9/14/2012 - We open here a discussion forum on the various issues that will be addressed at the Slow Food World Congress. Divided by chapters, the forum is intended to give Internet users an opportunity to express their opinions on the various fronts in which our association is moving for fruitful discussion. Have your say on "right to food," "food and landscape," "food and health," "fight against waste," "back to the land," and much more.
The Slow Food World Congress being held in Turin October 27-29, 2012, is the sixth in the movement's history, takes place at the same time as the fifth Terra Madre meeting, and will have to express its opinion on the political and cultural issues that underlie the daily actions of the 1,500 convivia and more than 2,500 food communities operating in 130 countries around the world. This intricate and complex network is called upon to discuss and share visions and projects that can give full meaning to its work. Ideas, values and local organizations (convivia and food communities) are Slow Food's most valuable asset, the founding level of the movement, while organizational structures at the regional, national or supranational level are tools at the service of the network, its dissemination and its rootedness in the territories.
Below are the different discussion forums on the main issues that will be addressed during the congress
The fertility of soils By threatening and compromising the fertility of soils, and thus their being living systems, we compromise our lives and the lives of the planet we inhabit
From food to healthy water Our planet, as well as our bodies, is composed of about 70 percent water. The clods of land that we inhabit are hosted and traversed by water. All of our actions have an echo in some place of water, be it the seas, rivers or lakes or be it simply the air, which will yield to the water the substances it contains
From food to healthy air In our cities, the level of fine particulate matter and heavy metals in the air is above the warning limit for much of the year. Lung and skin diseases linked to exposure to toxic agents are increasing, while cancer rates are rising. The quality of our air is constantly deteriorating, and with it the quality of our lives
From food to biodiversity advocacy The issue of biodiversity has long been high on the agenda of Slow Food and Terra Madre. The word biodiversity refers to the totality of all living forms on the planet, which means not only individual species but also entire ecosystems. The decade from 2011 to 2020 has been declared the Decade of Biodiversity by the United Nations, and in this context Slow Food intends to play its part as a protagonist
From food to landscape If we belong to the Slow Food movement, if we are in the Terra Madre network, it is not only because we care about the way we eat, but also because we are aware that in order to eat well, cleanly and fairly, it is essential to care for the portion of the planet we inhabit
From food to health Eating well is a key element to good health. Thus, among the many functions of food, among the many rights it carries, is the right to health. However, this also means that the fate of food is linked to the fate of those rights
From food to knowledge and memory In the history of humankind, the production of food, its preservation and its distribution have built up an immense body of knowledge transmitted through time and space and subject to constant change to ensure adaptability and efficiency
From food to pleasure, to sociality, to conviviality, to sharing The basic organizational structure of the Slow Food movement is called convivium, the meaning of which refers to the banquet, gathering around the table not only to share food but to foster dialogue, reflection and the pleasure of sociality. This is perhaps the highest and noblest aspect that food culture has been able to consolidate over time
The return to the earth For humanity, not to sound rhetorical but it is the entire human race we are talking about, it becomes imperative to return to the earth. We have every opportunity to do so, and there are many ways in which we can all do it, no one excluded
The fight against waste Today seven billion human beings inhabit the planet; by 2050 there will be more than nine billion. Forecasts on this seem to agree. Considering that already today one billion people do not eat adequately, the outlook looks rather bleak
The localeconomy and participatory democracy The local dimension respects the needs of territories, and we can make ourselves active guarantors of this dimension through the act of producing or choosing the food we eat. Our convivium and our food community are places in which to practice and act so that the portion of the living system entrusted to us, in which we are embedded, functions constructively. It is on a local scale that change starts, in practice.
Lifelong education For everything we have said so far, the key word is: education. There is no change, in behavior or culture, if we do not accept educational engagement as an integral part of that change.
Sixth World Congress of Slow Food Turin, Oct. 27-29. The Discussion Forum
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