Terra Madre is the event in the Slow Food calendar. The brainchild of Carlo Petrini, it is a forum for people involved in creating sustainable food systems in some way to network, encourage and inspire one another. Every two years, thousands meet and share their experiences in making good food relevant and secure through workshops, sessions, informal markets and around the ubiquitous coffee stands. From sessions on policy, to honey making in Africa, to creating school gardens and protecting unique, traditional products and lifestyles teetering on the brink of extinction, the Olympic buildings at Torino Lingotto are abuzz with dozens of languages spoken, ceremonial dress and passionate people. Speakers such as Alice Waters (Berkeley's Edible Schoolyard and Chez Panisse) and Raj Patel ("Stuffed and Starved") were present and active throughout the event.
Partner an event of this magnitude with the Slow Food fair of taste - hundreds of exhibitors from all five continents set up booths selling, tasting and educating participants on their products. With multiple restaurants, a street food section, a cocktail bar, cigar lounge and an enoteca (wine bar) with almost 2,000 bottles open at any given time, the halls were packed. Furthermore, hundreds of tasting workshops were running concurrently - from beer and wine, to honey, to presidium food products - as well as dinners cooked all over the Piemonte region by renowned chefs.
If it sounds overwhelming, it was.
My friend Diann arrived to partake in the entire experience, and while it was a huge gift to have her smiling face present, the time was too short and action-packed to really soak in the time together and relax. My roommate had two guests in town as well, and so the five of us would gradually find our way back to Bra, arms laden with goods from all corners of the globe, open a bottle of prosecco and began combining forces for some stellar meals.
My tasks were simple during the event: go to a Food Policy session, attend a specific session: Slow Food in the Canteen and write a two page summary of it for the Terra Madre website, and then to take in as much as I could. And that's exactly what I did.
While I enjoyed the sessions I attended for the most part, the definite highlight was the Slow Food in the Canteen session I wrote my report on. Nine presenters, ranging from the minister of agriculture for Ireland to a British mother and teacher who completely overhauled the food program at her school, to EU representatives who were implementing the School Fruit Scheme, spoke about their experiences changing the way schools approach food. What made the experience even more inspiring for me, as I'm slowly starting to put together a proposal for a high school food studies program, was the woman I met on the bus prior to the session. A representative from Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, on the European Commission for Healthy Food in Schools, she'd been stranded the night before in Bra after a social at one of our two regular hangouts, Cafe Boglione. We started talking education and food systems, and began exchanging ideas, contacts and future connections - the hour long drive flew by in a heartbeat.
While the experience was definitely an incredible one, there was one lesson I was reminded of throughout, and while it might be part of the Slow Food philosphy, it was an intensely personal one for me.
This world is a big one, full of billions of people, and beyond anything I can ever imagine. And when I'm feeling like my world and connections are small - there is so much possibility and potential out there . . . if I choose to take it.
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