Slow Down and Contemplate…

A few days back, from 23^rd to 27^th of October, the city of Turin, Italy saw a massive congregation of like minded people from all over the world, at Salone del Gusto e Terra Madre. They had all gathered to share one common interest: Slow Food.

Salone del Gusto e Terra Madre is an biennial global festival organised by Slow Food International with the aim of sharing the philosophy of preserving taste and biodiversity.

The two main themes for this year’s festival were the Ark of Taste and Family Farming (2014 is named by the UN as the Year of Family Farming).

Ideas were also shared on many other topics, including food waste, indigenous practices, the Slow Food Youth Network, Slow Fish, Slow Wine, and Apiculture.

The topics of particular interest to me were:

Ark of Taste

Sprouting from the concept of Noah’s Ark, the Ark of Taste is an attempt to search for and preserve indigenous ingredients from around the world that are being forgotten, lost, or becoming endangered, so to speak, in today’s world.

India’s contributions to the Ark include some indigenous varieties of citrus fruits, chilies and garlic, and the millet called jowar (sorghum). You can take a look at the various entries here.

SFYN

The Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) is an international network of young people whose aim is to bring about changes in the production and consumption of food. It is made up of young food producers, suppliers, chefs, and other believers in the philosophy of slow food.

SFYN had a dedicated arena at the festival this year where they held workshops, seminars, debates, discussions, eat-ins and parties for like-minded young attendees.

Indigenous Terra Madre

Indigenous Terra Madre is a movement that brings together indigenous communities from around the world, to discuss ways to use their age-old sustainable food and agricultural practices in modern times.

In 2011 the first Indigenous Terra Madre festival was held in Sweden, and in 2015, the second edition will be held in our very own Meghalaya, India!

Food Waste

A major and growing global issue -- food wastage -- was also addressed through interesting workshops on topics like cooking with leftovers.

Jamie Oliver

A chef I admire for his style of cooking and eating, his food philosophy and his various efforts to educate children about the importance of eating good, clean, real food. He has been a constant source of inspiration to me, and is one of my idols. And Jamie Oliver attended this year’s Terra Madre Festival!

He participated in two conferences, one on Edible Education – teaching children how to appreciate Slow Food values in a ‘fast food’ world through school lunch programs; and the other on Food Politics, the challenge of feeding the planet and its exponentially growing population sustainably.

These topics were interesting for me because all these movements can be replicated in India. In fact, they need to be. By people like you and me. (Except Jamie, of course -- he is a “one and only” and can never be replicated!)

Slow Food is a movement I’ve admired for a while now (see my earlier post on the topic). And with activities and themes like these being covered at the festival, I SO wish I could have been there in person… maybe next year.