Defend Diversity In All Its Forms, Reduce Inequality And Guarantee Access To Knowledge: The Challenges For Slow Food In The Coming Years

We can change the world through food. The 7th Slow Food International Congress closes in Chengdu, defining our path for the years to come.

“This congress reaffirms our rejection of the current development model. These days of work and testimony from the Slow Food and Terra Madre networks have confirmed that alternative models exist, and are successful.

The Slow Food Youth Network in China is also committing to this path, which is of extraordinary importance when one considers how crucial China’s role is to the challenges which face our entire planet,” said Carlo Petrini in his closing speech at the congress where he was reconfirmed as President of Slow Food by 400 delegates from 90 countries.

Defending diversity in all its forms, fighting inequality, spreading knowledge.

“We are revitalizing the network, good, clean and fair small-scale businesses: on the local scale, we have the strength to make a difference. For the last thirteen years, Terra Madre has been the heart of the Slow Food network. We stand with the most humble in the fields, we defend them in the farmers’ markets, and we strengthen them through the alliance between chefs and producers.”

The close of of the congress has seen the approval of the Delcaration of Chengdu , which confirms the need to fight for good, clean and fair food, until it is guaranteed for every person on this planet, but it doesn’t stop there. Access to knowledge is also a human right, and the recognition of traditional knowledge as equal to academic knowledge. The Declaration refuses all forms of political, social and economic exclusion, and puts the safeguarding of the environment as a priority for all our action. Diversity is the most valuable heritage which we have, both as individuals and as the collective human race, and we must confront all forms of inequality in the distribution of wealth and opportunities.

The congress has given a mandate to the new managing group which will, over the next three years, enact a profound revision of the Slow Food organizational structure, to make it more inclusive and open.

The governance which will in charge until 2020 is composed of 43 councillors from 32 countries. Carlo Petrini is reconfirmed as President of the association, and Paolo Di Croce as Secretary-General by the Executive Committee, as proposed by the President. The Executive Committee also contains Alice Waters (USA), Edward Mukiibi (Uganda), Richard McCarthy (USA), Ursula Hudson (Germany), Joris Lohman (Netherlands), Roberto Burdese (Italy), George Schnyder (Brazil) and Qun Sun (China).

Beyond the Declaration of Chengdu , there are six Congressional Motions, the fruit of the collective labor of all the delegates over the course of the three days of work:

The Congress has also confirmed its commitment to the Menu for Change campaign, launched at the opening of the Congress, which identifies climate change as inextricable from the food system, and demands the immediate commitment of our network.

Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet. Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.