Terra Madre 2014, Turin, Italy

Quinoa farmer from Bolivia
Quinoa farmer from Bolivia

In October, I got to attend Terra Madre (“Mother Earth”), the international conference of Slow Food that takes place every 2 years in Turin, Italy since the 1990s. It is basically the United Nations of food, focused on sustainable food production, small scale farming, and preserving food traditions. The goal is “good, clean and fair” food. Thousands of people attended from all over the world, and most countries had a table displaying their native foods. I don’t know what was more interesting—meeting all the people –many dressed in their traditional clothing—or tasting all the diverse types of foods, many of which I had never seen before. The Slow Food movement was started by revolutionary thinker Carlo Petrini whose mission started in response to the expansion of fast food establishments that were changing the food industry for the worse. Italy was a beautiful place to have this conference, and I got to visit 2 local vineyards. My only comment is that there was still too much meat featured at the conference and I hope the movement continues to encourage plant based foods. For more pictures see the Green Inside and Out facebook page.

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Beth Fiteni