|
|
| |
The newsletter for all members of the Terra Madre
network, defenders of sustainable
agriculture, fishing and breeding
|
|
 |
|
| |
Projects
GranOs
In order to protect small farmers' seeds from patent claims,
it is necessary to demonstrate that their characteristics
and properties are not the 'discovery' of multinational
companies, but the collective heritage of communities.
This is the objective of the GranOs project, an important
initiative of Slow Food's Terra Madre network, which joins
other programs in promoting an approach to agriculture that
respects the environment, cultural identity and
biodiversity.
The project aims to describe and protect the genetic,
morphological, and physiological characteristics of
conservation plant varieties as well as their known food and
non-food uses. Cataloging the vast heritage bequeathed by
traditional farming culture is an essential part of
defending biodiversity.
The project's website, which will host the first online
database next autumn, in time for the Terra Madre meeting,
will describe conservation plant varieties from around the
world, with genetic, anthropological, gastronomic,
pharmacological and cultural information. In addition,
GranOs will provide suggestions on where to find seeds,
people who grow the species described and what they have
obtained from their crops. All the information and the
databank will be available to anyone wanting or needing it,
providing they do not use it for commercial purposes and do
not try to claim property rights.
Details can be found at
www.granos.it. Please help us to
create, improve and fund the project. You can already give
information about seeds from your local area by writing to:
centrostudi@slowfood.it
Focus on...
Free seeds!
Seeds are defenders of biodiversity, they represent the
starting point for everything in agriculture. They are the
first link in the food chain and a common inheritance of all
human beings.
This is why there have for some time been demands that they
should not be subject to privatization, patents and
biopiracy.
The open source principle should prevail once and for all.
The right to freely reproduce seeds, exchange and save them
is being continually threatened.
| |
The term
biopiracy
succinctly expresses the idea of expropriation
of indigenous knowledge by companies and
research institutes. It refers to the claims for
intellectual property rights made in order to
legitimize the exclusive ownership and control
of biological resources, products and processes
which have been used for centuries by
non-industrialized cultures. |
Kokopelli
Evidence of the seriousness of the current situation can be
seen from the legal defeat recently suffered by the
Kokopelli association, accused of unfair competition by the
seed industry.
In order to safeguard ancient vegetable varieties and their
seeds, Kokopelli. referring to the
FAO Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources,
had sold seeds which were judged to be 'non-compliant' and
was sentenced to pay stiff fines. French law in fact
requires seeds to be registered in an official register at a
cost of 1500 euro ($2174) for each variety before they can
be sold.
The Kokopelli association was founded in France in 1999 to
protect the biodiversity of vegetable and flower seeds, and
now has thousands of members. It produces and distributes
organic seeds and defends plant biodiversity. It also
carries out projects in developing countries and publishes a
guide on how to save seeds, and attended Terra Madre in
2006.
Kokopelli is still based in France but now has national
offices in
Italy,
Belgium, the
UK and Germany.
Its work ensures the conservation of the seeds of 2000
vegetable varieties or species, mostly of ancient origin.
Website of the French
association:
http://www.kokopelli.asso.fr/index.html
|
|
Seeds
The Indian scientist Vandana Shiva, international vice-president
of Slow Food International, explains the aims and philosophy of
Navdanya, the movement she founded to promote biodiversity
conservation, seed saving and seed sharing among farmers in her
native land.
The Green Revolution reduced agriculture to monocultures of rice
and wheat needing increasing doses of chemical fertilizers,
pesticides, and irrigation water. Farmers' breeding was replaced
by industrial breeding. Agroecology was replaced by industrial
agriculture. Genetic Engineering, often referred to as the
second Green Revolution, has already reduced agriculture to
corn, soya, canola and cotton, based on two traits--herbicide
resistance and Bt toxin crops--in the hands of five giant
corporations. Having dedicated my life to the defense of the
intrinsic worth of all species, the idea of life forms, seeds
and biodiversity being reduced to corporate inventions and hence
corporate property was abhorrent to me. Further, if seeds become
'intellectual property', the saving and sharing of them becomes
a theft. Our highest duty, to save seeds, is thus a criminal
act. But the legalizing of the criminal act of owning and
monopolizing life through patents on seeds and plants was
morally and ethically unacceptable to me. Navdanya has created
more than 20 community 'Seed Banks' through which seeds are
saved and freely exchanged among our 300,000 members. This free
exchange of seeds among small farmers--based on collaboration
and reciprocity--is the basis for protecting biodiversity and
food security [...]. In saving seeds and biodiversity we are
protecting cultural diversity. Navdanya also means 'new gift'.
We bring to our farmers the new gift of life in the face of the
extinction of species and extinction of small farmers [...].
Contrary to the myth of industrial agriculture, biodiverse
systems of agriculture produce more food and higher incomes than
industrial monocultures. Our baranaja (twelve seeds) systems
give twice as much output and three times higher incomes than a
monoculture of corn.
From Vandana Shiva, Dalla
parte degli ultimi [On Behalf of the Least](Slow Food Editore,
2007)
|
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 |
|
|
| |
 Slow
Food
key words
Sustainable food
Although there is no legal definition of
sustainable food, terms such as 'organic'
or 'fair' are clearly defined. Sustainable food means food that
is produced, processed and distributed in a way that:
- helps local economies and sustainable means of subsistence
flourish in each single country and -- in the case of imported
products -- in producer countries; - protects the diversity of
animal and plant species (and the wellbeing of wild and farmed
species), avoiding damage to natural resources and any
contribution to climate change; - provides social benefits, such
as good quality, safe, healthy food and educational stimuli; -
tends to reduce environmental impact by adopting a systemic
approach, achieving a more balanced production cycle by reusing
waste
Voices from
Terra Madre
I am a nutritionist and work with farming communities,
particularly groups of women, young students and colleagues.
Attending Terra Madre in 2006 was a hugely significant
experience for me, and allowed me to meet other Kenyans
interested in finding suppliers of traditional food products.
I was able to take home recipes from other cooks I met in Turin
and learned commercial methods used in other countries for
similar products to the ones we have in Kenya.
I now hope to spread Slow Food principles at home and encourage
as many people as possible to produce, process and consume
healthy local food.
Emmy Adisah Otwombe
Kenyan Terra Madre Cook
addisah2004@yahoo.com
Food Traditions
From
Venezuela... tungos or carabinas
In some rural areas south-east of Merida, Venezuela, the
tradition of preparing tungos or carabinas still persists. These
corn flour tortillas are wrapped in leaves of bromeliad, an
evergreen native to the dry forests of Brazil and a member of
the Bromeliaceae family, which also includes the pineapple. The
heart-shaped leaves of juquian, a tubercle similar to yam, are
used to add vitamins, color and aroma to the cooked flour. Once
used, the leaves are disposed of in chicken pens, allotments and
domestic gardens where they are naturally recycled.
Tungos are enriched with curds or seeds such as green pea,
making them a more complete food.
This is one of many corn-based foods from Andean Indian
cultures, which are now part of South American culinary
traditions.
Douglas Uzcátegui
150pizzas@gmail.com
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
Your Questions Answered
|
I participated in the Terra Madre 2006
meeting where I had the opportunity to learn
many interesting things. It was incredible
to see such a range of different food,
fruit, meat and people from every part of
the world! What is the procedure for
attending the next edition of Terra Madre in
2008?
Poonam Pande
poonam.pande@gmail.com |
|
The third edition of
Terra Madre,
the world meeting of food communities, will be held
in Turin (Piedmont, Italy) from
October 23 to 27,
2008 to coincide with the
International
Salone del Gusto.
The first step if you want to attend the next
edition of Terra Madre is to complete the
online questionnaire, which is
available in eight languages.
Terra Madre 2008 will focus on young people. New
features include a
folk festival with groups
of musicians from food communities and the
Youth Food
Movement. Created at the
Fifth International Slow Food Congress (Mexico,
November 2007), the presence of the Youth Food
Movement highlights the importance of new
generations for the future of small-scale farming
which can promote local economies, environmental
sustainability and social justice.
The movement, created through the initiative of
students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences
and Slow Food USA, is composed of a group of
university students, young producers, cooks and
activists".
Did You Know that?
The
wizard of the seeds
At over 1500 meters in the Himalayas, small
farmer and activist Vijay Jardhari has for
years been fighting a battle against GMOs
and high-yield crops.
Jardhari founded the Beej Bachao Andolan
movement in response to the failure of the
Green Revolution,
which made Indian small farmers into slaves
of monocultures, causing soil degradation,
loss of biodiversity and pollution. After
experiencing the negative effects of this
approach, Jardhari began his campaign to
save traditional seeds and promote
agricultural biodiversity and local
traditions.
Moving from village to village, in the past
25 years Vijay has collected 600 different
native seed varieties from the area and has
revived the ancient barnaja farming system,
now adopted in all the villages of
Uttarakhand (one of India's 27 states). The
method involves every farmer using twelve
seeds with different life cycles to ensure
optimal production without poisoning the
land.
The
Green Revolution
refers to the new approach to agriculture
introduced around the 1950s. These changes
to traditional agricultural practice
originated in Mexico in 1944 through the
efforts of US scientist and Nobel Peace
Prize winner Norman Borlaug, and from the US
spread around the world. This approach
advocated using vegetable varieties with
high genetic potential and the widespread
adoption of scientific and technical
know-how (genetically selected plants,
agricultural machinery, fertilizers and
pesticides).
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
