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This year, more than ever before, the Slow Food Almanac recounts what we are and what we are becoming through the concrete projects that our association is putting into action around the world. At the last International Congress, these projects were given numerical goals, which repre- sent the three major strategic objectives towards which Slow Food will work in the coming years. 10,000 products in the Ark of Taste, in other words biodiversity protection, because it is not pos- sible to talk about access to good, clean and fair food for everyone if in the meantime humanity is losing its heritage of plant varieties, native livestock breeds and traditional food products. 10,000 food gardens in Africa, in other words the construction of a Slow Food network in Africa, guided by African leaders, because it is not possible to talk about access to good, clean and fair food for everyone without dealing with the continent where the paradoxical limits of the current food system are most evident.10,000 food communities and convivia, in other words the strengthening of the Slow Food and Terra Madre network, because it is not possible to talk about access to good, clean and fair food for everyone without the engagement and mobilization of the association and the entire Terra Madre network at every level.Through stories gathered from all corners of the world, the Almanac demonstrates how the whole Slow Food and Terra Madre network is working towards these objectives with greater and greater commitment. We are able to create these stories, starting from a simple coffee bean or from the water being used to irrigate an African food garden, from the young Europeans demanding a healthier food system that is willing to include new energies, or from the small-scale indigenous fishers in India who show that joy is essential to good, clean and fair food production.And we know how to tell them. So when you leaf through the following pages, we ask that you seize this joy, and discover those feelings that every day are found in the fields of the farmers that we want to protect. No label, no packaging will ever describe it, but a fundamental element of the agriculture we want to see is joyful production. Food made with the heart, with the soul, and with highly complex skills.