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| My photocamera stayed at home, so I used a picure of this company who gave us to try delicious strawberry (!) ketchup |
Last
week(end) was again a period with many activities related to food and urban
farming. One more interesting than the other. I’ll try to give you a short
report of a Food in theStreets week and will tell you about the highlights (and disappointments)
of it all.
The first
activity which took me away from my desk early was the yearly gathering of the Slow Food Milano members. Although
Slow Food still has the reputation of being mainly a gastronomic organisation it
has widened its scope already a long time ago. With the blending in of Terra Madre in
the original Slow Food foundation it became much more directed towards
politics, economics and sustainability. Now the food is not only good, but also
clean and fair! The meeting discussed the future of the organisation and more
specifically the activities of the local department like the bi-monthly Mercatodella Terra and the new accessible Masters of Food on avoiding waste in the kitchen.
Wednesday I
had to leave even earlier to arrive in time at the presentation of CiBi, a new free magazine on food. The magazine
wasn’t new to me as I started a collaboration with them a few months ago, but
this event was the official launch and thus time for a party. After a very
short presentation of the chief and other involved persons, the festivities
could start. Completely in style, they organised a tasting of products from a
new caterer using products from local
farmers. The set-up was done very well and the products where definitely of
high quality. It was only a shame that people attacked the plates like they
hadn’t eaten for weeks. So tasting became a ‘eat as much as you can’ event. A
shame that people don’t respect the food and enjoy it, but eat it because it is
free.
The week
had to finish interesting with lectures on High Tech Green. Unfortunately, the program started with a
delay of an hour. I am sorry to say that also the rest of the symposium wasn’t
organised very well, the amount of audience disappointing (especially when you’ve
seen the people entering the fairgrounds) and the lectures not of a high level
thereby not contributing to the development of the theme. However I enjoyed a
bike ride and a visit to this interesting piece of Massimiliano Fuksas.
The weekend
started close to home with a lecture series on urban farming. And even though I
knew about all the advantages it has it was interesting to meet a group of
people going in the same direction as I am. Although the company who made the
event possible pushed us in a very clear direction I think everyone got the message and will
decide for themselves how to spread this into the world. Preferably not only by
talking about it but by really acting on it.
After a busy
week, the rest of the weekend was for relaxation. I went to see a movie at the new film festival in town (go
and see ‘The Human Scale’ on the work of Jan Gehl), had a quiet breakfast at Sunday
morning and tried some nice dishes at the market of Cox 18.
Now a new
week has started. This one definitely more quiet than the last one. So I
promise you that next week I will give you a true Food in the Streets blog
again. In the meantime, stay updated with the daily posts on Facebook.
