Slow Food Nations, the international event organized by Slow Food USA with the support of Slow Food, is about to kick off in Denver (Colorado), from July 14-16, 2017.
The event will start with a Delegate Summit, which will take place the whole day of Friday July 14 at McNichols Civic Center Building. Slow Food USA Executive Director Richard McCarthy will give a morning welcome, followed by an opening keynote with Ricardo Salvador, director and senior scientist of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Five hundred international delegates from Australia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Cuba, Fiji, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland and Vanuatu will be sharing experiences and ideas. They will participate in small group discussions, focused working groups and a lunch presented by Alice Waters, vice-president of Slow Food International, that will explore school lunch as an academic subject. Carlo Petrini, founder and international president of Slow Food, will give the closing remarks at the Summit.
Delegates will then serve as hosts and speakers during the festival as it opens its doors to the public over the weekend, on July 15 and 16, with many free activities and over 100 events taking place in downtown Denver around Union Station and Larimer Square. More than 50 international exhibitors will tell their stories, offer samples and sell their products at the Taste Marketplace in Larimer Square, where there will also be outdoor culinary stage demonstrations. There will be an Ark of Taste demonstration area and a Farmers’ Market for Colorado producers (from 9am to 2pm) in Union Station, several hands-on activities for kids, author talks both in Union Station and at LoDo, and live music.
“We’re stuck in such a fast food culture of ideas that is killing us and killing the planet” – says Alice Waters. “We have to come back to the land and taking care of it is the most important value of all. How can we do that most efficiently? By eating with determination with every bite we take. By supporting those farmers, ranchers, fishermen. By using our buying power. We need to know where to shop and where to eat. That’s a theme of Slow Food Nations: we all have a part to play. Together, we feel empowered. We’re trying to win people over through pleasure, to feed people and take care of them. To bring them back to their senses.”
Several themes will be tackled and discussed during the event, including agriculture, biodiversity preservation, school and community gardens, food policy, environmental sustainability, meat consumption, sustainable seafood, indigenous culture and traditions. To check out the whole program, visit the event page.
The event’s line-up includes, besides Carlo Petrini and Alice Waters, Ron Finley, Simran Sethi, Jack Johnson, Hosea Rosenberg, Alon Shaya and many more.
For more details, please visit slowfoodnations.org.
For press accreditation please visit slowfoodnations.org/about/media/apply/.