SFYN Podcast: collecting stories from across the globe

Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN) is starting a new adventure: the SFYN Podcast! With the goal of giving a stage to the people, whose voices are often not taken into consideration, or who are simply overlooked in the debate around food, the podcast will share stories, interviews, advice, and experiences from the young members of our communities. We want to demonstrate that we all contribute to a more sustainable food system, that everyone has a story to tell and we can learn a lot for each other. Furthermore, during the pandemic crises, we are all limited in getting to know new people, so with this podcast, we hope to make you feel part of a bigger family and that you can get to know some of the special persons, our network is composed of outside of our bi-annual event Terra Madre – Salone del Gusto.

The SFYN Podcast will kick off with a series of seven field interviews about food sovereignty in Mexico. We will listen to the opinions of our network Mexican activists, who will lead us through different aspects of the local food sovereignty.
We will listen to Alma Rosa Garcia, coordinator of the Slow Food Presidium of the Chontalpa Cacao, stressing on the importance of the presidium to preserve local traditional production and food sovereignty. For Alma Rosa it is essential to educate people to appreciate and consume the food that comes from their country and to recognize its quality. The same episode also stars Santiago Aguilar Zilli, an agroecological farmer at “Ortin Fortín” in the state of Veracruz, who recently started a SF community in Cordoba and is part of the leading team of SFYN Mexico. Santiago talks about food sovereignty from a young farmer perspective, stressing on the importance of consumers to get to know their farmers and establish a relationship with them. He also discusses the importance of seed exchanges among farmers and of growing many different crops and varieties.

The second episode has more of an anthropological and political perspective. Here, Larizza Aquino, the responsible for the Slow Food convivium in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and artisanal baker, gives a general overview with regards to food sovereignty in Chiapas (one of the poorest regions in México). She talks about the food aids provided by the government to support local communities, which cause a dependency system and loss of traditional production. She discusses the difficulties small producers have to sell on local markets and she explains how in her bakery she tries to highlight the excellent products of her region. Next to Larizza, we will listen to Vinik Juré, member of the Slow Food convivium Oaxaca Guaje in the city of Oaxaca. Vinik is also part of the SFYN Mexico leading team. He gives us an overview of food sovereignty in Oaxaca from an anthropological point of view and underlines the importance of networking to bring a positive change and to push people from different sides of the food system to be more conscious of the way we nourish ourselves.

Finally, in the third episode, we will listen to the voices of three chefs: Claudia Ruiz Sántiz, Armando Casero and Isaac Díaz. Claudia will give us her perspective on food sovereignty as an indigenous chef, with an analysis of the development of her community in the past decades. Armando will share with us the role of gastronomy to prevent biodiversity loss and to maintain food sovereignty and finally Isaac will share with us the difficulties that a chef may encounter in sourcing local and affordable ingredients.

Last but not least, the podcast is co-created with the youth of our network, so if you have ideas about a specific topic or project you would like to carry out, feel free to reach out to us with a description of your idea (​[email protected]​).

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