1st Global Gastronomy Conference Wants the World to See Food as Culture

credit: fickr / Les Roches CC-BY-NC 2.0

The archetypal Global Conference connected Gastronomy, held astatine Barcelona’s Palau de Pedralbes and organized by the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism (IGCAT), emphasized that nutrient is much than sustenance oregon industry. The lawsuit highlighted nutrient arsenic a taste assets deserving designation connected the planetary stage.

More than 160 participants—from UNESCO officials and grassroots movements similar Slow Food to chefs, farmers, and taste networks—signed a declaration affirming gastronomy’s relation successful shaping identity, protecting the environment, and fostering societal wellbeing. Their connection was urgent: the mode humanity eats is inseparable from the mode it sustains itself and remembers who it is.

Food arsenic shared responsibility

“Food’s aboriginal is everyone’s responsibility,” reminded IGCAT president Diane Dodd, who celebrated Catalonia’s rubric arsenic World Region of Gastronomy 2025.

The region, she noted, stands arsenic an illustration of however culinary practice tin beryllium some preserved and reinvented.

Government leaders echoed that sentiment, stressing that for Catalonia, the nexus betwixt nutrient and civilization is not innovation but contented itself.

Stories from astir the world

Conference discussions moved acold beyond Catalonia. From the mountainous Asir portion of Saudi Arabia to coastal Manabí successful Ecuador, from Thai culinary traditions to African nutrient systems, stories revealed however gastronomy tin anchor communities against the tides of globalization.

Food, successful these accounts, was much than sustenance—it was memory, resilience, and sometimes survival.

Imagining 2050 astatine the table

One of the astir provocative sessions asked participants to ideate nutrient successful 2050. Around shared tables, they sketched some hopeful and dystopian futures: vibrant section nutrient economies versus sterile diets designed for efficiency; thriving taste diverseness versus monocultures driven by technology.

These visions volition pass an IGCAT argumentation study intended to usher governments successful protecting culinary diverseness earlier it’s excessively late.

Passing the torch

The closing ceremonial offered a symbolic moment: Catalonia passed its rubric to Ecuador’s Manabí, which volition big the adjacent gathering successful 2026.

For Catalan leaders, it was besides a accidental to affirm their intent to bring the conference’s declaration to MONDIACULT 2025, ensuring that the speech connected nutrient and civilization is heard successful the broader planetary agenda.

Culture astatine the table

Outside plenary halls, the league unfolded done flavor—film screenings, tastings of section products, and a celebratory meal that showcased Catalonia’s culinary diversity. In these moments, the statement that nutrient is civilization became undeniable: heritage, creativity, and assemblage were served with each bite.

The communicative told successful Barcelona was clear. To safeguard nutrient is to safeguard civilization itself. And arsenic climate, migration, and globalization reshape the mode the satellite eats, the telephone for designation grows louder: nutrient is not lone what sustains us—it is who we are.