World meeting of food communitiesEleven representatives of Uzbekistan were among 5,000 food producers from 120 countries and five continents - farmers, fishermen, shepherds, cheese-makers, traders, and distributors - who convened in Turin, Italy for four days as part of Slow Food's bio-diversity forum Terra Madre: A World Meeting of Food Communities, between October 20-23, 2004. The forum on protecting food product diversity focused on solutions for sustainable agro-food production techniques and systems that are friendly to the environment, protect the health of consumers, and defend the world heritage of agricultural bio-diversity and gastronomic traditions. Italians were the first to suggest the idea of combining ecology, culture, and food production. According to the forum organizers, they wished to gather food producers so that they could share their experience, establish trade and technological cooperation, and develop a single approach to protecting the environment that is both the place of food production and man's habitat. "Food products must be grown and processed on territories whose people protect bio-diversity and maintain the balance of resources, both in cattle breeding and agriculture," said Salakhitdin Ashurov from the village of Khumsan, who also represented Uzbekistan at the forum. "These products must also have original national color to be distinguished from other products presented at Terra Madre. Uzbekistan was represented by nine communities from the Ugam-Chatkal national park and the future Nuratau-Kyzylkum biosphere reserve whose food has a specific character due to local natural and climatic conditions. The Uzbek delegation achieved its goal - to present the diversity of Uzbek food to international consumers and provoke their interest." For four days the Uzbek delegation demonstrated traditional meat, dairy products, and confectionery that won the stomachs of the forum participants. "Latin Americans and Africans devoured with great pleasure our traditional food products. We met businessmen interested in these products' delivery to their countries," said Isbasar Sarsenbayev from the village of Kanimekh, Navoi province. The Terra Madre conference was honored by the presence of the Prince of Wales who spoke of his admiration for the Slow Food movement and his fears over "unsustainable agriculture." In his speech to the conference, the Prince highlighted the huge social and environmental costs of cheap "fast food." His Royal Highness said, "Any analysis of the real costs would have to look at such things as the rise in food-borne illnesses, the advent of new pathogens such as E. Coli 0157, antibiotic resistance from the overuse of drugs in animal feed, extensive water pollution from intensive agricultural systems, and many other factors. These costs are not reflected in the price of fast food, but that doesn't mean that our society isn't paying them." The forum also included lectures and meetings. The Uzbek representatives gave reports on the specifics of food production based on traditional methods of food processing. Uzbekistan's Nasiba Vafokulova spoke at the session "Oil-bearing crops: ancient and new technologies" and Asror Narziyev reported on "Alternative confectionery." According to Bakhtiyar Redzhepov, many foreign colleagues expressed interest in visiting Uzbekistan. "Our association not only supports tourists and travelers but also assists local communities in the organization of Community Based Tourism (CBT)," said Victor Tsoi, director of the Tashkent-based Rabat Malik travel association which helped the Uzbek delegation go to the Turin forum. "Tourism is becoming a profitable sphere for applying labor and capital as people have always liked rest and travel. The hospitality industry in Uzbekistan is based on the eastern mentality that highly respects and welcomes guests and can therefore become an alternative to economically depressed industries. Ecological tourism is a key direction. We can and must offer ecological tours to foreign and local tourists. In exchange, visitors will help the development of the local economy and nature preservation." All members of the Uzbek delegation at Terra Madre were village residents from the Ugam-Chatkal national park (Tashkent province) and the Nuratau-Kyzylkum biosphere reserve (Samarkand, Dzhizak and Navoi provinces). People living in these protected natural areas maintain the ecological balance by conserving natural resources. They use waste-free and ecologically friendly technology in food production. In cattle breeding they maintain an optimal number of livestock that does not threaten the land. In horticulture they grow crops that do not overrun local plants. The organizers of Slow Food's Terra Madre said they have achieved their goals and the forum is likely to become a regular event. The Italian association was founded in 1986 and the International Movement was founded in Paris in 1989. There is a large Slow Food USA membership, with 5,500 people sharing in the movement nationwide. Slow Food's International Office, situated in Bra (Cuneo), a small town in southern Piedmont, employs about 100 people. They are the hub of a close-knit network of grassroots offices in Italy and abroad, which promote the movement by staging programs and events. © Copyright: Алишер Таксанов, 2009.
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