“Not a food fair, but a political event.” Carlo Petrini defines Terra Madre at the the presentation of the 2022 edition.
Five days of activities in Parco Dora, Turin, to understand how we can regenerate a food system that has shown how unsustainable it is in recent years more than ever.
Those who think of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto simply as a place to eat and drink well are wrong. Of course you can eat and drink well at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, but that’s not the point: it’s a place where, for five days, we come together for dialog and exchange, to find a way forward together, united by our common goal of changing the food system.
“It’s not just an event that enriches the Piedmontese offering in terms of gastronomic tourism, but an event for political debate, where we work for the common good and the safeguarding of food cultures,” Carlo Petrini, President of Slow Food, explained during the presentation of the 14th edition of the international event dedicated good, clean and fair food, and the people who make it.
Changing the world with joy
“We’ll do it our own way, through festivity, conviviality, because we believe you can’t change the world through sulking, but only through joy.”
“In recent months there’s been a lot of talk about energy, but do we stop to think that our primary source of energy, which we need to live, is food? We’re alive because we can eat and nourish ourselves: for this reason the most important energy relationship we should be concerned with is our own diet,” Petrini added. “But if we don’t give the right value to this heritage, where will we be headed? We need to take the path of food sovereignty, which is not a cry of autarchy; it means that the food heritage which has been entrusted to us by previous generations must be conserved and safeguarded.”
Regeneration means a new way of thinking
The theme of the 2022 edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, which will take place in Parco Dora, Turin, from September 22-26, is regeneration, as a process of revival in agriculture, the environment, ecosystems, the soil, food production and human rights. “Regeneration requires a new way of thinking and a new way of speaking compared to how we’ve spoken about the these themes in recent years,” added Barbara Nappini, President of Slow Food Italia. “Our aim is to make the paradoxes which have led to the failure of our current food system clear for all to see; how food sovereignty is denied, the unjustifiable wasting of finite resources, including food waste, the loss of biodiversity and soil fertility, animal exploitation and the destruction of local food cultures.”
Parco Dora: a symbolic choice
Also present at the presentation at the Environment Park, was the Mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, who underlined the symbolic power of holding Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Parco Dora, an ex-industrial space which encapsulates the regeneration of the city. The Mayor underlined how food, as well as being a question of nutrition, is also a question of ethics, and our how food reflects our values; values which are often taken for granted, but which only exist through our actions.
