Terra Madre 2020

The new event

Imagine it as a long journey: we depart on October 8, 2020, with a rich calendar of activities that will evolve both online, on this platform and offline, in events around the world.

We’ll continue this joruney for six months, with new digital content and numerous physical events across oceans and timezones. We’ll finally arrive at our destination in April 2021, with the Slow Food International Congress, bringing with us all the ideas for the future of food that we’ve collected during the journey.

What’s the problem? What’s the solution?

For several months the world has been focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis. Yet the real existential threat we face is the ongoing climate and environmental crisis, which greatly amplifies the other two. We must react and face the greatest crisis together, as it affects every aspect of human life: our health, our society, our economy, and the ecology of the entire planet. We need radical action now before it is too late.

We have a response: biodiversity. How is it possible to feed the planet guaranteeing good, clean and fair food for all? What can we do to reverse a development model that creates social and environmental disasters, eroding our natural capital? Slow Food maintains that the only way forward is through the promotion of biodiversity in all its forms: from invisible bacteria to the largest species, as well as the diversity of human knowledge and cultures. This mission is more timely and urgent than ever.

A new geography

In order to make radical change we often need to analyze things from a new perspective. The science that investigates the reality of our surroundings is geography, and this is our starting point. As well as wider horizons, we must also consider the vertical dimension: altitude. Political borders between states and regions are put into the background, and we focus our attention on ecosystems.

Highlands

Care for the land as an opportunity to revitalize local economies.

Water Lands

The well-being of the ecosystem depends on our recognition that the oceans, seas and inland waters are a common good.

Lowlands

The ecosystem which shows the sharpest contrast between different modes of production. On the one hand, monocultures and intensive farms; on the other, diversified small-scale farms, a symbol of regeneration.

Urban Lands

A fair and inclusive ecosystem where information and public awareness can make the difference.

Our Food, Our Planet, Our Future

Food, planet, future. The tagline of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2020 is apparently simple, and identifies a chain of relations that should be clear to all of us, even if we don’t always notice it.

Our relationships with our food – how we produce it, distribute it, choose it and eat it – have enormous impacts on our planet, and consequently, our future.

Future scenarios

At Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2020 we’ll imagine a variety of potential future scenarios, and to exert our influence now – because we’re running out of time – on which kind of future lies ahead.

We want to try and do this with the contribution of everyone. In our journey towards April 2021 we’ll ask you to take part in a number of ways, by participating in events, surveys and challenges. And we’ll try to understand where we’re going, and to identify the corrective action needed to ensure a better future.