Terra Madre= Amazing

Oh man how the break did begin with a bang! I attended the Terra Madre 2008 conference and it was unbelievable. Oh man, I had no idea what to expect, I guess I was told that it had something to do with sustainability and the quality of food. Low and behold it was a movement, supporting the connection of community and food processing. This is a conference that now held it's third birthday and so people come from all over the world and learn about new ideas to spread sustainability and how to give more back to the people that matter most which are the farmers. The conference was held in Torino where the 06 Olympics were held and so you can image we pretty much filled the stadium and there were opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies. 152 countries were represented and counting because there were tribes within those countries that may as well be separate. Honestly the speeches were pretty great especially because they had live translation in 11 languages but that too can leave you with mis-translated information. Regardless the speakers included the President of Slow Foods, a powerful Woman Activist in India, a highschool student from Massachusetts who created his own school garden. The president of Slow Foods, a powerful Italian man, was so passionate about getting people inspired to take action and most of the time he was directing his speeches to the power that the youth holds. His name is Carlo Petrini and this quote says a lot,
"Eating is no longer about Love, but about consuming fuel. A woman cooks some food and no one smiles at her to say thank you. Neither is there any fascination with food. In Mediterranean Europe there is still that fascination, still the conviviality, the ritual. The most important thing about eating is to enjoy the moment of affection between family members or friends or work colleagues. A civilization that loses its ritual becomes poor. It is especially important for children to learn again how to experience communal eating"
So you can image that people were so different because it is a message that involves the entire world and it is especially directed to the that are falling into the trap that commercialized food companies created by luring people in with the desire to make things convenient. So at Terra Madre I learned of the struggles that farmers face daily and how they are coping through these struggles and also the wonderful things they are doing to in a way fight back and inform people that they are important people and deserve way more recondition than they are getting. The opening ceremony was great and it was just a great way to get people pumped about the days that lay ahead.
The great thing about my opportunity was that all the youth were sent to the same housing complex which was in Barranacchia about an hour away which was where the athletes stayed for the winter games. On the bus rides I met so many different people, both nationally and internationally. I met a lot of people from the east and west coast who were giving me great examples of how to bring knowledge of this problem to my campus. A girl from Yale explained how they have a school garden and how they sell a lot of the food that they grow to their campus dining centers and of the food that they are unable to grow or produce the school buys from local farmers. It was inspiring too, to hear of Eat-ins going on across the United States which is a form of protest but it is peaceful and spreads a great message. Basically a sit-in involves a group of people that buy ingredients from local producers and collectively they cook a meal to be served on a big long or very obvious table that is in the middle of a public space. The protest is an informational gathering that brings people together to enjoy a completely sustainable meal in hopes of inspiring others to do the same but more importantly it spreads awareness about the injustices of farmers that are ruled by the commercial enterprises. I definitely would like to take part in one or organize one for ISU and see how it turns out. I already love having pot-lucks so this will just be icing to the cake. I want you to image people from all over the world coming together and enjoying each others company and learning from each other with and without a language barrier, that is what I witnessed at Terra Madre and it was unbelievable. The beauty that I witnessed just shows how God has given us difference to embrace and just leave us speechless. Seriously I had some of the best conversations in my life and they mainly involved looks and or many hand gestures.
When I was there I attended several talks about the increase of spreading the knowledge and so on which were wonderful but became repetitive, I wished that I attended more of the interesting shows on things such as cheese production and wine tasting and things that I may not regularly have the opportunity to enjoy. So yeah if you get the chance to attend this wonderful event make sure to check out the events taking place at the Salone Del Gusto, they will blow your mind.
To fast-forward, I would like to just tell you how amazing the closing ceremony was. It started with speeches that were again inspiring and gave us even more of an incentive to change the way we grocery shopped and changed how we consume our food. After the speeches it became a dance part with a mixture of cultural music ranging from Ethiopian drumming and horn blowing to Italian traditional music to Native American ritual dancing and drumming to Belarusian Accordion playing to Arabian marriage performance which were all teamed up to the music of Mau Mau. It was a three hour dance party with people teaming up from all over the world. I captured some great photos but they do not give it justice. I want you to picture a Mexican with a sombrero dancing with a Hippie like girl and African women and men dancing with Chinese people both in traditional garb. I danced along side random people and enjoyed the company of Angela and my new found buddies from Switzerland who were sweet girls that I became really close with over the course of the conference it did help that I invited them to stay in the empty beds in my room because they were given the opportunity to attend the conference but were not provided with housing and basically it was impossible to find housing. But that is another story in itself, so here is a link to the media that was taken there. I looked and honestly could not find enough information to truly enlighten you of the beauty that took place but they are planning on making a documentary so keep your eyes peeled.
http://multimedia.slowfood.it/index.php?lng=2
This is also a wonderful site with these beautiful portraits taken at Terra Madre of the faces of the world. Please check it out because I would often pass the area where these were being taken and I cannot even tell you how different all the faces were and the photographers did a great job of capturing their unique qualities. Also I want to just end with informing you that I cannot even tell you how many different foods I consumed just from walking around the different stands and just enjoying the different flavors that my mouth had the privilege of tasting. There was a lot of cheese and meats, honey, chocolate and cookies depending on the area you were in but you did have the surprising treats from random places that were just so random. I enjoyed some really great things including nuts, Israeli treats, Italian soup, man the list goes on. So yeah I wish I could just bring you along because it is impossible to try and tell of all the tasty treats. But yeah I guess the next post will be of my continued adventures to Barcelona and just what all occurred there.
Oh I almost forgot, Angela and I and our new Turkish buddy made signs to give out free hugs and by the end of the night we had only gone through the hang out spot at the youth logging and wound up with over 15 different languages and even more friendships with wonderful people. I think it helped that Terra Madre was like a big filter to pick out people that are passionate about sustainability and preserving the land and the people, so I already took a liking to most individuals I came into contact with. So yeah I really enjoyed myself and I hope to some day attend another Terra Madre.