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consumption of external inputs has led to the reckless use of resources such as water, fertile soil and energy from non-renewable sources, plunging the whole system into crisis. Today we face a stark reality: Without a paradigm shift, our future is at risk. Climate change is an indisputable fact that is officially recognized by the entire international scientific community, the widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides is depleting soil, aquifers are being poisoned with heavy metals and becoming hazardous and increasingly scarce, while the Earth’s genetic bio- diversity is in perilous decline.This situation has led one of the greatest moral and political authorities of our time, Pope Francis, to speak candidly on these issues with a encyclical that is one of the most explosive documents of recent times. The Pope does not mince his words when discussing an economy that kills and penalizes local communities, small-scale production and local markets all over the world. It is clear that we need a decisive change of tack and with it new ways of produc- ing, distributing, marketing and consuming food, as well as new ways of living together on a planet under increasing pressure from the dramatic events, such as environmental crises, conflict and migration, that force us all to reconsider a different future.As for migration, we need to learn to introduce into our daily lives a word that has taken on different meanings over the course of history: alliance. Without alliance, there can be no coming together, no common purpose and no common vision. Our very existence depends on a tightly woven network of links. And the whole world of food is based on a system of daily deals between those who produce and those who process the Earth’s bounty, between those who supply the raw materials and those who put them on the table. Agreements are not always hon- ored, of course: Multinationals that buy milk or grain at a price that is too low to af- ford producers a decent living fall short of any reciprocal relationship. Food fraud and adulteration betray the relationship of trust between producer and consumer. Illegal hiring practices and exploitation of labor turn the free exchange of labor into slavery. Today, Terra Madre is the name of the largest alliance between farmers, herders, fishers, cooks, indigenous communities and consumers in every corner of the world. An alliance between people. But also an alliance between people and the environment around them.As small and apparently insignificant as they are, the following stories teach us this: that we must stick together, forge alliances and work in partnership towards a common goal, pooling our best efforts. We have just one planet to live on and we all share a common destiny, so the answer must also be a common one. We can only look each other in the face and join forces, as our future and that of our children is now at stake, in our homes and in our towns and cities. We cannot and we do not want to consume the Earth.8 AlMAnAC© ArChIvIo Slow Food