Two members of the Cape Town convivium, Kate Schrire and Donald Paul, attended the Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy, last October.

THOUGHTS FROM TERRA MADRE – Report by Kate Schrire

In October, I attended Slow Food’s Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy. As a representative of Slow Food Cape Town, I was given access to all the workshops and seminars, which are closed to members of the public.

Terra Madre, translated from the Italian as ‘Mother Earth’, brings together all the members of Slow Food’s international food communities. Although the focus is on food producers (think: Kenyan Masai herdsmen meet Tibetan Yak farmers meet Irish honey producers!), chefs, educators and activists are also present. Over the course of a long weekend, all these diverse groups and individuals network, discuss common issues in forums and workshops, and attend lectures on Slow Food themes, which this year included topical issues such as GM crops, the energy and food crises and food biodiversity.

It is difficult to do justice to a meeting of this scale in a written report, so far removed from the excitement and sense of purpose of the actual event. However, small interactions stick with me, and while microcosms in a larger system, they make it easier to appreciate the forces at work behind the scenes of the much larger event.

Entering the Africa Workshop, and trying to find a seat. Shyly approaching a woman in full Kenyan national dress, to ask if the seat next to her is taken; she responds instantly, “Yes, I’ve been saving it for my new friend – you.” While waiting for the workshop to start, chatting about our respective countries, her work as a veterinarian in Nairobi, exchanging business cards, admiring a worn wallet photo of her daughter.

Taking photos of a workshop, only to discover that the photographer next to me, replete in short shorts (in a chilly Italian autumn!) and long socks, is an Afrikaner honey farmer from George. I was very proud of all the South Africans I met over the weekend. So many amazing projects I’d never heard of! Hearing a young farmer from YARD, based in Jo’burg, talk about his work and his commitment to Slow Food, in front of a crowd of three hundred other African delegates.

Waiting for a bus to take Terra Madre delegates to the opening ceremony, at another venue (in true Italian style, the bus never arrives). Sitting on the pavement and striking up conversation with three British sustainable fishing delegates. One, a chef, pulls a small cooler bag out of his backpack, complete with knife and chopping board, and proceeds to make us sushi with red mullet (the Lady Hamilton boat, off the coast of Cornwall, yesterday, he tells me gravely when I ask where it’s from). He carefully wraps squares in nori seaweed, tucking in a sliver of fennel and home-pickled damsons before presenting a piece with due ceremony on the blade of his knife. “What, no oysters?” I joked. “We ate them all on the train from London,” they told me glumly.

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