Terra Madre Americas presents its protagonists

With a spotlight on Latin America and the Caribbean and its rich food biodiversity, Terra Madre Americas will represent a unique occasion to showcase traditional knowledge, local products and practices aimed at environmental conservation and resource preservation for future generations. Tickets available for the international event to be held in Sacramento from May 17 to 19, 2024.

Visitors will immerse themselves in these regions and have the possibility to meet farmers and cooks, explore products and taste them. The program with conferences and workshops is available here. https://visitsacramento.ticketspice.com/terra-madre-americas

Here you can meet some of the protagonists at the event.

Brazil

Patricia Ellen Rodrigues Nicolau is a scholar at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) and expert on cocoa and chocolate chain at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), spokesperson for Slow Food, consultant and producer of bean-to-bar chocolates. She has been working in defense of the right to good and healthy food for all through the Food Security Council of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro since 2021, teaches Nutrition Education classes in schools and communities and organizes training for farmers with the Agricultura Familiar e Agroecologia organization. Her journey through the cocoa and chocolate chain began when she was 11 and started studying confectionery, creating recipes based on the stories of her grandmother, originally from Bahia. Today, she seeks to add memory, value and nutrition to her chocolate production and takes the national cocoa flag everywhere. Where to find her: Saturday May 18, 3.30 pm and Sunday May 19, 3.30 pm, Brazilian cocoa workshops

Maria do Socorro Almeida Nascimento is a versatile and committed black woman, deeply connected to the riverside communities of the Amazon, where she researches foods such as açaí, innovating without losing the essence of the local food culture. With more than 20 years’ experience in law, education, gastronomy, culture and social entrepreneurship, her recent talks at the X Pan Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA) and the pre-COP 30 Amazon Dialogues broadened the debate on advocacy, food sovereignty and climate issues. As an active director of the Slow Food Brazil Association , she leads the defense of sustainable food and the preservation of Afro-indigenous territories. Recognized for her tireless activism, she stands out as a curator and mediator at cultural events, promoting Brazil’s culinary and cultural diversity. Her dedication as an educator has had a positive impact on many people, celebrating traditions and contributing to a more inclusive and plural future, and she is an ambassador for the Amazon’s cultural wealth at a national and global level. Where to find her: Friday May 17, 10.30am and Sunday May 19, 10.30am, Brazil açaí workshop.

Bolivia
Maria Ruth Gutiérrez Vargas has been a cook, baker and activist for Slow Food since she was 19. In 2018 she was one of the founders of the first Slow Food community in Bolivia and she has always focused on Food Education and Gastronomy promoting local products and supporting local producers in the Bolivian Valley. With a group of other cooks, she is now focusing on the creation of the Bolivian Cooks’ Alliance and a new community of Cocineras Bolivianas Diversas, a safe space for all women who have suffered violence and harassment, to make their voices heard and promote equity, inclusion and empowerment. Their objective is also to promote the consumption and support of local producers and the protection of native products, therefore they have worked with native bees from indigenous communities, in order to contribute to Slow Food projects such as the Ark of Taste and expand the Slow Food network in Bolivia. Where to find her: Saturday May 18, 1pm and and Sunday May 19, 1pm, Andean quinoa workshop.

Chile
Andrea Carolina Oyarzo Mansilla is a farmer, promoter of permaculture and the rescue of agricultural, medicinal and culinary traditions, guardian of ancestral seeds. Health consultant with specialization in diving, she is also an artisanal fisherwoman. She is the leader of women’s fishing organizations in the territory and of tourism, cultural and environmental organizations that seek to promote rural tourism, consumption of good, clean and fair food, care and respect for the earth and all that inhabits it, ancestral knowledge and equity. Where to find her: Saturday May 18, 1pm and Sunday May 19, 1pm Andean quinoa workshop.

Colombia
Eduardo Martinez Cañas has been part of the Slow Food network since 2006 and has been interested in the countryside and farmers since he was a child. He became a farmer as a teenager. An Agronomist engineer by training, he is also an experienced cook, gastronomic researcher and director of projects for the promotion and revaluation of Colombian cuisine, recognized nationally and internationally. He has a wide experience in research of traditional production systems in the rainforests of the Pacific and the Amazon, the development of studies and methodologies for rural land use planning and analysis of the peasant household economy in different parts of the country. Where to find him: Friday May 17 at 3.30 pm, workshop on Colombian panela and viche; Sunday May 19, 3.30 pm, Brazilian cocoa workshop and Caribbean panela and viche.

Cuba
Leidy Casimiro Rodríguez is Dr. in Agroecology, farmer and owner of the Finca del Medio, an international reference in agroecology, permaculture and innovation for sustainable lifestyles in the countryside. She is an expert in agroecological transition and sustainable family farming projects. Where to find her: Friday May 17 at 3.30 pm, workshop on Caribbean panela and viche.

Mexico
Monica Orduña Sosa, studied Gastronomy, is a member of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance, Educator and promotes the work of local Mexican producers. Where to find her: Friday May 17, 1 pm and Saturday May 18 at 10.30 am, workshop on Mexican corn.

Slow Wine Coalition producers

Ritmo Lunar is an Argentinian Biodynamic Farmer who runs a Winery project in Cafayate Salta, with a certification by Demeter, the international Biodynamic Federation.

Diego and Marcos Valsecchi are Argentinian winemakers and farmers.

Franco Galigniana and Paula Michelin have a wine project in the Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina, called Descendientes de Viticultores de Montaña. They belong to the second generation of winemakers, working with regenerative and organic viticulture, with a vision of going biodynamic.

Humberto Persano comes from the Argentinian Finca Las Glicinas in Paraje Altamira (Uco Valley Mendoza)
Javier Rosseau is from the Chilean The Caliboro Reserve and runs a family project that protects and cares for the land and its inhabitants. They focus on dry land viticulture, with an emphasis on 200+ year old heritage vines.

Maria Jose Granier is the founder of the Jardín Oculto Winery in Bolivia and she works with old vines that grow entangled with trees in the Cinti Valley.

Pía Carrau represents the third generation leading Cerro Chapeu Winery in Rivera, Uruguay, where the sustainably managed vineyards were planted by her grandfather in 1975.

Slow Food Coffee Coalition producers/roasters

Cesar Marin Arce is an Organic & Biodynamic Coffee Producer at La Chacra D Dago located in Junin, Peru. Part of Convivium Lima and activist of the SF movement since 2010, a few years ago he formed his first Community “Villa Rica Sustentable” as part of the SF Coffee Coalition, a group of coffee producers and roasters committed to a Cleaner, Fairer and Healthier Coffee. Their mission is to bring our Regenerative Agriculture (Ag. Biodynamic) practices to coffee along with the collaboration of all parties in the supply chain.

Stephany Escamilla Femat is Member of the Women in Coffee Association in Mexico, member of the Slow Food MExico board of directors and partner and founder of the Community Forest, Fog and Coffee Xalapa. She is also President of the Alere & Abuntia Cooperative and the Cooperative Coffee Association.

More on https://www.slowfood.com/it/events/terra-madre-americas/

Slow Food is a global network of local communities founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and counteract the rise of fast food culture. Since its founding, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. Slow Food is the umbrella organization responsible for guiding the entire movement.