At 768 pages, Terra Madre: 1,600 Slow Food Communities’s a real tome, even as a paperback. This full-color book showcases 1,600 different food communities around the world, all committed to slow food principles, biodiversity, and organic agriculture.

The book basically came out of an international Slow Food movement gathering: The second Terra Madre, a biennial gathering of the world’s food communities, held in Turin, Italy in October 2006. Terra Madre brought thousands small farmers, fishers, artisan food producers, cooks, and researchers from 120 nations, all bent on developing an alternative to our current globalized and technified food system.

Terra Madre’s organized by continent and country, devoting about a page to the story of each of the 1600 food communities featured. Out of the 5 US food communities that make the book, one’s based in California: The Sonoma County Gravenstein Apple. Apparently, farmland devoted to Gravensteins is shrinking because these apples are delicate and perishable, which has food distributors favoring the hardier Red Delicious apples. The Gravenstein people in Sonoma are promoting agricultural diversity, partly by working to find new markets for Gravenstein apples beyond the local region.

Since Terra Madre’s very much encyclopedic — with contact info listed for most of the featured communities — the book seems intended and best suited for people more directly involved with food and food distribution — People who might be interested in directly engaging and working with some of these communities.

Still, general slow food fans might be interested too. You can read many encouraging slow food stories — and see mouthwatering pictures of yummy food — from communities all over the world. Terra Madre’s currently on sale for $32 at Chelsea Green Publishing.

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