Terra Madre Day celebrated

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Shillong, Dec 10:  The 8th Terra Madre Day was celebrated today with much fanfare in the State. Introduced in Meghalaya six years ago by the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), Mei-Ramew celebrates local food communities. As a part of the celebration, one of the network villages, Moosakhia under Amlarem C & RD Block in West Jaintia Hills have used their creativity and knowledge to build a better food future.

This year’s Terra Madre Day, also locally known as Mei Ramew Day , celebration has focused on Samanong and Moosakhia villages in Jaintia Hills.

People displayed how they collect varieties of ingredients from the forest to make a meal.

Meghalaya is India’s first Indigenous Terra Madre, creating a network of tribes centred around food, Slow Food in particular. It also highlighted exotic meals, ingredients and produce, showcasing recipes that have been cradled through centuries by tribes.

The festival was started by Slow Food in Italy. Slow Food is an eco-gastronomic organisation started by the now legendary Carlo Petrini in Rome in the 1980s, which was origilly a reaction to low-quality, mass-produced fast food.

 Over the past few decades, however, it has grown into a revolution. With tens of thousands of members, the movement aspires to encourage people to demand food that is “good, clean, fair.”

Promoting bio-diversity and upholding tradition, Slow Food works at a grass-root level, with indigenous farmers, pastoralists, hunter-gatherers, and fisherfolk, connecting them with scientists, chefs and policy makers.