Music was everywhere at Terra Madre… They appeared now and then in the marketplace area, and there was a program over five days featuring some 48 groups, 216 musicians, performing on four stages around Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto.

The closing ceremonies were awesome and mostly about music. But not entirely. First, there were speeches. The first was by Maori educator Heeni Hoterene, who spoke about environmental concerns in New Zealand, which so many of us had supposed and hoped might be in better shape than elsewhere. But she named the dairy industry as a large polluter and mourned the poisoning of fresh and saltwater, the loss of indigenous land through legislation and seizure.

A less compelling performance by Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, who made his appearance on a prerecorded, rather surreal projection which we were promised would last for 1000 seconds (but – said the announcer – you should really listen closely to the last 150!). Predictably the overwhelmingly young gathering (this year was a major tribute to Terra Madre’s youth movement) got bored, and at the mention of G8 (which Italy chairs this year) the boredom turned to contempt. There was whistling, stomping, slow hand-clapping; people stood up and put their backs to the screen. The audience drowned out the speech and the translations, so we heard little of what was said.

Next up was mighty Carlo Petrini. He said he understood the audience’s impatience. The man had spoken too long, because he’s a politician, and that’s what politicians do. But, he said, you didn’t listen! You must learn to listen: you must listen particularly to people whose views you don’t like, to people you disagree with. Because, he said, you didn’t hear what he just said to you. He’s invited Terra Madre to make a delegation to present to the G8 when they meet in Italy! This is unprecedented. Imagine, he said, making her laugh in the front row, what will happen when Vandana Shiva gets up to speak to the G8! The crowd was delighted, of course, and reprimanded and forgiven by father Slow Food, was ready to party after that. And now, said Petrini, I give you the sons of farmers.

And the daughters too: the ladies of Senegal were fabulous in their dancing, gourd-drumming and amazing head-scarves.

A Belorussian duo… There were as well Ethiopian trumpeters (if that is the word), Pugliese dancers, some astonishing music and dancing from Kamchadal, unbelievable accordion playing by Italian Raffaele Pinelli and others from Brazil and Italy. Phew.

Everybody all together for the grand finale.

And all too soon, it was time to go home…

Beekeepers were out in force at Terra Madre. Coming from Italy, Mexico, France, Brazil, New Zealand, India, the UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, the US, Morocco, Canada, Germany and just about anywhere else you could imagine, they were there to talk about concerns they had in common. One topical story was that of the German ban on GM honey: a Bavarian court ruled at the end of May this year that not only was honey made from nectar of GM crops not saleable, it was not fit for human consumption and had to be destroyed. Other concerns had to do with selective breeding of bees, which was reducing their resilience to disease and contributing to the loss of bee populations that had evolved to suit their native environments. There was discussion of the harm monocultures and commodity crops were doing to the bee populations; and of course there was a great deal of concern over pesticide use and urbanisation of native habitats.

There was lots of honey around. One thing I noticed in the Terra Madre market area was that every country had brought its jar or two of honey;

something that everyone had in common. The Honey Bar was hugely popular: volunteers manned it all day every day and patiently walked bystanders through free tastings of dozens of different honeys from around the world.

I confess I missed the opening ceremony of Terra Madre – just too hard to figure out where it was and how to get there and besides I had booked myself on a honey tasting,

led by honey producer Andrea Paternoster, whose generous selection of MieliThun honeys were hot items in the Salone de Gusto marketplace.

So much to say about Terra Madre, I’ll have to break it into bits.

A food meeting with a difference: Terra Madre included a large open space to allow delegates to throw a blanket on the floor and sell – or just show – their wares.

Biodiversity is a big thing in Slow Food’s mission. So much of today’s food has been bred into narrow, profit-oriented channels and lacks the flavour, seasonality and suitability to its terrain that traditional foods had evolved around. Here, a selection of local rice varieties from Thailand…

..and here, a selection of almond varieties from Afghanistan.

Green eggs from Temuco chickens, at the Chilean stand.

One of the many remarkable things about this event was the presence of simultaneous translation — into the 8 official languages of Terra Madre. It wasn’t always perfect or easy to hear, but it was an amazing achievement to do as much as they did. Some of the translators worked between two or three languages.

Some listeners demonstrate what could be described as the house style for positioning the translation receivers for maximum effect…

And someone offering henna services…