Field Notes
Salmon Nation at Terra Madre
West coast fishermen join a gathering of global food communities
At an October 2004 gathering in Turin, Italy, Slow Food International set a sumptuous table for a new kind of globalism. Thousands of delegates from 130 countries joined the Terra Madre event to celebrate unique cultural traditions and foster greater understanding through friendship and food.
Among the hundreds of food communities represented were fifteen fishermen from Salmon Nation. Much as Salmon Nation provides a new-yet-old regional identity for the citizens of Pacific salmon territory, Terra Madre offered a forum for expressing and strengthening regional identities around the globe.
The Terra Madre event positioned Slow Food International as the United Nations of world food communities. With a worldwide membership of over 80,000, the non-profit organization has made its mission to show that regionally-based food alternatives place a high value on food quality and strengthen links between producers and consumers.
All Terra Madre delegates joined as representatives of specific food communities. Communities included everyone from coffee growers of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to fruit producers of the Sierra Centro, Peru and organic vegetable producers of Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan. Over 500 delegates attended Terra Madre from the United States, including fruit growers, ranchers, honey producers, fishermen, winemakers, vegetable farmers, artisanal cheesemakers, bakers, brewers and chefs. Salmon Nation delegates were recognized by Slow Food International as "leaders in the fight to protect the Northwestern coastline of the United States."
Regionalism was discussed in a variety of ways throughout the event, from the unique terrior of fruits, vegetables, wines, and cheeses from all over the world to workshops on point-of-origin labeling to discussions of supporting regional ecosystems through developing local food markets. The idea of regionalism was often evoked as an antidote to globalization's disregard for quality and environmental stewardship.
In his keynote address, Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini stressed the value of regional identity and connection with the land. "Farmers, fisherpersons, breeders, nomads from the Peruvian Andes to the Argentine pampas, from the shores of the Mediterranean, to the seas of Northern Europe, all organized into what we call "food communities." These communities bind together the destinies of women and men pledged to defending their own traditions, cultures and crops. Food communities, founded on sentiment, fraternity, and the rejection of egoism, have strategic importance in designing a new society, a society based on fair trade." At Terra Madre, Slow Food harvested a bounty of good will from food communities around the world.
