Slow Food Celebrates 20 years and Eating Locally around the world on December 10

Communities around the world are celebrating local and sustainable food this December 10, 2009 with Slow Food's very first Terra Madre Day. This global day of action will be one of the largest collective celebrations of food diversity ever held, with more than 800 events organized in 100 countries around the world to protect, enjoy and promote food from small-scale farmers and producers. Slow Food has chosen to celebrate its first 20 years with Terra Madre Day in order to raise attention to the importance of "eating locally" and the right for all communities to maintain and build access to good, clean and fair food; agricultural and food biodiversity; small-scale food production; food sovereignty; language, cultural and traditional knowledge; environmentally responsible food production; and fair and sustainable trade.

Celebrations are taking place on farms and in homes, in restaurants, schools and communities, in cities and in rural areas - all diverse and reflecting their unique location and food culture. From a rally against industrial food in Dhaka, Bangladesh to a gathering of farmers to build a native seed bank in Kenya; from a dinner under an elephant at the Toulouse Natural history museum in France to special school events in mountainous villages of Azerbaijan; and from a neighborhood potluck meal in Seattle, USA to a Mad-Hatter's Tea-party in southern New Zealand.

We are celebrating Terra Madre Day in our region on December 11 by holding a "West Coast food" tasting workshop.

Our Terra Madre Day celebration joins these hundreds of events around the world in an important symbolic moment, encouraging the work being done at the local level to build a sustainable, local food system and demonstrating the diversity of communities all around the world who are part of this global network striving for a better food future.

To browse the hundreds of events happening around the world on Terra Madre Day, visit the world map on the website: http://www.slowfood.com/terramadreday/pagine/eng/mappa.lasso

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that works to promote food that is good - a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet which links to our local culture, clean - produced with respect for environmental and human health, and fair -providing fair conditions for small producers and accessible prices for consumers. Since its founding 20 years ago with the signing of the Slow Food Manifesto in Paris in 1989, the association has grown to include over 100,000 members in 150 countries. The Terra Madre network was launched by Slow Food in 2004 and now counts more than 2,000 food communities, cooks, educators and youth.