International Congress - Our structure - Slow Food International

The 8th Slow Food International Congress will be held in Turin (Italy) at Lingotto Fiere, at the same time and in the same place as Terra Madre, from October 8-12, 2020.

The International Congress is a crucial moment for the Slow Food movement, where our political, strategic and organizational direction is decided at the international level, and therefore, at all other levels of the organization, right down to the grassroots level on which our network is based. It usually takes place every four years, with the participation of delegates who represent the different nodes of the Slow Food network around the world, and the most important projects which the movement carries forward. The decisions taken by the Congress should therefore reflect an adequately-wide representation of the whole network, and have a widespread impact everywhere that we work. The next Congress will take place three years after the preceding event (Chengdu 2017), thus respecting the terms which were defined during the previous Congress.

The Congress will begin on Thursday, October 8 and conclude on Monday, October 12 with the election of new governing bodies of the movement, the approval of the Congress documents and the closing speeches.

The concurrence of the two events is no accident. The International Congress and Terra Madre should propose a consistent vision, each one complementing the other, confronting the same themes in different ways, with the goal of shaping the future of food, accrediting Slow Food as The Food Movement par excellence, i.e. the movement that will be recognized as the world leader in changing the food system, thanks to its projects and the widespread diffusion of its network.

In advance of the Congress, three key documents have been published to help prepare our delegates for the work ahead:

A letter from Carlo Petrini to Slow Food members to inspire the upcoming Congress to tackle the challenges the future holds:

A Call to Action to help us shape the future of Slow Food

Frequently Asked Questions – and Answers! – about the International Congress

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The Call to Action: a tool for everyone

27 February 2020

Slow foodies! We need you! Last month we shared the first documents which will guide us on the path towards the International Congress, which will be held from October 8-12 in Turin, at the same time as Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. Our intention is to involve as many members and activists as possible in these wide reflections on the future of Slow Food, sewing seeds along the path towards the Congress with the ideas, opinions and inputs of everyone who wants to participate.

Community: Living salt and yeast of the Slow Food Movement

26 February 2020

“The term community belongs to our history, as the concept of the communities as local groups connected to the network has existed since the first edition of Terra Madre. We reiterated this message in 2017 at the Congress of Chengdu, where we talked about Slow Food Communities and called for their creation and development across the world. But we need this message to be even more pervasive, an ever-stronger catalyst for the transformation our movement needs in order to carry out its mission.”

Work on the 8th Slow Food International Congress is underway

22 January 2020

The International Congress is a crucial moment in the life of the Slow Food movement, where our political, strategic and organizational direction is decided, from the international level down through all the other levels of the organization to the grassroots on which our network is based. The International Congress is normally held every four years, …

Slow Food 2.0: Around the World in Six New Communities

30 July 2018

A network united for change The Slow Food network is working to construct new communities in different countries around the world. Here is a quick globetrotting overview of some of the first examples, founded in the last few months: Protecting local biodiversity through good practices Slow Food Molo Mushunu Chicken Farming Community – Kenya …

Slow Food Is Defined By Its People: Communities Bring New Energy to the International Movement

30 July 2018

Slow Food was founded over 30 years ago. The world has changed dramatically since then, and so too has the association, which has transformed into a global movement of thousands of people who share a common vision, summed up in the Chengdu Declaration. Today the movement faces demanding, urgent and complex challenges that are pushing …

Slow Food Italy Congress: A New Era Begins with the Election of Seven Executive Committee Members

9 July 2018

Slow Food Italy’s congress in Montecatini Terme signaled the arrival of a new committee and a freshly defined focus: The fight against all kinds of environmental, human and social exploitation in the agricultural production system will guide the mandate in Italy from now until 2020 “The ports of our seas are being closed to migrants, …

Breaking the Mold

19 June 2018

The international congress of Chengdu kicked off a major review and update to the structure of Slow Food, starting with an evaluation of the communities which make up our network, and reorganising projects with those communities at their heart.

Food can change the world

1 October 2017

We can change the world through food. The 7th Slow Food International Congress closes in Chengdu, defining our path for the years to come. “This congress reaffirms our rejection of the current development model. These days of work and testimony from the Slow Food and Terra Madre networks have confirmed that alternative models exist, and …

Chengdu: The Capital of Chinese Gastronomy

1 October 2017

As has been noted several times since Slow Food announced that its 7th International Congress would be held in Chengdu, this was the first city in Asia to be recognized as a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO, and is unquestionably the capital of Chinese cuisine, being the capital of Sichuan Province, one of only a …

Petrini: the rebirth of food starts in rural China

30 September 2017 Carlo Petrini

To speak sensibly about food we need to think about time. We must look back at how people and communities have fed themselves over the centuries, forming identities, rituals, relationships with the land, societies and symbolism. Only through this wider, deeper approach will be able to lucidly observe the current situation, and appreciate its most …