A Slow Food Academy to Protect Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems

Indigenous peoples’ food systems are suffering erosion at an alarming rate, encroached upon by unsustainable, industrialized agricultural models that respect neither climate nor culture. The replacement of these foods results not only in a dwindling of cultural and biological diversity, but jeopardizes the resilience of our global food system. Indigenous peoples’ communities all over the world are putting in place a resistance, protecting local food cultures and being guardians of biodiversity.

Protecting the food systems of Indigenous peoples is central to Slow Food’s mission, and our movement recognizes the essential role of food education in achieving this. By supporting youth and women in particular, as pillars of community growth, through knowledge and skills sharing, we can ensure that these practices not only endure but evolve and flourish.

Seeding Change through Slow Food Gardens

For the Slow Food  Indigenous Peoples’ Network in Africa, the Gardens in Africa program is key for the protection and promotion of their food systems and for achieving food security and food sovereignty. Gardening and small-scale agriculture formed the basic means of food production for thousands of years. Nowadays, this system is being replaced by another one, that grows food without respecting nature, the environment and communities.