An extraordinary edition that has reached a total of over 10 million digital profiles in 202 countries around the world
The curtain falls tomorrow, April 30, 2021 on the thirteenth edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, the international event organized by Slow Food, the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region that did not give up in the face of the imperative dictated by Covid-19 and with great spirit of resilience has revolutionized its format, offering 205 days of physical and digital events, organized by the Slow Food network and its partners in 75 countries around the world.
“Faced with the health, social and economic crisis caused by the pandemic, we wanted to bring attention to the causes that triggered it: agricultural biodiversity compromised by human action, the climate crisis that threatens ecosystems, the inequities of the production model and food distribution. All problems that we were familiar with even before this pandemic, but which the dominant development model continues to ignore or does not want to face”, declared Carlo Petrini, president of Slow Food. “In this situation we have decided to focus the spotlight on solutions, small but revolutionary for their effectiveness of action at the local level, which are already in the hands of the communities of farmers, fishermen, artisans, cooks, but also of individual citizens who every day they act for change with their conscious choices. We have long supported the need for a change of paradigm, and we are not the only ones to say it: here, these seven months of Terra Madre have allowed us to listen to the voice of scholars, academics, philosophers, scientists, economists, together with that of farmers, artisans, shepherds, fishermen, educators who are the fundamental backbone of the Terra Madre and Slow Food network in every corner of the planet ‘event, through the thousands of hours of activities carried out in the five continents, is a clear vision of these new paradigms, which represents that true ecological transition from several parts i invoked and can no longer be postponed”.
Seven months of events that have brought Terra Madre Salone del Gusto all over the world, making Turin and Piedmont the reference point for reflection on the future of food. “The great success of this edition, even in the ways that the health emergency has imposed, is the demonstration of the extraordinary strength of the community that Slow Food has created over the years and of which Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, Italy and Piedmont are the beating heart – emphasizes the president of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, and d is proof that in this unique human heritage, made up of skills, history and ideas that look to the future, there is the key to restart vital to feed our tomorrow with awareness and conscience”.
“Even in a context of great difficulty caused by a pandemic which – underlines the mayor of Turin Chiara Appendino – has done and is still making its heavy health, economic and social effects felt in every part of the planet, the event overcame every obstacle, managing to make realities even belonging to distant and different worlds communicate with each other, and confirming the event as an unmissable opportunity to raise awareness on the issues of food, food education, the protection of biodiversity. It should be noted that the format chosen for the thirteenth edition, through its numerous events organized also digitally and proposed in seven months, involving 75 countries – has made it possible to transform the limits set by the need to adopt restrictive measures to contain the spread of Covid 19, allowing at the same time, to keep Turin and Piedmont at the center of the event and to expand the horizons of the event”.
And precisely in this great opportunity to know and learn lies the uniqueness of this edition of Terra Madre which has virtually united the Slow Food network as no physical edition could ever have done. “Mind you, no virtual appointment can ever replace the sense of fraternity and the strength of the multitude that meets in Turin every two years, but in recent months every Slow Food community, every member or activist, every single lover of the proposed themes – everywhere in the world, whatever its language – had the opportunity to find the most suitable format in Terra Madre – according to a note-. According to a first estimate, the 1160 events, organized in 75 countries – from Azerbaijan to Brazil, from Philippines to the island of Antigua – which the www.terramadresalonedelgusto.com platform hosted and promoted with an average of about six a day, have reached over 10 million digital profiles worldwide. In particular, the appointments transmitted on the platform and on the social media of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto totaled over 1,300,000 views with an audience distributed in 202 countries, while the events organized directly by the Slow Food network around the world involved 250,000 participants. The data relating to training activities and meetings that required participation after registration is significant: a total of 97 appointments marks the total enrollment of 10,300 people while over 1 million users have followed those same appointments through social networks. In addition, 3300 young people from all over the world for a month joined the challenge organized on Instagram in collaboration with the activists of the Slow Food Youth Network to promote good, clean and fair food. Another important data emerges from a first statistical survey carried out near the end of the event, according to which over 45% of the subjects who actively participated in the events of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto had never had an involvement in Slow activities. Food: a solid base of interlocutors from which to start again for the next challenges that await us. And a rich parterre of people that we will be able to meet for the first time, physically, at Terra Madre 2022”.
“These numbers are impossible to compare with any other data relating to previous editions and to any other Slow Food initiative – emphasizes Petrini -, but we can certainly say that they are results we are very satisfied with, because they exceed the objectives we set ourselves on the eve of ‘opening”. A more complete and detailed picture of the numbers will be presented in June, after the necessary analysis and in-depth work that will begin as early as next week.
Conferences, trainings, forums, in addition to the most innovative and most successful formats, the Food Talks and How is it done? represent a unique heritage of knowledge, a real “library of good, clean and fair” that remains available to those who still want to know, learn, acquire new awareness, essential to understanding in which direction we must direct our actions. “Fishing in this extraordinary online library, accessible for free to all, we want to mention some of the many names that have accompanied us on this long journey: Franco Farinelli, Virginie Raisson and Paul Collier, with whom we opened on October 8, on the theme of new geographies to read the world; Jonathan Franzen, who confirmed the thesis that the battle to save biodiversity, unlike that against the climate crisis, is within everyone’s reach; Heribert Hirt and David Quammen, who spoke on the report between food and health and the relationship between biodiversity loss and zoonosis; Elena Granata, with the model of the city of the future, based on resilience rather than productive monoculture, echoed by Carolyn Steel, according to which the imperative is to reconnect cities and the surrounding countryside; Sunita Narain who reported us on the tragedy of social injustices caused by the climate crisis; Célia Xakriabá, with her pun view of a young indigenous woman about the role of food, the biodiversity of knowledge and cultures, the right to land; Paul Ariès and Eric Schlosser, on the food of the future and on the (non) solutions proposed by technology; Alice Waters on the role of taste education for children (and schools) in changing the food system”, continues the press release.
All of this has been made possible above all thanks to the trust of the bodies that have believed in Slow Food and in this far from the simple and obvious project. A very special thank you to the institutions that have historically been the event’s first partners, the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region, to the Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and the Ministry for the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea that have granted us their patronage, and to the many partners who have supported this edition. Platinum partners include: Pastificio Di Martino, Unicredit, Lavazza, Acqua S.Bernardo, Quality Beer Academy; Gold partners: Agugiaro&Figna, Astoria, BBBell; Silver partners: Compagnia dei Caraibi, Cuki, Parmigiano Reggiano, Reale Mutua. Finally, we would like to thank Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Associazione delle fondazioni di origine bancaria del Piemonte and the Chamber of Commerce of Turin for their support.
