Love the Earth
Defend the future

Francisco Melo Medeiros - age 30 - Brazil

I am 30 years old, and I was born in a town in the Sertão, a semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. My parents are farmers, and from a young age, I helped them in the fields: my first job, aged 10, was as a scarecrow in the neighbor's orchard! Little by little, thanks to the help of some of the older beekeepers, I started to take care of the native jandaíra bees, and I immediately fell in love with these insects. I decided to stay in the Sertão and started to study education, because we need education and agriculture in order to help young people to protect our local foods and not abandon our lands. Today, the Cabeço food community cultivates the land organically and we produce honey from stingless bees. Slow Food and the Terra Madre network have introduced me a lot of young people, that, like me, have chosen to stay on their own land promoting good, clean and fair food, and help to remember that at Cabeço we are not alone!

Dalí Nolasco Cruz - age 27- Mexico

Tlaola Serrano Chili Pepper Presidium

I am an indigenous Nahua and I live in Tlaola, in the State of Puebla, Mexico. Together with twelve other women I cultivate the Tlaola serrano chili pepper on terraced land, and I make it into spicy sauces. This ancient variety risked disappearing, but now it's an important economic resource for our community. The women here have always suffered a triple discrimination: because we're women, because we're indigenous, and because we're poor. But now, with great pride, I can say that we are the 500th Slow Food Presidium! I would like to thank Slow Food because it has given value to our work, and importance to our knowledge of the land and food. It's a great opportunity for all the indigenous women of Tlaola.

Kevin Muraya – age 12 – Kenya

Michinda School Garden, Elburgon

We are 50 children, and we take turns doing a thousand different things: we sow, we water the plants, we pick the vegetables. We’ve also learned how to produce our own seeds and compost. And we have lots of fun with the animals: We raise rabbits, chickens, sheep, turkeys and geese. We grow a bit of everything: cassava, spinach, carrot, sorghum, pumpkins, amaranth and bananas too. When we harvest the fruit and vegetables, we all cook together in the school canteen, and if something is left over, we have a little market and use the money to buy many things: watering cans, wheelbarrows, notebooks… At the start my parents weren’t happy, because in Kenya working in the garden is seen as punishment for badly behaved pupils, but then they realized that we’re doing something important. When I grow up I want to be a farmer and produce my own food.

Slow Food has created 2,500 gardens like this one in over 30 countries across Africa. The aim is to reach 10,000 food gardens.

Gjystina Grishaj, age 56, Albania

Mishavinë Presidium

Life isn’t easy in Kelmend: The winter is long, we lack many services and it takes hours on an unpaved road to reach the bottom of the valley. But I love this land, where the mountains touch the sky. And when many emigrated, we stayed. Ten years ago we participated in Terra Madre, and this experience had a great impact on us. We started to work to promote our land and we created a network of guesthouses. Now more and more tourists are choosing to spend a few days here, and more and more of them appreciate our products. That’s one of the reasons we asked Slow Food to help us turn our most important homemade product, Mishavin (a raw-milk cheese that belongs to the large “cheese in a sack” family) into something we could sell on the market. Now the country’s best chefs serve Mishavin in their restaurants, and this cheese has become a source of pride and redemption for us.

Slow Food has launched 500 Presidia like this one, in 128 countries.

They involve over 10,000 small-scale producers who are working to protect biodiversity and traditional knowledge and promote unique places.

Ibrahim Mansaray, age 40, Sierra Leone

In 1996, rebels attacked my village and captured me. I was only 9 years old. At their camp, I was trained to shoot and to kill. And they ordered me to do strange things, like smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and taking hallucinogenic drugs. After the war, my community didn’t want me any more. I managed to get in contact with the Slow Food coordinator in Sierra Leone and I asked him if I could work to create 10 food gardens. Together with him, I returned to the village and I convinced everyone to give me a chance. This project has been a wonderful opportunity in my life. I discovered the joy of helping others, of sharing food and knowledge. Now I am fully integrated and I’m a happy person, working to help my community.

Slow Food has created 2,500 similar gardens in over 30 countries across Africa. The aim is to reach 10,000 food gardens.

Sicily’s Madonie Presidia

By now we’re a good group, about 20 of us, farmers, cheesemakers and beekeepers from villages in the Madonie. Sixteen years ago we didn’t even know each other, but then Slow Food arrived with the Presidia, and now we’re inseparable, united by a profound love for this land. A few years ago the Badda bean from Polizzi Generosa was almost completely unknown; Madonie manna, collected from the bark of ash trees, was a mysterious substance found only in a few herbalist’s shops; Madonie provola was an undervalued cheese; Scillato apricots were excellent, but nobody trusted in their potential; and only one beekeeper was still protecting the Sicilian black bee.

With the Presidia, Slow Food has given value to these small-scale products, raising their profile in Italy and in other countries. Comparing ourselves with each other has helped us to improve, and collaborating has united us. Now we do events and markets together, and when there’s a problem we know that we can always count on our little group, and on Slow Food.

Slow Food has launched 500 Presidia like this one, in 128 countries.

They involve over 10,000 small-scale producers who are working to protect biodiversity and preserve local livestock breeds and traditional knowledge that would otherwise risk being lost forever.