BUCHAREST, Jul 26, 2010 (IPS) - "We are trying to change children's attitude to food and to make sure there are still farmers in our countries in a decade or two," says Marta Pozsonyi, one of the Romanian representatives at the first Terra Madre Balkans meeting that took place in Sofia last week.

The Sofia reunion was the first to take place among producers from the Balkans under the framework of Terra Madre, the world meeting of slow food communities launched by Slow Food International in 2004.

Slow Food International is a non-profit eco-gastronomic organisation founded in 1989 to counteract fast food, the disappearance of local food traditions, and sensitise people to the impact of consumer choices.

The concept of slow food is catching on fast in the Balkans, where small- scale farming is severely threatened by the promotion of industrial agriculture and by commercial practices which keep small producers from selling directly to consumers.