Team Lexington heads to Italy to showcase horses, bourbon, and justice | Opinion
I will be traveling to Italy Sept. 26-30 to participate in the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto global gathering of kindred spirits who wish to change the world through food. Organized by Slow Food International, Terra Madre began back in 2004 and now attracts 300,000 people from over 160 countries dedicated to ensuring good, clean and fair food for all.
The theme for Terra Madre 2024 is “Our Place in Nature,” which aims to light the way forward on a new path toward a healthier relationship with nature through food. Our food connects us to the land, the soil, the sea, but it is also an integral part of our identities and our pleasure. It is the perfect tool to reshape the bond between nature and culture.
I begin attending Terra Madre back in 2008 when Chef Bob Perry at the University of Kentucky mentioned his experience at Terra Madre during a meeting about local food in Lexington. Since that time, I have been absolutely enthralled with this global movement and have been blabbing my mouth incessantly about my experiences almost every day for the last past 16 years. This year I will help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Terra Madre as well as my eighth time attending as a Slow Food USA delegate from Kentucky.
This year, it is especially exciting for me because I have finally been able to encourage the formation of a Team Lexington contingent to attend Terra Madre. This community effort is guided now by my beloved friends, Roda Ferraro of Keeneland Library and Mary Quinn Ramer of VisitLEX. Thanks to the financial support of these organizations, Team Lexington will have an exhibition space within the combined USA, Canada, and Mexico exhibition area.
In addition, thanks to the support of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, we will have numerous Kentucky Proud products for sampling at our Kentucky station. And we welcome any additional donations so we can give the world’s people in attendance a sampling of the wonderful tastes of the agricultural products grown here in Kentucky. We already have a quantity of such items as honey, beans, corn, and of course bourbon!
As a matter of fact, the theme for our Team Lexington is “Bourbon, Horses and Justice” with this mission statement:
“Two of Kentucky’s flagship agriculture industries—bourbon and horses— grew in tandem in the Bluegrass, and each traces its roots to the late 1700s in African enslavement. Thousands of enslaved people planted and harvest grain fields and ran whiskey stills, while thousands more spent their lives riding, training, and managing the care of Kentucky’s iconic livestock. In line with Terra Madre’s justice-centered mission, Team Lexington is grateful to have the opportunity to highlight historic intersections of the industries, spotlight past and present African American industry shapers and share some industry impacts in Kentucky and beyond.”
To learn more about Team Lexington and the global Terra Madre movement, we invite readers to join us Saturday Sept. 7 from 2 to 4 PM at the Central Public Library Kentucky Room. From 2-3 p.m., I will read from my essay, “Ancestral Vibrations Guide Our Connection to the Land,” describe my experience receiving the 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and share photos of my previous seven trips to Terra Madre. From 3-4 p.m., Roda Ferraro, Mary Quinn Ramer and I will discuss our Team Lexington contingent to Terra Madre and share plans to expand to Team Kentucky in 2026.
In our Commonwealth, we need less wealth for the few, but rather we need a common health for the economy, environment and people. Slow Food points the way toward a common health for the Earth.
Jim Embry, a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner; is a life-long community activist, historian and photographer; lives on a family farm in Madison county. He can be reached at embryjim@gmail.com.
