Back From Terra Madre

We're home. After two days of traveling with three planes, four trains and seven buses we have surmounted the travelers obstacle of public transport and found our way from a converted monastery in the Italian countryside to a semi remote ranch in the Alberta foothills. After a month in Europe we are happy to be in our own beds again. Europe is a wonderful place to visit, but give me a home where the buffalo roam any day.

The main objective of our journey was the Slow Food Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy. This is our second visit to this international food conference. Slow Food International invited over 7000 delegates from 154 countries to attend this biannual event. Almost 5000 small scale farmers, 1000 cooks and host of academics and government officials were brought together to examine the issues facing global food production. Terra Madre is the antithesis of global industrial agriculture. Farmers are selected to attend this event for their dedication to preserving rare breeds, plant varieties an practicing sustainable agriculture. The cooks in attendance are chosen for their dedication to using the produce of the local farmers practicing this more sustainable agricultural methods. Industrial agriculture is unsustainable in this era of climate change, peak oil and a ballooning world population. Slow Food seeks to preserve the agricultural methods, animal breeds and seeds that have proven themselves to be sustainable over the past 10,000 years of agriculture. Today we are eating a considerable amount of oil with every bite of food we eat. It is estimated that industrial agriculture contributes up to 1/3rd of all greenhouse gases in the world through its excessive usage of petroleum and petroleum products to produce and ship agricultural worldwide. A farm is a solar panel and should produce more calories of food than calories of energy it uses. Currently our industrial agriculture systems use 10 or 20 times as much energy in the form of fossil fuels to produce and ship food to global markets. Terra Madre is about local food and food security for all the people of the world. Food that is Good, Clean and Fair.

It was interesting that the global financial crisis was occurring just as the conference was being held. The global food crisis and peak oil were to be some of the main topics discussed at Terra Madre. In the background while banks were collapsing, countries were declaring bankruptcy, the discussion was about getting back to a real economy and not an economy based on speculation. We are in an era where a container ship of rice crosses and ocean and the cargo changes hand, on paper at least, three times before it reaches port. It's precious cargo upon arrival is now too expensive for it's intended customers. We are witnessing an era where the United Nations World Food Program has been seeking $10 billion in aid to help feed the 900 million poorest people in the world and has been unable to get that money after several years of efforts. While in the span of a few short weeks more than $2 trillion is found to help the richest people in the world. Terra Madre is about justice for all and the basis human right for everyone in the world for food security.

Terra Madre was a life changing event. It represents a blue print for the future of food and agriculture. Sustainable agricultural methods can produce more food, cause less environmental damage and lead to food security worldwide. As I find more time and can distill the lessons of Terra Madre I will write more on specific issues.

Getting Ready for Terra Madre

In a few days I will be 30,000 feet over the Atlantic. We are in a mad rush to get all of the preparations made for our for our visit to Terra Madre 2008 in Turin, Italy. Judy and I are fortunate to have been invited to participate in the event for a second time. Slow Food Calgary nominated us and Slow Food International invited us to attend. In 2006 we attended for the first time an this event made us look differently on what we do, which is bison ranching and how we do it. One of our main focuses in our business is controlling the process from conception to consumer. We look at ourselves as food producers first and bison ranchers second. Since we sell directly to the consumer every week at the farmers market we get feedback with almost every sale. We have found that by controlling almost every aspect of the production process we can produce some of the best bison meat anywhere. Attending Terra Madre again will hopefully strengthen how we raise our bison, care for our land and service our customers. We are trying to always improve ourselves and our business. Our goal is to conduct our business in an ethical, environmental freindly and socially concious manner.

Meanwhile back at the ranch we are trying to get all of the work done before we leave the ranch to our housesitters. Mostly they will be caring for Dixie our dog and our cats. But the bison, horses and cattle will need checking on. Terra Madre 2006 showed us that October is a great month for our annual vacation. The weather is still quite good, there is grass in the pastures for the livestock, the water is still running and we are tired after a long busy summer of farmers markets and all of the repairs an maintence that a farm requires. In a few more days we will have everything winterized, we will complete our last meat deliveries and we will be on our way.

Our travel plans have us flying to the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein where my family still farms near the city of Lübeck. My mother's family the Steens first settled here in the 1100's and most of my relatives still live in this part of Germany. I will be good to get back to land I know so well and am connected to. After almost two weeks here we plan to travel to Italy with some time in Bergamo, Milan and then into the Val d'Aosta in the Alps for some hiking in Gran Paridiso National Park. Then a few days on the Ligurian Coast in Portofino and Cinque Terra. Finally we will finsih with the Terra Madre in Turin.

I will try posting when I find time and computer access to update my travels and adventures during this trip.

Good, Clean, Fair

This entry was written in November 2006 after our return from the Slow Food, Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy.  It was published in my Buffalo Horn Ranch, Newletter .  

Judy and I have just returned from three weeks in Italy and Germany.  We were honored to be nominated by Slow Food to attend the Terra Madre (Mother Earth) conference in Turin, Italy.  We attended representing the Bison Producers of Alberta and were amongst 5000 small scale, organic and natural food producers from 154 countries.  This was the United Nations of Food. We were brought together to share our experiences of small scale and traditional food production.  In this era of mass produced industrial food, genetically engineered organisms and and internationally homogeneous foods, we represented the traditional alternative.  We are in an time when more and more farming practices are decided in the board room and the laboratory is, unfortunately, becoming more important than the kitchen in preparing the food we eat.  For thousands of years small scale farmers have worked with the land, cultivating tens of thousands

of varieties of seeds and breeds of livestock suited to the local environment and working with mother earth to provide a healthy and sustainable food source and lifestyle for local communities.  Today the forces of globalization, large multinational food corporations, chemical companies and organizations like the World Trade Organization and the World Bank are dictating to the worlds farmers, the crops that they should grow and to the consumers of the world, what foods they should eat.  The motivation is no longer healthy and delicious food or sustainable agricultural practices, but quarterly profits for shareholders.  Small scale and traditional farmers around the world are under severe threat due to these trends.  Terra Madre was all about maintaining thousands of years of food traditions that result in food that is Good, Clean and Fair.  Good tasting, Clean of chemicals and other pollutants, and Fair as in fairly priced for the farmer who produced the food.  I will expand on what we learned at Terra Madre in future issues of the newsletter.  It was a honor attending this world meeting of food communities and we are obligated to share what we learned with you.