Slow food in Negros

Slow food in Negros | Daily Tribune

This is a big deal for the Philippines -- the fact that we are hosts to the Slow Food Terra Madre Asia Pacific event this 19 to 23 November, to be held in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

A global gastronomical gathering, this year’s theme is “From Soil to Sea: A Slow Food Journey Through Tastes & Traditions.”

It will be much broader than the earlier 2019 Indigenous Terra Madre Asia and the Pan Pacific, which was held in the ancestral land of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.

I was in Turin in 2024 to attend my second bi-annual Terra Madre gathering of close to 10,000 international members of this movement that went up against fast food in 1980 under the leadership of Carlo Perini.

Part of this gathering is what they call Salone del Gusto where Italian and international farmers, producer, retailers and chefs show off and share their slow food products; while advocates, writers and policy makers talk of initiatives to further the movement.

As a member of the Slow Food (SF) Manila chapter, I had dragged three other friends whose first time it was to experience SF. Our Manila Chapter (starting off in 2018 with the ECHOstore’s strong advocacy of sustainable products), was focused on information dissemination.

But Chit Juan, who later moved to be part of the SF international board, and Chef Gaita Fores were instrumental in pushing the Philippines into active global involvement. SF Manila has been influencing other communities to have their own SF such as: Cavite (2022), led by Chef Rhea Sycip; Laguna (2025), led by Chef Gel Salonga-Datu and working with a Batanes community, plus Mt. Banahaw (yours truly still trying to get this started, too).

In that last Turin event, we had a strong Philippine delegation from SF Negros, under the leadership of Reena Gamboa (niece of Doreen Gamboa, the food writer who, since decades back, was writing about Slow Food); and Chin-Chin Uy slam dunked our country bid to host the next one.

We were all so happy to hear this! After all our dribbling for years, SF Negros, armed with a complete delegation of farmers, producers and their LGU representatives, went for gold.

What makes this more remarkable is that suddenly, Philippines, specifically Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, is now the regional Slow Food secretariat for Asia Pacific. Chin-Chin Uy also now sits in the international board as Counselor for South East Asia and chairs the executive committee.

As part-Negrense, too, I am not surprised. Negros Occidental has a robust and thriving eco-system for food. When she was alive, Chef Gaita Fores nurtured SF Negros because of family roots, but also because the province has been focused on positioning itself as the organic food capital.

Today, when you tell visitors about Bacolod, they will tell you it’s all about food tripping because of the variety of small-scale producers grounded on ancestral food culture with local ingredients, but also younger chefs and cooks coming up with such delicious stuff.

I have had people ask me what so important about this SF movement.

Personally, it’s a continuation of my sustainability journey. Firstly, it’s about preserving local cultures. Secondly, like so many of us, I love to eat good food. But it’s more important for me to understand where my food comes from, who plants and harvests it plus the whole agriculture and food system.

And is this food, healthy and devoid of chemicals and preservatives? SF connects me to the much bigger whole of caring for the diversity of our planet while connecting to community. One little me with the whole movement allows us together to be a global force to resist unhealthy fast food plus the industrialized food culture that can be so greedy and lopsided only for profit.

Perhaps we are activists at heart, yes, but this activism needs to be strengthened as we find so much inequality and more people hungry, or to see the alarming rate of pollution of our agricultural land and seas. All this garbage goes back to our human and planetarial system. The SF phrase, “Good, Clean, Fair Food,” sums up our advocacy worth standing up for.

So, yes, it’s a big deal. We are hosting one of the most important food events globally with 2,000 international delegates (farmers, foodies and enthusiasts, indigenous peoples, cultural advocates and policy makers) expected to find their way to one of our provinces to understand local culture deeper through experience; and when we can represent our part of the globe creating a stronger SF community.

There will be coalition and educational talks, conferences, taste workshops, Terra Madre kitchens of chefs. Include here, too ,Slow Travel, Slow Drinks, markets, street food, restaurant and bar take-overs.

SF Negros is holding hands tightly in collaboration with their regional government reps from Congress, mayors, Tourism, Agriculture, Trade and Industry and many others.

Yes, it’s a big deal when we can, as Filipinos spotlight once more, and with feeling, the celebration of our culinary tradition; the pride in stewardship of our traditional home-cooked meals; the celebration of our farmers, fisherfolk and small producers. We are as “glocal” as we can get through Slow Food.

All these echo out to showcase, protect and preserve our culture, our biodiversity and the sustainability of our environment. So go plan a trip to Bacolod City in November, because now, it’s more than just sugarland’s sweetness. This time, we will all be going the Slow Food way.