Hosted in Turin, this year from September 22-26, Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is a Slow Food festival with the mission of uniting our food, planet, and future. The event is a state fair, food festival, conference venue, and exhibition space all wrapped into one. Everywhere one looked there were banners proclaiming, “All the world is a market.”

This year, I attended the event, along with 350,000 people from all over the world, as well as fellow Market Cities partners Kristie Daniel, Director of the Livable Cities Program at HealthBridge Foundation of Canada and Richard McCarthy, who serves on the Slow Food International board. Here are my four key takeaways:

1. A space can transform into a marketplace of food and ideas.

While Terra Madre has been staged in different parts of Turin over the years, this year’s setting in Parco Dora deeply resonated with the event’s theme of regeneration. A former industrial hub turned public park, featuring a 130,000 square foot covered public square, reminded me of the potential of recent projects I’ve worked on with Project for Public Spaces, like the DL&W Terminal in Buffalo New York.

2. Farmers markets are now global. 

Long considered a North American phenomenon, the farmers market model where producers sell what they make or grow has expanded worldwide and continues to grow. In Italy alone, the national farmers’ union runs more than 1,000 farmers markets adorned with the bright yellow flags of Campagna Amica (loosely translated to mean the friendly countryside). 

To that end, I couldn’t be more thrilled that Richard is now the provisional president of the World Farmers Market Coalition, launched in 2021. Today, the coalition has members representing over 40 countries and Richard has said, “The embrace of the farmers market strategy in the Global South comes with pent-up desire to build social trust in food systems.” Indeed, the network of Slow Food Earth Markets expresses a political intention to promote biodiversity and traditional foodways.

‍3. Cities are increasingly committing to leveraging food as a force for renewal and health.

During the sessions, I noticed how much progress is happening with regards to taking an integrated approach to food policy. By focusing on food and looking at the full cycle of production, distribution, and waste, cities can improve public health, and much more.

During Kristie’s presentation, she highlighted that markets are important for urban food access because they can be located within neighborhoods and can encourage produce variety, which improves biodiversity and reduces environmental degradation, while also influencing what people buy thereby increasing the consumption of fresh food. Markets also provide a local place where all members of a community, regardless of age, gender, or income, can interact and build community trust. For this reason, markets are particularly well positioned to respond to the needs of low-income residents by allowing prices to be negotiated, providing credit, and selling in smaller quantities. 

In particular, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, signed by over 200 cities, was highlighted as an important model for change. Leaders reported that different cities were using different “entry points” to address food policy, such as public procurement processes and food waste reduction. 

‍4. Turin is a Market City.

Turin has what is called the largest open-air market in Europe at the heart of the city at Porta Palazzo, in Piazza della Republica. This one square has two indoor markets, two covered markets, a food hall, and three outdoor markets: one for produce, one for flowers, and one for clothing and other goods. Open six days a week, this thriving square brings diverse people together with something for everyone—from affordable produce and hard goods to high-end chef-curated stalls. Located at a convenient public transit hub, the market is also popular with Turin’s immigrant population, largely from Eastern Europe and Northern Africa who both buy and sell at the markets. 

‍Steve Davies is a Co-Founder of Project for Public Spaces and an advocate for public spaces, placemaking, and public markets. Having formed the Place Solutions Group in 2018, his work takes him around the world as a consultant, facilitator, educator, researcher and speaker.