A strong delegation from Latin America and the Caribbean at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto

Over 200 people committed to share their experience and ideas to transform the food system for the better

To be held from September 26 to 30 in the Parco Dora in Turin, Italy, Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2024 will mobilize the energies of the Slow Food delegates and activists who will be gathering from over 120 countries with the aim of transforming the food systems.

Slow Food’s delegation from Latin America and the Caribbean consists of about 210 people. They come from 20 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivia, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Domenican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Portorico, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Brazil will be the most represented country from the continent, with more than 50 delegates coming to Turin this year, 5 of them supported by a partnership with LATAM Airlines – Sustainability and Environment sector. A diverse group of activists, including family farmers, artisanal producers, representatives of indigenous and afro descendant communities, cooks, academics, educators and communicators, and youth are eagerly awaiting the event.

Slow Food International Councilors Leidy Casimiro from Cuba (representative for the Caribbean), Stephany Escamilla Femat from Mexico (representative for the Coffee Coalition), Arturo Elías García González (representative for Mexico and Central America), Glenn Makuta (representative for Brazil and Southern Cone), Esteban Tapia Merino from Ecuador (representative for Andean countries), and Jerônimo Villas-Boas from Brazil (representative for Biodiversity) will also join us in Turin.

BEEKEEPERS AND MELIPONICULTURISTS OF THE SANAPI PROJECT AT TERRA MADRE (BOLIVIA)

10 delegates from the SANAPI project will participate in Terra Madre.  Much of the human impact on forests and protected areas is driven by the need of their inhabitants to generate essential income. The SANAPI project aims to tackle this by ensuring environmentally friendly economic development, reducing the pressure populations exert on natural resources and protecting forests by promoting sustainable sources of income. The dilemma these communities face highlights the complex balance between economic survival and environmental conservation and emphasizes the need to offer sustainable alternative income sources when tackling poverty. Projected until 2025, SANAPI seeks to strengthen environmental management initiatives and safeguard production systems that promote forest protection in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba and the department of Chuquisaca.

The delegates participating specifically come from these two territorial areas:

• 2 people from Fundación Pasos of Chuquisaca, an institution working with beekeeper and meliponiculturist producer organizations supporting primary production through strengthening productive capacities in natural resource management.
• 4 delegates from Monteagudo from the Association of Meliponiculturist Women of Chaco Chuquisaqueño AMMECH, an organization with more than 300 members in 40 communities.
• 2 delegates from the Corporación Agropecuaria Campesina CORACA AIQUILE in the department of Cochabamba, an organization with 8 communities of beekeepers from the Quechua Indigenous People, both delegates being basic beekeepers.
• 2 delegates from Cochabamba working in the SANAPI project, both delegates being members of a Slow Food community “Bolivian Cooks for Diversity,” who have been working for several years with farming communities in ecological production in the department of Cochabamba.

SOME OTHER DELEGATES SPEAKERS FROM LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Miguel Altieri, (Chile), Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as General Coordinator of the United Nations Sustainable Agriculture Program and as a Scientific Advisor to the Latin American Consortium on Agroecology and Development, will speak at the conferences Agroecology: Agriculture on the side of nature and Our Food is Our Health: Biodiversity Feeds the Planet

In the Taste Workshop From milpa to chakra: Ancestral agricultural systems of Mexico and Ecuador Alejandro Espinoza and Esteban Tapia Merino of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance in Ecuador, and Nelly Sanchez and Gladys Espinoza of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance in Mexico will present dishes. Milpa and chakra are ancient agricultural systems from Mesoamerica and South America, respectively, that combine the cultivation of corn with other crops such as beans, squash, and amaranth. They are characterized by their high biodiversity and the mutually beneficial relationships between different crop species.

Maricruz Antolin (Argentina) winemaker of Biodynamic Bodega Krontiras, together with Bertha Rivero, cook and farmer from Cuba, will intervene in the debate Agriculture on Slow Food Farms: Agroecological Practices in the Field which explores various approaches to integrating agroecology into agricultural practices, offering valuable insights into the practical application, challenges, and innovative solutions that promote sustainability and biodiversity in the debate. Bodega Krontiras’ wines will be presented at the Taste Workshop The triangle of life: Vines, animals, and soil.

At the forum Safeguarding Territories: Valuing Biodiversity, Food Culture, and Popular Communication for Rural Autonomy in Ceará, Brazil representatives from Tabajara and Tremembér indigenous communities, Slow Food Brazil and the São José Project—a collaboration between Ceará’s Secretariat for Agrarian Development and the World Bank—will discuss their joint efforts to promote rural autonomy in Ceará.

How African cosmoperception enriches our connection with nature? A discussion on Afrodiasporic Cultures, moderated by Slow Food Brazil Association, Antonio Augusto Santos, will reflect on how the stories of resistance from Brazil’s Quilombo de Palmares, rural Black communities in the Southern United States and in the African continent resonate with contemporary food systems and cultural narratives.

Monica Buava, of the Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira (Brazilian Vegetarian Society) will speak at the meeting Meatless Mondays for a Healthier Diet and a Greener Planet.

The conference The ecofeminist perspective: Practicing care instead of mistreatment will see the intervention of Larissa Mies Bombardi (Brazil) a professor now living in exile in Belgium due to increasing threats following her publication of A Geography of Agrotoxins Use in Brazil and its Relations to the European Union in 2017. She was formerly a contributor to Rádio Brasil Atual and a researcher in Geography at the University of São Paulo.

Jupta Lilian Itoewaki,  indigenous Wayana activist and the founding president and CEO of the Mulokot Foundation in Suriname, is among the protagonists of the conference Without biodiversity, there is no life and no future.

The Bolivian wine Negra Criolla San Roque 2021 by Jardín Oculto in Cinti Valley will be one of the protagonists of the Taste Workshop In praise of old vines, as well as Tannat & Petit Manseng, Castel Pujol folklore Tinto 2023, by Bodega Cerro Chapeau, Uruguay. During this tasting, the public will hear from winemakers about how biodiversity and animals contribute to the health and vitality of their vineyards.

Several Latin-American educators are involved in the session With Our Eyes, Our Hands, Our Voices… Education: A Laboratory for the Future explores some of Slow Food’s international education projects and how “education” can take a thousand forms, giving young people a chance to learn but also to unleash their creativity and imagine different futures.

Chilean Mauricio Aguirre, cook and member of the Slow Food Community Villarrica Forest Food Promotion will speak in Slow Food Farms: Agroecological Practices, Foraging, and Wild Harvesting, and Jaqueline del Rosario Arriagada Villegas, vice president of Slow Food Chile and member of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (ANAMURI), will participate in the forum Seeds, Soil, and Water: The Resources of Farmers.

Marcela Ramos, the president of Slow Food Chile, and Andrea Oyarzo, a mussel harvester and member of the Caleta Rollizo Slow Fish Community, will talk about the complexities and contradictions of fishing and aquaculture in the conference What happens beneath the surface?

Eliana Cifuentes, a custodian of legume seeds for La Melga Slow Food Community on Chiloé Island (Chile) is among the speakers of Facing the crisis one legume at a time: The Slow Beans recipe for resistance; while Alejandra Leighton, manager of La Melga Chiloé, a project to rediscover pre-Hispanic food heritage in the Chiloé archipelago will do the same at From dried apricot keshta to Kapangan wild ginger: 6,350 products aboard the Ark of Taste!

The consumption of coffee in its countries of origin: Experiences from the Philippines, Mexico, and Colombia will include contributions from Stephany Escamilla Femat, agroecological engineer from Mexico and Luis Carlos Burbano, coffee farmer from Nariño, Colombia. Also regarding coffee, members of the San Cristóbal Verapaz Poqomchi’ Women Coffee Producers Slow Food Community, Maya women who grow coffee on the mountainous slopes of San Cristóbal Verapaz, Guatemala, will share their experiences as indigenous women into coffee production and the challenges they face (Indigenous women and coffee: The Poqomchi’ experience); and Geovanny Mejia, Mexican young indigenous coffee farmer will talk at The role of indigenous youth in coffee cultivation: Experiences from the Philippines, Thailand, and Mexico about their role and the challenges and new possibilities that coffee cultivation poses in their communities.

A range of creations featuring the plantain will be presented by Carlos Estevez, coordinator of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance in the Dominican Republic, and Jennifer Rodriguez, member of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance in Colombia (Vibrant flavors of the plantain, from the Dominican Republic to Colombia).

Yesica Nina Cusiyupanqui, from Peru, co-founder of Ecohuella specialty school for campesino farmers, providing hands-on trainings and workshops that respect the Quechua language, local learning styles, and traditions, will speak at Food Sovereignty: Access to Land, Water, and Seeds to Ensure Good, Clean, and Fair Food for All together with Saul Elías López, Venezuela, member of the Slow Food Community Aragua Zero Waste. Moderator is Liliana Vargas, Secretary General of the Slow Food network in Colombia.

Yaquelin Herrera (Cuba), a degree in Food Science, professional chef, cookery teacher, member of the community “Defence of agroecology and ecogastronomy” of the MAS-Slow Food Cuba group, will share her experience at With Our Eyes, Our Hands, Our Voices… Education: A Laboratory for the Future

The conference Nature, the climate crisis, and us: Are we at the point of no return? will see the contribution of Margarita Alejandrina Antonio Matamoros (Nicaragua), an indigenous Miskitu woman from the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. She is a member of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI) and has also been director of communications at URACCAN University, an officer for UNESCO, and a consultant for international organizations.

Speaking about the implementation of agroecological practices in animal husbandry, Maria Daniela Tun Caamal, Mexico, indigenous Maya person from Yucatán, and part of the Yucatán Hairless Pig Slow Food Presidium, will give her contribution to Raising Animals on Slow Food Farms: Agroecological Practices in the Field.

LATIN AMERICAN EXHIBITORS IN THE TERRA MADRE MARKET

Sanapi – Honey producers – Stand T10 – Bolivia

Cacao Disidente – Stand T11 – Colombia

Mashpi Chocolate – Stand T14 – Ecuador