What this opening shows is that people care, a lot of people. A movement that is against popular culture in terms of food policy and food culture but a movement that is no longer small in numbers, ideas or vision. The scale of this conference speaks volumes as does the quality of the speakers and ideas being shared. Some of the theme of this introduction was that we had come a long way in a short period of time but we must sustain this effort and the perspiration behind it so that future generations will eat more natural wholesome foods because they want to,because they are educated and their taste buds are not destroyed by the repeated commercial onslaught of fast foods.
Although there were serious issues at play you will notice there was also a sense of theatre during the conference, an ability to entertain as well as inspire. Unfortunately unless your Italian is up to scratch you will not get the wisdom of Carlo Petrini but I’m told he was inspirational urging us to continue the fight and to do more. He has achieved so much but continues to push which I find amazing.
I’ve also included Sam Levin’s speech which I thought was fantastic how a single high school student can really achieve something. I was also impressed by his poise in front of such a massive audience. Hi aim was to get his school to take more notice of the food they consume and in turn their natural world around them. After discussions with other students he decided to start an organic vegetable patch on school grounds ran by the students. The vegetables would be used in the school meals but more importantly be used as an educational tool for all ages of students at the school. Despite having no gardening experience and being told they were unlikely to get approval from the school Sam and his team threw themselves into the challenge learning about organic gardening and seeking out papers on any similar projects. They eventually began looking for sites and found an old soccer field, after researching soil,sunshine hours and water tables they decided this would be their site. After putting in so much work the school approved their project. But that was only the start of the work. They planned yearly crops and set about raising funds, sending hundreds of letters to local businesses and doing a pig roast as a fundraising event. The pig roast event alone raised over nine thousand dollars which is incredible.
They built a water capture system that caught rain water and watered their three thousand foot garden another great natural solution. They have now raised over thirty thousand dollars which is an incredible feat. This is only part on of Sam’s speech I will post the other part of this amazing speech soon.