TORINO – At the heart of every edition of Salone del Gusto is a range of food-related hot topics that are becoming increasingly pressing, especially in light of the environmental, agricultural, social and health challenges resulting from climate change, increasing population numbers, world hunger and more.
Through an extensive conference program and the presence of international delegates and producers, Salone del Gusto aims to reveal the flaws of our current food system to an international audience with the hope of bringing about a paradigm shift through the informed actions of more and more people.
One of the conferences will for instance discuss the relation between food production and Family Farming and Climate Change (October 23) while another will demonstrate the predominant mechanisms of overproduction and waste inherent in our current food system by highlighting the dramatically high extent of our daily food waste (Our Daily Waste, October 23).
Slow Food is increasingly concerned with sustainable meat production and animal welfare, especially in reaction to the fact that animal farming throughout the world has become more and more intensive, seriously compromising the welfare of billions of animals raised for their meat, milk and eggs for human consumption each year.
Slow Food believes that the way meat is produced and consumed in the current system is unsustainable, with detrimental effects on the environment, human health, animal welfare and small-scale farmers.
Two conferences will thus consider sustainable alternatives of raising meat as well as the importance of respecting animal welfare (Animal Welfare: The Pleasure of Respecting Rights, October 23 and Sustainable Animal Farming, October 27).
Furthermore, the Taste Workshop Happy Pigs (October 26), held jointly by Spanish, French and Hungarian producers, will present how free-range meat can contribute not only to better meat quality but also to more worthy lives for animals.
Another topic that will be discussed at the event is land grabbing, which describes the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land for commercial purposes such as food and agro-fuel production. Alternatively, investors may acquire land as pure speculation on volatile land and food prices.
It is concerning that more than 60 countries are currently being targeted by investors and governments. Conference speakers will tackle the problem during the conference Land Grabbing and Ocean Grabbing: Hands Off Our Land and Water! (October 26) and Terra Madre delegates and Presidia producers will recount their experiences.
Leonardo Durán Olguin, the coordinator of our Native Bees’ Honey Presidium (Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico), which has been directly affected by land grabbing, will be present to speak about his case.
Premiering at Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2014 is the Indigenous Room, a space allocated to indigenous peoples. Indigenous tribes are exemplary defenders of biodiversity, ancient knowledge, customs and cultures, yet they are often subject to land grabbing, exploitation, the displacement of communities and abandonment by younger generations who are moving to cities.
This is why Slow Food works closely together with them, to affront these problems and to support them in maintaining their food and cultural heritage.
The Indigenous Room will offer a program of various seminars and workshops in which several representatives from the Indigenous Terra Madre network will talk about their experiences in relation to land, food production, food sovereignty, gender, climate change, wellbeing and happiness.
The official conference on indigenous issues,Indigenous Peoples and Their Local Knowledge(October 25), will be a great opportunity for non-indigenous visitors to gain new perspectives on issues concerning indigenous peoples around the world.
About Salone del Gusto
Organized by Slow Food, the region of Piedmont and the city of Turin, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, the international Salone del Gusto event is coming back to Turin, Italy, now its 10th year.
Dedicated to the world of food, Salone del Gusto is once more united into a single event with the international meeting of Terra Madre, a network of small-scale producers from around the world. Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2014 will be held from October 23-27 in Turin’s trade fair Lingotto Fiere. It will see the presence of over 1000 exhibitors from 130 countries.
