A Tale of Terra Madre & Farm Tour
Written by Jacqueline L. Chalmers
Terra Madre is inspiring, enlightening and educational. To be in the company of 6000 like-minded delegates is powerful. I learned as much networking with delegates as I did attending the numerous workshops and meeting vendors in Salone del Gusto. Our week spent travelling the Italian countryside was an invaluable learning experience.
Salone vender proudly displaying one of her heritage birds compleat with head (the comb and wattles are prized) and feet
A workshop called “The Granaries of Memory” presented by Carlo Petrini, and his colleague, Vandana Shiva set the tone for the conference. They emphasized the importance of “traditional knowledge” and how it can be used and modified to the benefit of modern food production. The four pillars or groups of people that hold this knowledge in their memories are: women, indigenous peoples, the elderly and the farmer. Elizabeth Chrapko of En Sante Winery commented how a young farmer in their community had approached her husband. The young farmer queried where he should go to learn how to be a good farmer? The husband very simply replied, “The retirement home before all the grass roots farmers are gone.”.
Jackie Chalmers & Michelle Malmberg with the snail - no slow moving at Terra Madre or Salone del Gusto, so much to see and do!
Petrini also emphasized how the youth must marry modern science and traditional knowledge, stating it is a time of big challenge and big opportunity for the young people in our midst.
Salone is a wonderland for lovers of food and drink. We visited with many poultry producers and the following week we visited with a producer of an heirloom breed, the Gallo Nero. We also discovered some value-added ways to utilize our garlic.
Susan McKenna Grant, formerly of Toronto, of La Petraia, an enchanting agritourismo harvesting from her garden for our lunch. She harvests year round and serves guests only their own or locally grown food.
Messages imparted by four of the keynote speakers have left a lasting impression with me.
During the closing ceremonies when all the speakers were gathered on stage and the program was about to begin a young woman accompanied by a young man in a “pig” costume ran on stage to protest the way industry pigs were raised and slaughtered. She was highly emotional, wielding a megaphone and requesting three minutes of our time. Security rushed forward ready to forcibly remove her and her partner. Carlo Petrini very quietly and respectfully stopped them from apprehending her and allowed her the opportunity to share her message. She did, her points were valid and deeply heartfelt and the wisdom and respect that Carlo Petrini paid her was immeasurable. As another speaker, Raj Patel stated during his speech, “democracy is not always comfortable”.
Vandana Shiva shared how she had taken on the megalithic corporation Monsanto arguing that they do not own seeds. Monsanto had taken a basmati rice seed and licensed it. She argued on the premise that no one can create seeds, she charged them with proving that they had created the seed for basmati rice. Of course, they couldn’t! As a result they lost and could not license the seed. Had they been allowed to license the seed they would effectively starved out many small farmers in developing countries. The farmers would not be able to afford the seed and if they saved seed they would be breaking the law as Monsanto would have proprietary rights.
Merchants from all over the world selling their wares at Terra Madre.
Manfred Max-Neef, an economist & environmentalist whom I dubbed “Father Christmas” shared a powerful message. He spoke how as a boy he mused on the difference between humans and animals. His first thought was how animals couldn’t love, he realized after watching them for a time that of course they loved. He then reflected on various human emotions over the years and realized that indeed animals did exhibit all of them to varying degrees. Finally as a young man, over breakfast one morning with his father, a highly respected German scientist, he posed the question to him. He shared how his father sat contemplating the question for quite a long time. At last he responded by saying, “The fundamental difference between humans and animals is that animals aren’t stupid. If they do something once and there are negative consequences they will not do it again. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for humans.”
One last parable imparted by Nobel Laureate and Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangare Maathal resonated with me. She spoke of the animals in the jungle and how there was a fire and they had no time to escape. The animals large and small watched the fire burn and none of them did anything, they discussed it among themselves but none took any action. They noticed a hummingbird flying to a water source and filling her beak, flying back and dropping her meagre amount of water on the fire and repeatedly doing this. Finally one of the larger animals asked her what she was doing? She replied with conviction, “I’m doing the best I can!” There were many “hummingbirds” at the conference and the slow food movement is slowly but steadily finding more and more hummingbirds joining its ranks.
Our field trip through rural Italy after Terra Madre was a great adventure and further enriched our whole experience.
La Petraia, an agriturismo, is a country inn on a working farm. Canadian Susan McKenna Grant and her husband Michael have breathed new life into an agricultural property long dormant. Petraia is a going concern, a real working farm whose goals are sustainability both in agriculture and in tourism. As a farm, Petraia dates back to the 11th century.
Susan showed us an historical map of the farm, they have honoured and maintained the integrity of the landscape as it was recorded almost two centuries ago. The forest has remained intact, it provides an abundant chestnut harvest for many in the community. It provides a necessary watershed which in turn ensures the sustainability of the their agriculture production. The Grant’s view themselves not as the owners of Petraia but only as her current custodians. We only had a day with her, a return visit and stay at the farm would be invaluable for all the knowledge they could impart.
It is a basic human right to have access to good, nutrient dense food. Food production is an honourable and necessary profession and those that raise good, fair, clean food need to be rewarded for their efforts so they can continue to do so. There is no more vital link than good food to ensure the continuation of the human race. The link must be forged with our young people. I would like to return to Terra Madre 2012 as a delegate and take my two children; Jennie will be 21 and Paden 20. They both work with me on the ranch on an as-needed basis and eventually I hope one will take over the ranch and the other pursues working in food production, processing or marketing. Together we could seek out other food products that could be raised or grown here.
From start to finish it was sensory overload and it has taken many days to reflect and start to plan how to utilize what was learned at Terra Madre.
Our two weeks in Italia reinforced some of the old world and intuitive knowledge that I value; its’ inspired me to research and develop value added products for our garlic; I’m excited to implement some of La Petraia’s vision and ideas here at our historic New Oxley Ranche (circa 1886); and of course, we will endeavour to improve our methods in raising, harvesting and selling the best pastured poultry possible. As we plan for our third “Spirit of the Hills Festival”, held in August which celebrates regional artists and musicians we will again give much focus to the best of our regional slow food, sharing our passion and commitment, and exposing more and more folks to the Slow Food movement.
Thank you.
