EXCLUSIVE – Carlo Petrini, president of Slow Food International, will travel to Ethiopia this Monday on a four-day trip to promote the development and strengthening of relationships between the nation’s food communities, cooks, university representatives and others.
Just back from India, Petrini will speak with politicians, experts and local farmers and hopes that his visit will lead to Slow Food developing projects to shorten the farmer-to-consumer food production and distribution chain in Ethiopia.
Accompanying Carlo Petrini is John Kariuki Mwangi, a 21-year-old Kenyan student at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, and one of three newly elected vice-presidents of Slow Food International.
During the visit, Petrini and Kariuki will also host a local Terra Madre gathering. This event will bring together representatives from Ethiopia’s eight Terra Madre food communities (who attended the last international edition of Terra Madre in 2006) producers from three Presidia (Slow Food projects to support small local producers), NGOs, students, cooks and others.
To end the trip, the president and vice-president will travel a few hours west of the nation’s capital Addis Ababa to Wonchi where they will meet with members of the Slow Food Wenchi Volcano Honey Presidium.
Petrini will also meet with Ethiopian scientists, professors and experts, among them Professor Tewoldeberhan Egziabhier, as well as the President of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Culture and Tourism.
Bess Mucke