Terra Madre 2024: Shaping the Future of Sustainable Food Systems

So, we are getting ready to come together, three thousand delegates from 120 countries, and many thousands of visitors, food enthusiasts, cooks, scientists, experts, breeders, fishermen, artisans, in a time of sharing, of growing in knowledge, of engagement and confrontation, but above all of joy and enthusiasm. Young members of the Slow Food Youth Network from around the world who are actively changing local food systems with their actions, ideas, and campaigns will bring in Turin their energy, aspiring to become future food leaders in driving change.

We cannot though ignore the convoluted period we are currently living. Worldwide, in many parts of the planet, terrible conflicts are raging. Migratory flows are becoming more intense, and the signs of climate change are increasingly tangible and unequivocal. We cannot ignore the urgency and close interrelation of these crises.

Slow Food strongly advocates for an end to all violence in the ongoing conflicts, from the Gaza Strip to Sudan, from Lebanon to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Ukraine to Yemen, and opposes the use of food as a weapon of war, explicitly calling for immediate negotiations to achieve a just solution that ensures the dignity of all people and fosters a peaceful future for everyone.

We experience the effects of the climate crisis every day: glaciers melting, rivers drying up, extreme heat and increasingly violent floods, hurricanes and tornados. Rising sea levels are threatening the survival of fishing communities, the acidification of the oceans is making them hostile to life and every day we are seeing more and more biodiversity loss and unstoppable desertification.

Within this scenario, the role of food as the leading culprit for this environmental upheaval is emerging more strongly and clearly than ever.

This situation compels us to reflect on the transformation needed if we want to achieve a food system that feeds all people well, regenerates and protects the environment, and allows local cultures to survive and prosper. Change must start now. 

Twenty years have passed since the first edition of Terra Madre. These two decades have witnessed the calm and steady growth of a global revolution. This revolution has spread throughout the world, inspiring crucial conversations about biodiversity, education, advocacy, and many other themes around which small-scale producers and conscientious consumers from diverse contexts have united in pursuit of a better, cleaner, and fairer planet through food.

At Terra Madre 2024, delegates come together to reflect on the last 20 years and to chart a course for the future. In the same days, the agriculture ministers of the seven most important countries in the world (the G7) meet in Syracuse in Sicily. On this occasion, we have asked the governments to place food at the center of political agenda, as it represents the cornerstone of fundamental rights and a key element in achieving sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  Slow Food has identified some key areas where immediate action is necessary, all united by what we believe represents the only way forward for the future: reshaping our relationship with nature and adopting agroecological practices.

There’s no doubt this is a momentous turning point also for our movement. The resilience of local food systems goes through agroecology. In the face of the current crises, agroecology is a way to make food systems sustainable. It aims to ensure food sovereignty, food security, and healthy diets. Millions of farmers worldwide are already practicing agroecology successfully. Slow Food truly believes about the potential of agroecological farmers and sees them as the future of sustainable food systems, therefore we aim to support these farms by building and strengthening a network of Slow Food Farms, empowering the people involved, and placing these farms at the center of food systems. They can help solve inequality, social injustice, the global environmental crisis and change the food system. Terra Madre 2024 will be remembered as the edition in which this new revolution began.

Welcome to Terra Madre!

By Edward Mukiibi, Slow Food President