also restore our relationship with nature. So this is the theme: collaborating with nature. 

Thin: Does it also resonate with you personally? What does it mean to you on a personal level? 

Edie: Being a farmer who works closely with the land - I don't spend even a week without touching the soil - I realise how important nature is to my survival. 

That’s why I personally decided to go agroecological, because I get closer to nature and appreciate it, and nature gets to appreciate the work I do. (By) bringing back diversity on the farm, I can see how much this diverse production gives me, but also how much it connects me to the rest of the resources we have on the land. 

But the theme is also about putting farmers at the centre of the work that we need to do to restore our relationship with nature. 

This is why we are launching “Slow Food Farms”, to remind ourselves that everything starts at the farm. When we go wrong on the farm, when we use a lot of fossil fuels, when we don't take care of the soils, when we pollute and poison the soils, we are actually destroying our own livelihoods. We are destroying our own place in nature.  

Thin: Tell me more about Slow Food Farms. What is it? 

Edie: The Slow Food Farms is a program we came up with to recognise and create a network of farms which are transitioning to agroecology. They are working very closely with nature, working to restore and conserve biodiversity, not only in their own perimeter of the farm, but also with the rest of the community and policymakers.

The Slow Food Farms are physical spaces: a farm where crops and animals can be raised, but in a way that follows the agroecological principles and the Slow Food philosophy of good, clean and fair production systems. It's also a hub where people can learn, meet and exchange experiences on how to support each other. 

Farmers are good scientists. There is quite a lot of science created and practiced by farmers, but they don't have opportunities to exchange with others or to encourage others. So Slow Food Farms create this interactive opportunity.

It is also where we can remind ourselves that individually, you can do something, but when we come together, we can do a lot.  

Thin: Do you have any numbers at hand, like, how many farms do you already have as part of the network? And is this going to be a loose alliance (or) something more structured? 

Edie: We're going to launch the initiative at Terra Madre with pilot farms from different continents. 

A farm is diverse. When we talk about farms, we recognise that when we visit a farm in the Philippines, like in the Western Visayas, it's different from a farm in the United States, in Uganda, or in Europe. But the goal of the Slow Food Farms is to have this connection with nature and agroecology and the Slow Food philosophy. 

So we are starting with five pilot farms that have been nominated and identified from different parts of the world. They are symbolic of the diversity of the farms. We are also doing training. We have trained already 30 facilitators from across the world, and we are training 200 more during Terra Madre to identify more and more farms.

By the end of next year, we are looking at having at least 500 farms to be part of this network and have a common voice and platform where they can lead and also connect with the rest of the Slow Food Network. 

It's not a loose network within the Slow Food movement. It's going to be a very strong pillar of the of the Slow Food Network globally.

Thin: You’ve got hundreds of events planned (349 to be exact) but for people who cannot be in Torino in person, can they follow what's happening at Tera Madre online?

Edie: Unfortunately, this is not a fully hybrid event. 

Of course, some people can stream what’s happening at the conference through different social media channels. There is also going to be strong coverage from our side to share and publish what is taking place on a daily basis on our social media channels and elsewhere. 

And we are working with a good number of media personnel and film makers who are going to document all these and share (with others). 

So we are trying to create a very thorough communication system from Parco Dora, from Torino, to the rest of the world. 

Thin: I understand this is the 20^th anniversary of Terra Madre. Can you reflect on some of the changes and improvements from 20 years ago to now? 

Edie: The beginning of Terra Madre 20 years ago marked a landmark change in the scope of Slow Food as a movement. 

It created a very strong grassroots presence of Slow Food through the communities that participated in Terra Madre, opening up new geographies and new themes which were not initially part of the discussion or the organisation. There were new ideas and new leaders.

There's been quite a big change in the geographical coverage, from a few countries which were in the original membership system of Slow Food to over 160 countries now in the network. A lot of countries have been coming to participate over the years and their delegates have gone back to create local Slow Food communities. 

This year, 120 countries and 3000 delegates are going to be part of Terra Madre. 

For me, I got in contact with Slow Food for the first time during Terra Madre in 2008. I never knew such a global powerhouse of food activists and change exists until I was here. There are thousands of other people who share my story, and we have been able support communities to change the way we look at food, thanks to Terra Madre. 

(The international and global nature of Terra Madre now) has also been reflected in the leadership of Slow Food. 

Thin: What about in terms of challenges? 

Edie: The climate crisis is one. It’s getting worse and worse every day. And it is our challenge, let's say for the food movement, to put all our energy and resource to end and stop this crisis. 

Another is the growing number of of conflict everywhere, which are making the food situation even worse. Look at the wars in the Middle East, the war in Europe, the wars in Africa: Sudan and many others. The conflict for resources, like within Uganda. There are wars that are happening silently. They're making the access to good, clean and fair food more and more difficult every day. 

This is the recklessness of our leaders. We always talk about resolving conflicts in a very peaceful way, not to use food as a weapon. But in the end, all these are falling on deaf ears. 

This also creates a lot of divisions, while Slow Food looks at uniting everyone while respecting our diversity. We are working with communities from all the places without giving a political favour to one community over the other. We are non-partisan. But conflicts create this suffering and change the minds of people. We remain committed to our vision of everyone having access to good, clean and fair food and enjoying that food even in the conflict zones or when we have disasters. 

Then there is the strong push back from the industrial system and that is also a very big challenge. The more we mobilise and grow our network, the stronger they want to push back.  

Thin: Two more questions. You were saying earlier about how the September weather in Torino surprised you. Does that mean you were back home (in Uganda)? And if so, can you tell us how climate impacts are effecting Uganda and other parts of Africa as well? 

Edie: Yes, the drought in neighbouring Kenya affected us as well. We also had a lot of floods that really devastated the entire region. In Uganda and Kenya, people have families across (the border), so it's like one geographical territory. 

In eastern Uganda, rainy season has changed a lot and the floods and landslides in the mountains became very rampant. In Tanzania also, it has been the same with floods. Then after the floods, you have a long, unexpected drought, which makes life so difficult for so many people, especially in the tropics. 

Thin: It just makes it so much harder to grow anything as well, right? That has to have an impact on food productivity,

Edie: Yes. But it also creates conflicts with livestock keeping communities.

A lot of people die in theses conflicts when there is a drought because people start fighting for the pasture lands, for water, and there are many raids during that period. 

This has been the order of the day in these years as droughts are now becoming very, very common.

Thin: Last question, do you have any tips or suggestions on how we can get more people to think beyond what’s on their plate? There are billions of food videos on social media, but there seems to be a disconnect between people watching them and understanding the problems with our food systems. Do you have any suggestions on how we can bridge that gap? 

Edie: There have been a lot of videos on the end side of the food, like restaurants or cooking videos and people eating or advertising food. There has not been a lot of attention on the production side. 

I think we need to put more emphasis there and show what the farmers really go through, what the livestock farms are doing to maintain livestock health, animal welfare, how their animals are fed, how they are treated. 

We need more content on the production and handling side, not only on the consumption side, because consumption is also being used by many companies to market their products, even if they’re unhealthy… because it's a marketing tool. 

But information on how food is really produced has been disappearing for years. That's why people now are so disconnected. So we need to create more content showing the people behind the food production, the territories, the farms, the breeds, the varieties and the biodiversity. 

So people know milk doesn't come from only the black and white cow. It also comes from the brown cow, the long horn cow, from different breeds. We need to erase images that disconnect people from the realities of food production, and recreate the real images of where food comes from and how it's produced.

Thin’s Pickings 

1. Poison PR - Lighthouse Reports
   A blockbuster investigation from my colleagues at Lighthouse Reports, with media partners including The Guardian, Le Monde, The New Humanitarian, and more, about “a covert campaign to downplay the risks of pesticides and discredit environmentalists in Africa, Europe, and North America”.
   And it was funded by U.S. tax payers!

   lhreports

   

   A post shared by @lhreports

2. Regenerative grazing is overhyped as a climate solution. We should do it anyway. - Project Drawdown 

   A solid and nuanced take by Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, on a solution that has been touted as “a silver bullet” to curb livestock’s growing methane emissions. 
   

3. The 2024 Global Methane Budget reveals alarming trends - The European Space Agency 

   Speaking of methane, this stocktake is warning bells to anyone who will listen. The question is, will anyone? News articles have been written about it but this piece by the ESA is comprehensive and easy to understand. 

   “Methane emissions from fossil fuels, agriculture and waste management have continued to climb, tracking scenarios that assume minimal climate mitigation efforts.” 

   “Methane emissions from agriculture, including livestock and rice paddies, remain the largest source, accounting for 40% of global anthropogenic emissions. Fossil fuel activities contribute 34%, while waste handling and biomass burning add 19% and 7%, respectively.” 

4. UK’s Top 10 Food Companies Produce More Emissions Than the Entire Country: Report - Green Queen 

   “In 2022, the UK’s top 10 products food and drink producers – Coca-Cola, Danone, Ferrero, Kellogg’s, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever – emitted 477 million tonnes of CO2e globally,” wrote Anay Mridul, quoting a report from Bite Back, the campaign group co-founded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. 

   “In the same year, both the world’s aviation sector and the UK as a whole generated 426 million tonnes of CO2e, Bite Back found.” 
   

5. South Korea recycles 98% of its food waste. What can it teach the world? - Washington Post 

   Really interesting story from Andrew Jeong and Julie Yoon, even though the title is quite misleading. Because of course the answer is that it’s not exactly applicable elsewhere. 

As always, please feel free to share this post and send tips and thoughts on bluesky @thinink.bsky.social, mastodon @ThinInk@journa.host, my LinkedIn page, twitter @thinink, or via e-mail thin@thin-ink.net.