Slow F..uture: The Slow Food Youth Network Gathering
On the 27th of October, the Slow Food Youth International Conference took place. Despite the early hour for a Saturday morning (10AM)… the massive conference room was packed with youngsters from almost every corner of the world; from Italy to the United States, and from New Zealand to even Burkina Faso! There was no way around the energizing buzz, ambition and inspiration filling the room.
Host Bram Wits (YFM NL) took us on a tour around the globe, by inviting passionate youngsters on stage sharing their most successful and exciting projects. Not only did these success stories show how young people are really making a difference, they also generated a true sense of empowerment among the audience broaden and scale up their current activities!
Clearly overwhelmed by the large number of attendees in front of him, SFYN coordinator Janno Lanjouw (YFM NL) kicked off the conference by expressing his pride about how many of us are out there these days and how we all initiate amazing initiatives that contribute to our mission of a good, clean and fair food system. He said; “by (only..) organizing exciting events and parties around food we are not only building a better world but are also working on our personal development, as individuals.” And that way we show others everything is possible!
These days many people worry about our planet, they see irreversible change unfolding and are aware they should counter that change, with action! And this meeting showed us that no one stands alone in that matter.
Right after Janno, Bram metaphorically traveled to Australia to meet Alexandra Iljadica, founder of the YFM Australia. Once she started to realize what the impact is of an ageing farmer population on the availability of food she decided to start her own movement. By organizing all kinds of “fun and fabulous events nobody wants to miss”, she aims to help young people and the ones young at heart to (re-)engage with the origins of their foods. Her main message to the audience was; “capture the result of your event, not only the actual numbers of visitors but especially the thoughts and feedback of your audience.” These will help you a lot in organizing more successful events and building a stronger community.
Australia was followed by, a small town in the north of India, where Pius Ranee started his movement being extremely inspired about Slow Food after a university delegation including Carlo Petrini visited his village. Learning about what Slow Food really is about he started to realize how much valuable knowledge would get lost if he wouldn’t start immediately activating the youth within his community to collect the traditional food know-how from the elderly. So he decided to start making documentaries on typical food rituals and the roots of his foods. By sharing these documentaries with the local youth, this valuable know-how will be passed on and safeguarded.
Also our Brazilian inspirator decided to use film to create awareness for the value of our foods. It was not unnoticed by Bernardo Simoes that things were changing in his country… over the years he saw beaches disappear and fish communities shrink, but when he saw indigenous farmers being kicked off their lands – that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.. ! He decided to meet with local producers in rural areas to capture their stories in documentaries. Bernardo hopes not only to reach art houses and film festivals in Brazil but also film stages in other parts of the world .
Helen Kranstauber (YFM NL) was next on stage, and not for the first time. Two years ago, she brought a single logo of the film festival she was dreaming of organizing one day. And now, two years later she is the proud founder of thé Food Film Festival in Europe, organized once a year in the city of Amsterdam. And just to show the audience how “easy” it is to make your dreams come true… she “organized” a Food Film Festival right on the spot! While Bram hunted for people in the audience, Helen formed an international Food Film Festival team covering the most important disciplines of the organization within minutes. Not earlier did the team of the Food Film Festival have such an international character, but we could definitely say that a new edition of the Food Film Festival has born! Easy as that!
Besides all this young blood taking the stage, there were some elderly who didn’t want to miss out on joining us in this inspirational journey. Among them, of course, Carlo Petrini himself! He stated how extraordinary the rejuvenation journey of Slow Food had been so far, and stressed the challenges lying ahead. It cannot go unnoticed that the elderly are moving slower than the youth, but even though they may not be as skilled in new ways of communication they do harbor important skills and know-how a younger generation needs. It is therefore extremely important that youth and elderly will interrelate with each other, by starting communicating intergenerational today! If “the old people are our preserved seeds”, as said by Corby Kummer, and the youth “the light of covery”, as said by Carlo Petrini, then let the youth provide the light so these seeds will bloom.
The Slow Food Youth Network conference turned out to be the traditional recipe including all its well-known ingredients and even more… not only did we witness Carlo Petrini dancing the night away amongst SFYN members, but we also showed that conferencing doesn’t have to be boring, making sure the conference traditionally ended with a typical SFYN event on stage; Schnippeldisko 2.0!
