Terra Madre Salone del Gusto will be held in 2020, proposing a revolutionized event in response to the new needs imposed by Covid-19 and, starting from October 8 and for six months, will involve all the countries of the Slow Food galaxy, putting in place technologies digital, widespread physical events and new formats. The most important event dedicated to good, clean and fair food, the environment and food policies organized by Slow Food, the Piedmont Region and the City of Turin does not stop and relaunches its commitment. Today more than ever it is necessary to work to affirm new more sustainable economic, environmental and social paradigms. Transforming the food crisis triggered by Covid-19 into opportunities to start afresh from the land, from agriculture, catering, tourism that generate well-being for the territory and the community. Once again we want to do it by giving voice to the communities that in recent months have mobilized all over the world supporting small-scale producers, keeping local food systems alive and protecting the most fragile people. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is not a trade fair event that can be postponed from one year to the next, it is a moment of training, comparison and sharing, in which the network of farmers, breeders, fishermen, food artisans, cooks, young people, Indigenous and migrants find trust and courage, ideas and solutions to common problems. And if, in compliance with the safety rules due to the pandemic, the delegates cannot come to Terra Madre, we will bring Terra Madre to every corner of the world and with it Turin and Piedmont "says Daniele Buttignol, general manager of Slow Food Italia, introducing the story of what will be Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2020. An event totally rethought starting from some fundamental points: - The future of food. Feeding a broad debate starting from the Slow Food vision, thanks to the voices of producers, researchers, experts and scholars because never before is it fundamental to think of good, clean and fair food for everyone: to understand the causes of the pandemic, to initiate change and make it fair and sustainable, build a better future than that predicted before Covid-19. - The Slow Food and Terra Madre network. Making the most of the strengths, the contents, the projects, the actors, the commitment of a million activists in 160 countries around the world to influence the daily behavior of individuals. - The new geographies. Confirming the theme already chosen for the 2020 edition: in this historical phase of sovereigns, nationalisms, walls and barbed wires, Slow Food proposes new paradigms, which do not speak of barriers but of roots, do not think of nations but of cultures; food without political boundaries, but with deep roots in the territories. - A new event. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2020 will launch a great digital revolution that, in a six-month journey, will offer opportunities for meeting and discussion between the delegates of the network and the public regarding a new model of agriculture, production and distribution linked to food. The 2020 edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto will begin on Thursday 8 October and in the following 4 days, originally foreseen by the program, will develop a rich program of digital and physical events that will unite the thousands of nodes of the Slow Food network with the million activists who they are part of it, and many other organizations and realities. The event will continue in the following months with an extraordinary calendar of initiatives that in 160 countries around the world will interpret the themes and challenges that concern the future of food, the planet and its inhabitants. Compatibly with the evolution of virus containment measures and with the full possibility of traveling and organizing events attended by a global audience, the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2020 marathon will still end in Turin, after having crossed the 5 continents, in the April 2021 with the celebration of the International Slow Food Congress. «There are events that are a symbol for the territory that gave them birth, but that become a collective heritage beyond any geographical border. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto has always been an example - underlines the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, together with the Councilor for Trade, Culture and Tourism, Vittoria Poggio, and for Agriculture and Food, Marco Protopapa -. And we will strive to protect this heritage and enhance it even in this complex year for everyone. Our future sprouts from the earth. And we want it to be a future that we can live and share in safety, but together ». Satisfaction was expressed by the mayor Chiara Appendino and the councilor for Productive Activities and Tourism, Alberto Sacco, for the confirmation that not only Terra Madre Salone del Gusto will be done, but that, thanks to its new organizational model, will put Turin at the center of an even wider temporal and spatial dimension than past editions, with a highly positive impact also on the production activities and businesses of our city and region: «Through the numerous widespread initiatives and digital events, the event, which will begin in autumn and will end in the spring of the following year, will help to stimulate attention and increase people's sensitivity on food policies, food education, the recovery of the value of good food, the organoleptic enhancement of products and their authenticity , also teaching to pay more attention to the ways and places of production of what it finds daily mo in our dishes. That of the new model conceived for the Salone - underlined Appendino and Sacco - is an innovative choice which, in a moment of objective difficulty for the organization of events in the most traditional way, has allowed to transform an obstacle into an opportunity, allowing the at the same time to broaden the horizons of the event ». "It will be the largest edition ever: by number of countries involved, by participants in both digital and physical initiatives, by the quantity of" actions for change "that will be fielded by hundreds of thousands of activists across the world. After these 6 months we will have changed profoundly, we will have become more aware of our potential and we will have become more incisive on the future of food in every corner of the world. Turin and Piedmont will be the heart of this sweet revolution: the proposals that will activate the most diverse ideas and initiatives will start from the center of the network; the energy generated by these initiatives will return to the center. We will enter a new dimension of Slow Food and the event and transform the tragedy of the pandemic into the greatest drive to change our history »concludes Paolo Di Croce, Slow Food's international secretary general.
