Meat, Food, and Farming

Terra Madre

Terra Madre is a network of food communities, which are groups of small-scale food producers committed to producing quality food in a responsible, sustainable way. There are more than 2,000 Terra Madre food communities around the world.

The First Terra Madre was in 2004 in a massive former production hall in the Fiat factory in Turin. For a Cumbrian meet food and farming insider and a straight forward country guy this was a massive thing. I didn't realise just how massive until I attended. In any other circles this would have been a confrence.

And oh, what a confrence! I had an opportunity to see and speak to some of the attendees as different and diverse as Eritrean goat farmers to Andean lama farmers to Polish mountain sheep farmers, all in their traditional costumes.

What struck me, amongst thousands of other things, was that these people (possibly for the first time) could feel that they were important producers; a collective of like minded people they had some thing in common with massively different but important strands of similarity.

All the way from the Andies

Attending the first ever Terra Madre was memorable for many things but mostly as there was a biggish British Pavillion of producers including me with air dried Herdwick mutton and Herdwick Mutton Salami, Peter Gott with his wild boar farmed in Cumbria, Denhay farm, scotch blackface to name but a few. On a personal level my wife gave birth to our first child ZOSIA, whilst I was away.

Zosia

So moving forward to the next Terra Madre, in 2006. It was the turn of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. By this time I was deeply involved with Mutton. When I look at that written down, it looks a little odd (not in the New Zealand/Welsh way). When was I ever not involved with the mutton? Particulaly Herdwick mutton, it's sale and general promotion. His Royal Highness's opening speach at Terra Madre was, as I have since come to expect from His Royal Highness, an emotional, passionate and intelegent speach about the small familly unit producing food, which we in England know as a familly farm. Oh boy what a day!

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Farmer Sharp and Peter Gott

Whilst an exhibitor at Salone I was attempting to sell English charcuterie to the ultimate market, Italy home of the famous Culatello, Parma Ham and most interesting to me Violino di Capra.