Terra Madre Visayas

I have been lucky to attend Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, a bi-annual celebration of Slow Food in Turin, Italy since 2012 (on even years) until 2022, minus 2020 or the pandemic year. It is a huge meeting up of all the Slow Food Convivia and Communities from 160 countries for four days; which includes taste sessions, taste workshops, demos and spirited talks about different food cultures and practices to eat good, clean and fair food (www.slowfood.com).

This time, this year, we are celebrating Terra Madre Visayas – right in our home ground. It is exciting to know that Slow Food in the Philippines has grown to more than 18 communities, with 12 located in the Visayas and six located in Negros Island.

What is a Slow Food community anyway? These are aggrupations of like-minded farmers and consumers, food producers and cooks and just about anyone who believes in the preservation of food cultures and the consumption of good, clean and fair food. If you are interested, you just need to gather ten people in your community who will then sign a manifesto to send to Slow Food headquarters in Bra, Italy. That’s it. And then you can be part of this global movement.

Thanks to support from national and local officials, Slow Food Negros spearheaded the organization of this milestone for the Philippines. Slow Food was first introduced here in the late 80s by Mara Pardo de Tavera, Doreen Gamboa-Fernandez, Beth Romualdez and their colleagues. Slow Food Negros is now headed by Reena Gamboa, a niece of the culinary icon Doreen Gamboa-Fernandez. The fruit does not fall far from the tree, as the saying goes.

Senator Loren Legarda came to support as she is also an avid environmentalist and a supporter of all things culture. She understands the Slow Food principles and also joined us at Terra Madre Day last December 2022 in Amadeo, Cavite. We hope that she can join us in Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2024 when it celebrates in Turin once again. In previous years, former agriculture undersecretary Berna Romulo-Puyat joined us in Turin to further understand why Slow Food can make a difference in farmers’ lives and in providing better food for our citizens.

And after returning from the trip she made sure we could expose old ingredients like adlai, batuan, kadyos, heirloom rice and even Barako coffee to consumers. All that exposure has now brought adlai and batuan to mainstream markets as they can now be found in more supermarkets and outlets across the country.

We also brought Benguet Arabica in 2016 to Turin and we were featured in an Italian café, yours truly doing a sharing on the Cordillera sources of organic coffee to the Italian press corps and serving our coffee to them, assisted by an Italian barista and my random translator Mickey Garcia. Now, that is something I may not be able to do again but it did bring awareness about our revered Benguet heirloom coffee varieties. I was accompanied by the successor of Usec. Berna Puyat, Usec. Evelyn Laviña, who also saw how Slow Food works. She will soon form her own Davao Slow Food community, even if she has left government service. That is how contagious the movement is, which we hope Sen. Loren Legarda continues to support with the help of Department of Agriculture and Department of Tourism as Slow Travel is also a component of the community endeavors.

In the 2018 Terra Madre, Chef Jam Melchor along with Pasil, Kalinga farmers and Slow Food pioneers Rowena and Lam-en Gonnay conducted a taste workshop on heirloom rice from Pasil, which Chef Jam made into two recipes for the global audience to taste. We had a lot of questions answered about Philippine heirloom rice varieties from the press and other attendees and it is really a unique way of showcasing the richness of our food culture.

Also in 2018, Chef Margarita Fores would take turns with Slow Food Sugbu’s Aurora Perez serving adobo and rice, and budbud kabog, respectively. Fores has been an avid participant since 2012, even serving a lechon which was roasted in Rome by the Filipino community.

In 2022, even with a meager budget, we managed to squeeze into a stand that stood out because of the food samplings conducted by Slow Food Negros, alternating with Slow Food Manila as we served up coffee from Davao and Negros, and various recipes using Ark of Taste ingredients.

So, this time we are in the Philippines and no less than Slow Food’s executive director Paolo Di Croce and Asia Pacific coordinator Elena Aniere will witness this first ever regional celebration featuring taste workshops, Earth markets and many events that will impress upon the general public what Terra Madre does – it unites our culture to show the world. And in Turin, a grander celebration awaits us if and when plans push through, to show the biodiversity we have and to show the world what we have to offer from our rich heritage of flavors and indigenous ingredients.

So if you still have time to book a ticket, do drive or fly to Negros to witness Terra Madre Visayas, the first ever to be held in the country. If you miss it, you can save the dates for Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy in September 2024. I swear it will change you and how you see food and culture.

To the Terra Madre Visayas organizers and supporters, thank you for giving the Philippines a chance to be on the Slow Food map of the world.