Inspirational Committee

Ethnobotanist, Retired Professor University of Victoria (Canada), and a long time Slow Food member

Nutritious food is central to the survival of all of us – human and non-human alike. But more than nourishing our bodies, the food we eat is fundamental to human cultural identity. Our stories, our languages, our ceremonies and celebrations revolve significantly around food, its tending, harvesting, preparation, and presentation. In short, food represents a celebration of biocultural diversity. The Slow Food movement, founded in the late 1980s in Italy by the visionary Carlo Petrini, has symbolized global recognition of the centrality of locally-sourced food, produced sustainably and enjoyed as a part of people’s cultural identity. Despite threats from the increasingly globalized, homogenized corporate food economy, Slow Food has built powerful and growing worldwide networks of like-minded people, producers and consumers alike, who understand the critical importance of sustainably produced local food, for human health and the health of our planet. Now, the movement will be raised to even higher levels through the founding of the International Society of Gastronomic Sciences and Studies. As an ethnobotanist, I have worked with and learned from Indigenous knowledge holders, especially in western Canada for over 50 years, documenting and promoting the significance of Indigenous food and its sustainability. Having been affiliated with the Slow Food movement for over 20 years, including teaching courses at the University of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo, I consider it a great honour to serve on the advisory committee for this inspired emergent Society.

Bio: Nancy Turner is an ethnobotanist, retired Professor, University of Victoria, Canada and a long time Slow Food member. She has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 50 years, helping to document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and environments. Her two-volume award-winning book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge (2014; McGill-Queen’s University Press), integrates her long-term research. She has authored/co-authored/co-edited 30 other books, including: The Earth’s Blanket; “Keeping it Living”; Saanich Ethnobotany, and Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, and over 150 book chapters and papers. Recent books included Plants, People and Places: the Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights (edited, 2020), Plants of Haida Gwaii, 3rd Ed. (2021), Luschiim’s Plants: A Hul’q’umi’num’ (Cowichan) Ethnobotany (2021). She has received a number of awards for her work, including Order of British Columbia (1999) and Order of Canada (2009), and honorary degrees from four Universities.