Fermolution is an educational campaign that uses fermentation as a metaphor for transformation: social, cultural, and ecological.
It invites people to reconnect through fermentation with:
- Community: sharing food, time together, and collective practices.
- Land: using local ingredients, valuing biodiversity, and learning from traditional knowledge.
- Culture: exploring ancestral techniques, creativity, and storytelling.
Like fermentation, change takes time, care, and collaboration.
Through simple, hands-on actions, Fermolution shows how food can become a tool for slow, creative, and connected change.
Rooted in this idea, Fermolution was born as a collective experiment between a group of master’s students* of the program “Societal Transitions” in Erasmus University in Rotterdam and the Slow Food Youth Network (SFYN). Together, they began wondering how building a community around the act of fermenting, an ancient and everyday practice, could inspire new ways of relating to food, people, and the planet.
*Jonas Brenninkmeijer, Asma Lgamawi, Joost Dorgelo, Natalia Ramos Gaviria, and Silvia Comé
How It Works
In practice, it can take many forms:
- Workshops: hands-on fermentation sessions that mix knowledge, stories, and ingredients.
- Public Actions: tastings, small markets, or fermentation corners in public spaces.
- Creative Events: screenings, talks, or artistic projects linking food and culture.
- On the Menu: if you’re a chef, baker, or food maker, create a special fermented dish, drink, or menu for the day or week.
Each local activity is a micro-ferment that contributes to a bubbling global community.
What to do?
- Define your ferment(s): Choose one or more ferments that represent your land, culture, or curiosity.
- Explore its story: Discover the traditions, people, and recipes behind it.
- Plan your event: Host a workshop, public action, or creative moment for Terra Madre Day. Register it, invite others, and bring people together around your ferment!
Terra Madre Day: December 10
Fermolution will officially launch on Terra Madre Day, the international day that celebrates local food communities and the right to good, clean, and fair food for all.
Across the world, anyone can host their own Fermolution events between December 6th and 14th: from small kitchen workshops to public tastings, from school projects to artistic interventions, all bubbling with the same spirit of solidarity and joy.
Sign up here: simply select “fermentation” as your topic and add Fermolution in the event name.
Check all about it Fermolution Info Kit
Keep updated, follow us @slowfoodyouthnetwork
What are you waiting for? Join your Fermolution event on December 10th!
