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The newsletter for all members of the Terra Madre
network, defenders of sustainable
agriculture, fishing and breeding |
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Projects
Sweet Potatoes as an Antidote to Hunger
The world food crisis is becoming dramatic. The continuous,
unaffordable increases in the prices of wheat (+120%), corn,
rice (+75%) and soy are causing havoc across the world,
especially in poor developing countries, where most people
spend more than half their income on food. The situation is
further aggravated by the drop in global production and
overall rise in the demand for food.
Annual per capita consumption of rice in Indonesia is around
139 kilograms and it is forecast that the population will
increase from 230 to 425 million by 2030. This will cause a
huge crisis in the country’s ability to provide sufficient
food for everyone.
Pak Adi Kharisma, coordinator of the community of Bali rice
and sweet potato growers, attended Terra Madre 2006 in
Turin. Concerned about the alarming prospects for Indonesia,
Pak Adi, along with others, came to the conclusion that the
only way to avert the looming crisis was to reduce
dependence on rice as a staple food by 100% and replace half
of it by alternative foods grown locally.
The first step was to find a crop that was local,
sustainable and nutritious. He enterprisingly began to carry
out research and trials, and came upon a possible solution:
sweet potatoes (ubi), a traditional food of the area. Of the
20 varieties of ubi that he identified, Pak Adi selected
four (white, yellow, purple and orange). After further
experiments he managed to make a tasty and nutritious food
composed of 50% rice, 30% purple and yellow ubi and the
remaining 20% of locally produced peas, soy seeds, long
beans and peanuts.
Last year Pak Adi opened a small restaurant, Warung Sela
Boga, and launched a range of food products in Denpasar
(capital of the province of Bali, Indonesia).
And this is not all: he has also set up a training program
to turn local students in their last year of high school
into productive and successful small farmers, as well as a
project to teach village women to prepare food products they
can sell locally. Pak Adi created this initiative because he
knows how crucial it is to teach women about nutrition,
hygiene and basic economics.
For information about the
project, contact:
Pak Adi Kharisma
Coordinator, Community of Bali rice and sweet potato growers
adi_kh@hotmail.com
Shepherds
Meet
Focus on...
Free seeds!
The concept of
food miles was introduced in the
1990s by Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at London’s City
University, to highlight the huge distances traveled by food
before it gets to our tables. It illustrates the ecological
impact and sustainability of the food we eat every day and
is a component of much wider considerations, involving
conflicting issues and a whole range of social, ecological
and economic implications of food production processes.
The concept of
food miles
was prompted by concerns about pollution and the responsible
use of resources when endeavoring to satisfy people's food
needs without inflicting irreversible damage on our planet.
Food miles are therefore intrinsically connected to the
concepts of
local food
(the essential underpinning for local independent economies,
where production, processing, distribution and consumption
are integrated and enhance a specific area) and of food’s ‘carbon
footprint’ (which refers to the
environmental impact of human activity in terms of CO2
emissions).
A carbon footprint reflects the way food is transported (the
distance traveled and the type of transport used) and
produced (greenhouses and fertilizers require a lot of
energy and emit significant quantities of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere).
From France comes an
example of local food production that shows how the
landscape, animal species and occupations can be regained,
and relationships between people and nature revived.
The
Taste of Wild River Fish
For too long we have neglected the flavors of wild river
fish, mainly eaten where they caught and at one time
eaten by everyone in the local area.
‘Wouldn't it be more sensible to eat fish from a nearby
river rather than from depleted fish stocks brought to
our tables by fleets of industrial fishing boats after a
journey of thousands of kilometers?’ ask the 14 Loire
fishermen in a
Terra Madre community.
The
project pursued by these ‘river
gardeners’ aims to promote and develop their fisheries,
traditional occupations and methods. They will create a
sustainable fishing activity, provide customer
satisfaction, regenerate the environment and develop a
responsible tourism initiative. Five Slow Food convivia
are involved in this venture, which is coordinated by
the
Slow Food Tours Val de Loire convivium,
WWF France (Rivières
Vivantes program) and a group of
local public bodies (regions, provinces, municipalities
and so on) already working on the
Plan Loire Grandeur Nature project.
As a result of this joint effort, fish species such as
the allis shad and lamprey have increased significantly
in just a few years, from a few hundred to 90,000.
In April the
Loire Fish Month
was launched, an initiative featuring lectures, TV
programs and local and national press coverage, together
with theme dinners and tastings of migratory and
sedentary Loire fish promoted by over 30 restaurants
working closely with local fishermen. The aim is to
encourage locals and visiting tourists to rediscover the
pleasures of eating native fish, while learning about
the river and sustainable fishing.
The professional fishermen use selective, eco-friendly
artisan techniques and have formed an association with a
brand name,
Poissons Sauvages du
Bassin de la Loire. This
guarantees that the fish is extremely fresh, is of high
quality and comes from a healthy environment. The
commercialization of these products favors the creation
of virtuous systems of sustainable local production,
sale and consumption. The fishermen’s association has
succeeded in developing a direct supply network which
enables them to sell their fish to local restaurants.
For further
information click
here or contact:
Philippe Boisneau
Coordinator of the Loire Basin Fishing Community
philippe.boisneau@wanadoo.fr
Stéphane Merceron
Leader of the Slow Food Tours-Val de Loire Convivium
slowfood-tours@wanadoo.fr
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The Centrality of Food
What is the value of food? Everyday things tend to be
taken for granted because they’re always there. We only
notice them when a crisis sparks and shortages snap us
out of our habits.
People struggling on a daily basis to get enough food
don't need others telling them how important food is in
their lives. Every day is a day of reckoning. However, a
situation of abundance—or rather, a situation where
people are used to abundance—doesn't allow most people
to be aware that food is not only a question of
survival. It is an expression of what we are and what
our society is. It is a reflection or a cause of many of
the large and small problems that surround us.
Since the agrifood industry set itself up as our main
provider, this awareness has been handed over to food
companies so they can make profits. But profits do not
follow the laws of nature, and this incompatibility
creates disruptive unsustainability.
The economic value of food is also increasing: the price
of wheat, for example, has risen dramatically. Increases
in worldwide consumption of meat (in countries where
they didn’t use to eat it) and the boom in biofuels are
among the main causes for soaring prices, which show no
sign of moderating and are beginning to create social
tensions in both the global North and the global South.
This has happened because we have forgotten the value
embedded in the act of eating and what it represents.
Its sanctity has been eroded, reducing it to the level
of any other consumer product that follows the rules of
a market economy opposed to nature.
Bringing food back to the centre of our lives is an
immensely responsible act, as well as a benefit for
ourselves. It means beginning to think together,
learning to share knowledge and act in full awareness of
global destiny. Our own destiny starts from our own
particular situation—what we decide to put on our
plates, the seeds we decide to plant in our fields. We
need new responsibilities, based on the centrality of
food in our lives. That is something the Terra Madre
communities know very well and it is what their network
can teach the rest of the world.
Carlo Petrini
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 |
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 Slow
Food
key words
Sustainable food
A learning community is composed of various people interested in
food, who organize educational projects. It is not only a
question of creating relationships around a particular
initiative, but of forming a community where learning is
understood as a constructive, mutual process of learning and
educating.
A
school garden
is an example of a learning community. The garden is a catalyst
for creating relationships between people (grandparents,
teachers, students, families, members of the public, the local
authority, the convivium committee, local producers and so on),
who, through their shared experience of the garden, exchange
‘non-material gifts’, i.e. knowledge and skills. They thus
create a dynamic and vital cooperative endeavor. At the same
time, this community becomes a collective entity defending the
agricultural, food and gastronomic culture of the local area.
Voices from
Terra Madre
Placing food at the center of your value system doesn't mean you
are a hedonist. It means you are choosing a primary human need
which defines identity (we are what we eat), as your main
perspective on the world and on what is involved in producing
food, from agriculture to social relationships. Food is a key
for envisaging a different sort of society, food unites where
religion and money divide.
Mirco Marconi
Leader of the Reggio Emilia Convivium and Coordinator of the
Cappello del Prete Squash Growers Community
info@slowfoodreggio.it
Food Traditions
Sweet
Rice Crackers
Rice (Oryza
sativa) is grown widely in
Pakistan’s Punjab Province. The growing season for this
cereal, the main food for Pakistani people, begins in
June and extends until the end of October/November.
Two main types of rice are used: fine and coarse. Fine
rice is sold in Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle
East, while coarse rice is mainly exported to African
countries. Many products are made from rice—cooked rice,
breakfast cereals, biscuits, rice flour—and it is also
used to make beer and sake.
Sweet rice crackers are a traditional Pakistani
specialty, particularly common among farming
communities. They are a cheap snack made using coarse
rice blanched in water, rinsed, baked in the oven and
mixed with cane sugar syrup previously heated to a dense
mass. Cardamom flowers are also added to the mixture,
which is then cut into pieces and left for about an
hour.
This crunchy and tasty snack is eaten with tea, coffee
or cold drinks and is particularly popular with
children. It is a 100% natural product, rich in starch,
glucose and natural fragrances, and without any chemical
additives or preservatives.
Ijaz Ahmad
Slow Food member and
agricultural consultant
drijaz@agrodynamics.org
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
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How do food communities meet and
exchange experience
and knowledge at Terra Madre?
Nils Runemberg
n.runemberg@gmail.com |
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The various parties involved in quality food
production who attend Terra Madre have the
opportunity to share their experiences, develop
ideas and projects through the
Earth Workshops.
These are seminars dedicated to broad issues
(biodiversity, water, sustainability, traditional
knowledge, food education, agro-ecology) as well as
specific products and particular areas.
The middle days of
Terra Madre 2008
will be dedicated to Earth Workshops: on Friday
October 24 delegates from the different geographical
areas will be able to meet in regional meetings,
while on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26, 28 theme
seminars will be held, translated into the eight
languages of Terra Madre. Each workshop will be
preceded by an online forum, which will be activated
in June.
Did You Know that?
The
Peruvian army eats potato bread
The cost of wheat has increased 35% in one
year, affecting the price of bread. The
constant increase in prices has had
significant consequences for Peru, a country
which does not produce its own wheat but has
to import it.
As a reaction to the soaring prices of
flour, Peruvian soldiers have begun to eat
bread made from potatoes.
Since January
papapan
(potato bread) has also been served in
prisons and some school canteens. The
government wishes to save—and also
promote—the cultivation of potatoes (a
traditional product of the Andean region) to
boost domestic agriculture, particularly in
the poorest rural areas.
At the beginning of March, Plaza Vea, one of
the main Peruvian supermarket chains,
started selling
papapan
at a price of 5.10 soles (about 1.15 euros).
The state-owned company making the bread
bakes a range of loaves and pastries of
various sizes every day.
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