The conferences of Terra Madre 2022 are the center stage for the debate around #RegenerAction and how we can turn our ideas into tangible change on every level, everywhere.
These are hybrid conferences, with a live audience in the Kyoto Room of the Environment Park in Turin, and online, to ensure the widest possible participation. Our online audience will be able to take part in quizzes, surveys and ask questions to the panel from a distance, too!
There are five conferences in total: one on Thursday September 22, two on Friday, the one each on Saturday and Sunday, and a diverse selection of speakers representing the cultural and environmental diversity of the Slow Food network, and indeed, the human community.
Each of the conferences will revolve around a central question.
Conferences for Regeneration: how and why?
- Why are we talking about regenerating the food system? How can this regeneration respond to the climate, ecological and social emergencies we face?
- What does regeneration mean for the food system on the agricultural level?
- What does regeneration mean for the food system in terms of social justice and equity?
- How can we regenerate the food system through our own choices?
- How can we promote regeneration of the food system in our cities?
The Regeneration we need: September 22 at 5.30 p.m. CET
The pandemic did not start, but merely accelerated a process of fracturing between people and communities. The crises we were facing before Covid-19 have been further amplified, with inequality rising along with global temperatures.
What response is necessary to secure a better future for humanity and the planet? Regeneration. But what does that mean?
Speakers
- Elisa Loncón Antileo is a Mapuche linguist and activist for indigenous rights in Chile. In 2021 she was elected as a representative of the Mapuche people for the Chilean Constitutional Convention. After the inauguration of the body, Loncón was elected President of the Convention.
- Corinna Hawkes, Professor and Director at Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. She has over 20 years’ experience of working with UN agencies, national and city governments, NGOs, think tanks and academia to support the design of more effective action throughout the food system to improve diets, from local-level initiatives to national policies and global strategies.
Changing cities and models of regeneration: September 23 at 3.30 p.m. CET
How can we promote regeneration of the food system in our cities? How we can urban areas be examples of environmental and social revival?
Speakers
- Elena Granata, teacher of Urban Planning at the Polytechnic of Milan, and author of Biodivercity (Slow Food Editore, 2019)
- Carolyn Steel, architect and author of Sitopia, which offers a provocative vision of how we can prosper on an overcrowded and overheated planet
Loving the Earth: September 23 at 5.30 p.m. CET
In the name of feeding the world our fields have been transformed into endless monocultures, while animals are packed in squalid conditions for the production of meat, and floating factories empty our oceans of fish. In the name of feeding the world we are exhausting its resources at an ever faster pace. It’s time to take care of nature and restore what we’ve damaged.
Speakers
- Larissa Mies Bombardi, Brazilian teacher in exile in Belgium due to threats following the publication of her Atlas of the Use of Pesticides in Brazil and Connections with the European Union.
- Virginie Raisson, International Relations analyst and specialist in prospective geopolitcs, director of the Lépac Institute in France and author Atlas of the World’s Futures
You, me, us: making a difference together: September 24 at 5.30 p.m. CET
Control of the food system, in every sector, from the production of fertilizer and pesticides to processing and sales, is concentrated in an ever smaller number of hands. How we can regenerate it through our choices?
Speakers
- Raj Patel, economist and food policy researcher; he worked at the World Bank and the WTO before dedicating his work to campaigns against these very same organizations. Author of many books about the food system, including Inflamed: deep medicine and the anatomy of injustice together with Marya
- Rupa Marya, doctor at the University of California and promoter of deep medicine, a decolonizing approach that seeks to reestablish healthy bonds with the Earth and other humans. Co-author of Inflamed: deep medicine and the anatomy of injustice together with Patel.
- Michael Moss. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for an investigation into the risks involved in food preservation processes and is the author of Fat Sugar Salt: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
- Bela Gil, activist, writer and presenter, Vice-President of the Brazilian Organic Institute which promotes and encourages the movement for organic food in Brazil.
The right to food: fighting for social and environmental justice: September 25 at 5.30 p.m. CET
The food system is built on a series of injustices. In order to regenerate the system, making it fair and inclusive, we must make alliance with food producers – both in the Global North and South – who are often the primary victims of these injustices, to confront the economic forces which threaten their livelihoods.
Speakers
- Selma Dealdina, who has worked in various groups and social movements, including the advisory services for the State Coordination of Quilombola Communities of Espirito Santo ‘Zacimba Caba’; the Women’s Collective of CONAQ; La Via Campesina. She is a board member of Amnesty International and the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund.
- Don Luigi Ciotti, priest, journalist and social activist. In 1965 he founded the Abele Group, which works to help people in difficulty, particularly regarding addictions of all kinds. In 1995 he founded Libera, an association which fights organized crime, promote a culture of democratic legality and social justice, as well as honoring the memory of mafia victims
- Serge Latouche, French economist and philosopher and promoter of degrowth. Against universalism, he supports the idea of localism in politics and culture. He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Paris XI and is the author of a number of books
- Willie Peyote, Italian rapper and musician whose lyrics often concern social themes, often ironically. Over the course of five albums he’s grown a wide fan base among critics and the public.
