Slow Food home | About us | Foundation | Editore | Sloweb | Press Office | Store     Sloweb     Home | Sloweek | Voices from the Slow world | Slow Talk | News | Watch & Listen             Terra Madre Young Europeans 30 Nov 09 - Sloweb Around 300 young farmers, producers, cooks and students have spent the past three days at the Terra Madre Young Europeans meeting – the first European youth gathering of the Terra Madre network. Opened by Slow Food President Carlo Petrini and the Mayor of Tours, Jean Germain, the event discussed approaches to encouraging sustainable, local food: from the use of art to raise awareness, to developing short food chains, healthy food in canteens, bringing youth back to the land, waste management and knowledge transmission. The participants, all under 35 years of age and coming from across Europe, shared their diverse experiences and successes: Oliver, a young chef from London, took up a challenge a few years ago that seemed impossible: sourcing locally in a city home to more than 12 million inhabitants. His restaurant now serves meals in which 80% of the ingredients come from the area covered by the London tube map, and 30% are organic. No chocolate is used and sometimes he has to organize transportation logistics himself, but it was worthwhile he says: “the food tastes incredible, it has meaning and the producers are now friends I can count on”. Sanne, a student of Anthropology and Development in Rotterdam, was one of the founders of the Dutch chapter of the Youth Food Movement. An Eat-In was organized to launch their group, with the best chefs in town cooking fair priced meals with local products and serving them in a beautiful organic garden. The attention raised has seen many more people joining the movement ever since, and their next step is organizing classes on food culture for adults. Lara is an ethno-botanist from Whales who specializes in medicinal herbs. Seeing how little attention they get from official science, she has devoted herself to record and communicate the knowledge retained by elder generations about the types and uses of herbs found in the Welsh countryside – especially to younger people. Carlo Petrini reminded all the participants that gastronomy could no longer exist without defending biodiversity, the environment, solidarity, strong yet open cultures and identities, as well as small-scale food production. “This is really about inventing a new humanism, and if the young do not take up this challenge, there will be no more food and no future,” he said. The Mayor of Tours, the city authority which made the meeting possible, added that he shared the values of Terra Madre, and reminded the audience that the city of Tours has the most square feet of green space in France, that it is all tendered to without pesticides and that the city has even installed bee hives in urban areas. The event was held during the new biennial Slow Food event Euro Gusto dedicated to Europe’s gastronomic and agricultural heritage and environmental politics. www.eurogusto.org   News archive from Terramadre News archive from Slowfood Foundation for Biodiversity News archive from University of Gastronomic Sciences News archive from Watch & Listen           News     Italy - 05 Feb 10     Pasta Madre     Farmers, academics, researchers, and members of the public will gather in Bologna this weekend as the city becomes host to Pasta Madre, Slow Food's two-day event focusing on bread, pasta...           News archive     France - 04 Feb 10     Europe Edges Towards Bluefin Ban     France announces their support for trade ban on blufin tune caught in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. ...     China - 03 Feb 10     China Considers Dog and Cat Meat Ban     Defenders of traditional cuisine and animal rights activists battle over potential ban on eating dog and cat meat in China ...     Paraguay - 01 Feb 10     Greenwashing for Beef Land     A Brazilian cattle-ranching company has been exposed for illegally bulldozing land belonging to a native tribe in Paraguay ...     Turkey - 29 Jan 10     First Slow Cities in Turkey and USA     New Slow Cities on the Californian and Ageana Coastlines ...     United States - 28 Jan 10     Freedom Food     Prisons launch grow-your-own schemes for inmates ...     Australia - 26 Jan 10     Slow Australians Awarded     Second-longest Australian Slow Food member named a Australian of the Year 2010 ...     Archive previous news   Slow Food 2010 - All rights reserved - P.iva 91008360041 - Powered by Blulab