Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, Slow Food’s biennial international food fair and sustainability conference concluded last week in Turin, Italy. This year, the event was attended by Slow Food Urban San Diego’s Co-Leader, Candice Woo and the chapter’s Co-Founder, Donna McLoughlin, who were among the 200,000+ attendees - including Slow Food leaders, activists, educators and farmers - who participated in educational sessions focused on animal welfare, health, social issues and food waste and attended taste workshops featuring wine, craft beer, cheese and artisan food. Among the speakers at the event’s opening ceremony were Alice Waters, Slow Food’s vice president, famed restaurateur and founder of the Edible Schoolyard and Nikki Henderson, Executive Director of the People’s Grocery in Oakland.

The week in Turin also hosted the International Congress, a global Slow Food gathering of 650 delegates from 95 different countries, including two delegates from Southern California. The key event purpose was to help define the future of the organization and was led by Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food and the non profit’s current president, who was re-elected for another term. Petrini spoke about his next goals for Slow Food, or “Slow Food 2.0”, including increasing the number of food gardens being created by Slow Food chapters in Africa, expanding the work to protect biodiversity of food products around the world and growing Slow Food’s network, which is currently comprised of 1,500 international chapters.

Speakers from countries across the globe, including China, Israel, Brazil and Somalia, gave presentations on issues concerning their local food communities and U.S. delegate Michael Dimock, Slow Food Russian River founder and President of Roots of Change, proposed a motion and received the delegation’s support of the goal of Proposition 37, the Label GMO ballot initiative in California, which Slow Food Urban San Diego also supports.

- By Candice Woo