I was privileged to be invited to attend Terra Madre 2010 (www.terramadre.org) . The event was held October 21-25, 2010.
More than 5,000 people attended from countries covering the world. The gathering brought together food communities, cooks, academics, youths, farmers and other foodies who have a common interest of promoting local sustainable food production in harmony with the environment while respecting knowledge handed down over the generations.
We all strongly all believed that “organic” and “biodynamic” type food production should be the norm not the exception and conventional food production methods using pesticides etc should be minimal or even better eliminated.
I was excited to meet other people who shared my vision and passion for good organic quality ingredients and the need to have ethical labeling right around the world. I met slow food members from Pakistan, USA, Canada, India, Italy, Iceland and many other countries. Although we all came from different countries and spoke different languages we all shared the same voice in relation to food and the environment – the urgent need to reconnect to nature and earth and to respect mother nature.
I attended many workshops and a tasting session at Salone del Gusto and some of the key themes that emerged were:
– the urgent need for us all to start showing respect for our environment by making ethical choices when doing food shopping. For example purchase products that are kind and respectful to us and the environment. We do not place pesticides sprays on our body as moisturizes so why are we choosing to eat products that have pesticides and chemicals on them thinking they will nourish our body?
-it is important to take care of our indigenous cultures and languages so that they do not become extinct
– a shift is required for us to return back to our Ancient ways and wisdoms which respected nature and human mankind. As technological advances keep developing we seem to be shifting towards the direction whereby we are losing ourselves and our spirituality.
– when it comes to cooking it should be about eco not ego. We need more eco chefs not ego chefs. My philosophy at Greekalicious has always being to cook with love and from the heart.
– there is a need to strike a balance and harmony between earth/nature, science, technology, traditions, and knowledge.
– all good policies in relation to food should be ethical.
– food is not a commodity it is culture. It is therefore important to respect local traditions and culture.
At the end of the day clean food and good health comes from a clean environment and its up to us to make a difference by making ethical buying decisions. Unfortunately our politicians do not appear to care about our health and the environment so it is up to us to take action and start making a difference.
Why don’t we all start asking our supermarkets and the restaurants we eat at where their ingredients came from and how they were grown?
