The richness of African food biodiversity on stage at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2016 

Organized by Slow Food, the region of Piedmont and the city of Turin, the 11th edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, the most important international event dedicated to food culture, will be held from September 22 to 26, 2016, in Turin, Italy. Five thousand delegates from 160 countries, over 800 exhibitors, 300 Slow Food Presidia and 500 Terra Madre food communities will take part in the event.

The International Market will host a special area dedicated to showcasing Terra Madre food communities and Presidia products from 15 African countries.

From Cape Verde, there will be the Planalto Norte Raw Milk Goat Cheeses Presidium, which involves a nucleus of herders who play a crucial role in protecting a difficult arid environment and produce different types of raw-milk goat cheese.

The Siwa Oasis Dates Presidium from Egypt will showcase some heritage date varieties at risk of extinction cultivated in the large Siwa Oasis. The immense gastronomic heritage of Egypt will be the focus of a big conference at Carignano Theater, on September 26, Food and Agriculture in Egypt, Yesterday and Today – which will see the participation of the director of the Egyptian Museum Christian Greco and the Egyptian sociologist Malak Rouchdy – and of a photo exhibition set up for the entire duration of the event in the courtyard of the Egyptian Museum, From Sinai Wormwood to Farasheeh Bread: The Ark of Taste in Egypt.

Ethiopia will be represented by the Harenna Forest Wild Coffee Presidium, which produces naturally dried wild forest coffee. A taste workshop will be dedicated to discovering Ethiopian Kafa Coffee and the world’s most representative single-origins.

Also, Ethiopian Karrayu nomadic herders will come to the event in representation of Karrayyu’s Camel Milk Presidium, although they will not be able to offer tastings of fresh camel milk for logistical reasons.

Guinea Bissau will showcase Farim Salt, a Presidium which brings together more than 500 women, who filter the salt through pieces of fabric stretched over wooden frames and boil the obtained brine to accelerate the evaporation of water. Producers of the Wild Palm Oil Presidium will tell international visitors how they make artisanal palm oil only from wild dura oil palms, working in perfect harmony with the environment, and protecting the forests and the local culture.

Kenya will be showcasing a wide range of products, including Ogiek Honey and Dried Nettles from the Mau Forest, Nzoia River Reed Salt, Pokot Ash yogurt and Lare Pumpkin. Also, breeders form the Molo Sheep and the Molo Mushunu Chicken Presidia will join the event.

From Madagascar there will be the Alaotra Lake Ancient Rice Varieties Presidium – where 200 producers work to safeguard seeds of the local varieties of rice at risk of extinction – and the Mananara Vanilla producers, who live in the Mananara Nord Biosphere Reserve and work the individual pods by hand, rubbing them with their fingers to stretch them out.

Marocco’s exhibition area will showcase products from four Presidia: Argan Oil, Alnif Cumin, Zerradoun Salt, and Taliouine Saffron.

Mauritania will be represented by the Imraguen Women’s Mullet Botargo Presidium. Imraguen are nomad fishers who move their small villages of makeshift huts to follow the movements of large shoals of golden mullet and croaker along the Arguin Bank on the northern coast of Mauritania.

The Ibo Coffee Presidium from Mozambique will bring a very unique and interesting coffee to the event. The Presidium wants to safeguard Ibo island’s unique ecosystem where the plant still grows wild. A photographic exhibition at the Valentino Castle – A cooperation project in three countries: Brazil, Angola and Mozambique – will host the work of photographer Paola Viesi, who travelled in Angola and Mozambique depicting the communities identified by Slow Food’s work of mapping local and traditional products.

São Tomé and Príncipe will be represented by another high-quality coffee: the Robusta Coffee Presidium, which is rich in caffeine and has a balanced flavor, fragrant and soft, with a delicate bitter note.

From Senegal, will be the Fadiouth Island Salted Millet Couscous Presidium, which preserves an ancient, traditional and original production line that links the earth with the sea. Salted millet couscous is indeed the result of bringing together traditional grains, cultivated since time immemorial on the inland areas and the sea. Café Touba of Senegal will be tasted in a workshop on September 24: Saying Coffee In Different Languages.

Sierra Leone will showcase the Kenema Kola Nut, the fruit of the kola tree, which belongs to the same family as cacao, and it has been used as an ingredient in a natural soft drink that has little in common with the world’s most globalized beverage.

The Slow Food network in South Africa will be represented at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto by the recently established Baleni Salt Presidium. Breeders of Zulu Sheep and producers from the South African Raw Milk Cheeses Presidium will also come to the event to tell international consumers about the importance of safeguarding indigenous animal breeds, and to promote South African artisanal cheesemaking.

From Uganda, there will be four Presidia: the Luwero Robusta Coffee, the indigenous Kayinja Banana, the Climbing Yam and the Ankole Long-Horned Cattle. The Slow Food network in Uganda will also present a Terra Madre Forum (September 23, 10:30 am) and a Cooking School (September 24, 6:00 pm) dedicated to the biodiversity of bananas. In this last appointment, chefs Betty Nakato and Harriet Birabwa will be preparing traditional dishes from Ugandan cuisine cooked slowly inside banana leaves.

Tanzania will showcase Arusha Stingless Bee Honey collected by a small group of beekeepers from traditional hives made from hollow tree trunk sections and hung from the roofs of houses, fences or the highest branches of fruit trees like mango, avocado and papaya.

Conferences

Some speakers from Africa will intervene in the big conferences at Carignano Theater, putting Slow Food’s major themes in the spotlight.

• Can Agroecology Feed The World? with Yacouba Savadogo, the farmer of Burkina Faso who brought part of the Sahel back to life through the use of traditional techniques of cultivation, Miguel Altieri, one of the most influential exponents of this applied science, and Anuradha Mittal, founder of Oakland Institute.

• The Garden Revolution – Edie Mukiibi, Ugandian agronomist and vice president of Slow Food International, Alice Waters and Ron Finley will talk about gardens, from the African countryside to the courtyards of American schools, and how they are triggering an urban and rural revolution.

• Land, Conflict and Migration – The founder of Emergency, Gino Strada, the cartoonist Zerocalcare and Edward Loure Ole Parmelo, Maasai tribe leader and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and other guests will analyze the relationship between Land, Conflict and Migration

Terra Madre Forums and Workshops

• The Land We Have in Common: Sustainable agriculture, development and migration – with Burkinabe producers and migrants who will discuss projects and visions to turn Loving the earth into a new culture of co-existence and cooperation between the world’s different lands.

• Biodiversity and sustainable agriculture in Africa and South America – Slow Food delegates will share the experiences of three different realities: Sertão do São Francisco in northeastern Brazil, Namibe in Angola and Maputo in Mozambique, where governmental bodies, along with citizens and small-scale farmers, have chosen to promote policies and actions aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.

• 10,000 gardens in Africa: a meeting between donors and organizers – Also thanks to donors, large and small, Slow Food has set up almost 3,000 gardens in Africa, involving over 50,000 people in schools and cities across 35 countries.

• The Commons: Pastoralism and Nomadism – Custodianship of the Land – in Contrast with the Ownership System – A panel organized by the Indigenous Terra Madre Network that will compare systems of “land custodianship” with “ownership”, through the experiences of herders from several indigenous community around the world, including Masaai (Tanzania), Guji and Karrayyu (Ethiopia).

• Climate Change Migrations – The Cases of Ethiopia and Morocco– A workshop organized in the themed space dedicated to migrants, in the neighborhood of San Salvario.

For more information, please contact:

Slow Food, +39 329 83 212 85, [email protected] – Twitter: @SlowFoodPress

Region of Piedmont, +39 011 432 2549, [email protected]

City of Turin, +39 011 442 3606, [email protected] 

Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is made possible with the help of several bodies, among which are the Official Partner: Lurisia, Pastificio Martino, Radeberger Gruppe Italy, Lavazza, Sapori, Iren, Intesa San Paolo, Elpe; the supporters of the Terra Madre Foundation and Slow Food: Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and the Association of Banking Foundations of Piedmont, Coldiretti. With the support of IFAD, the European Union and CIA. 

Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.  Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.