A powerful alternative to all the negatives of fast food is proving the positive impacts people can make by consciously choosing what they eat.

Slow Food is an international movement involving millions of people from 160 countries.

By buying food that is good, clean and fair — it supports and encourages both new and old ethical farming businesses.

Grass roots members of Slow Food Noosa are proud to be sending six local producers and chefs to Italy next month for the world's biggest food festival.

Held every two years, Terra Madre Salone del Gusto gives a voice to the globes' small-scale farmers, fishers and food artisans who value sustainability and agrobiodiversity.

The event's opening ceremonies rival the Olympics for colour and enthusiasm, and kilometres of food stalls will add flavour to a series of forums, lunches and dinners.

Who gets to go to the big event?

Free-range pastured pork producer Melinda Murnane is pinching herself over being chosen to join 5,000 delegates travelling to Turin to share stories of their successes and challenges.

She hasn't had a weekend off since her honeymoon 13 years ago.

"I haven't even been interstate in my life, let alone overseas — so this is mind blowing, it's incredible," she laughed.

Melinda and her husband Brad have worked seven days a week to establish Rhodavale pastured pork at Lower Wonga, near Gympie.

Rhodavale Pork's Brad and Melinda Murnane with their children (left-right) Riley, Charlotte, Travis and Dillon. ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

Social media and close connections with their customers have helped build their business of running 1,200 free-range pigs in deep grassy paddocks instead of concrete stalls in sheds.

"You see them up here like this and it just makes you smile because they're happy," Ms Murnane said.

"We're looking after the environment, we're looking after the animal and in the long run we're producing a product that is of premium quality and tastes like pork used to taste."

Happy as a Rhodavale pig in mud ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

Dozens of members of Slow Food Noosa spent months raising the money to cover the delegates' airfares.

"They're all small producers, they're not going to be millionaires or anything but they just love what they do and for us to be able to support them in a way that is able to help them and promote their business is just such a great thing to do," volunteer Rod Lees said.

Jodie and Michael Cameron proudly display the sign at Barenuts Macadamias at Bauple on the Fraser Coast.

It is proof they produce, use and promote good, clean and fair local ingredients.

Jodie and Michael Cameron are proud to display the Slow Food Snail of Approval on their gate at Barenuts Macadamias. ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

Four years ago, the former media adviser and city girl and her husband threw in their corporate jobs to buy a working orchard.

They are transforming the farm by mulching, improving the soil and introducing wasps to battle macadamia-munching insects.

They plan to be 100 per cent spray free and to more than double the number of trees in the ground to 5,000.

"We figured where else to go but Bauple, where the macadamia originated, and we were so lucky to get this farm with the value-added business on it," Ms Cameron said.

Their range of bush tucker blends are vegan friendly, dairy free and egg free.

A mix of roasted macadamias, lemon myrtle and sea salt won an Australian food award last year.

Slow food not only connects consumers with producers, it lifts spirits through tough times on the land and builds business through collaboration.

Barenuts Macadamias' delicious rosella and roast macadamia blend. ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

Jodie Cameron and rosella-cooking queen CC Diaz-Petersen have shared ingredients for tasty macadamia and sun-dried rosella blends.

"When you work with other people you are much stronger," Ms Diaz-Petersen said.

"That means we can brave the hard times and we can celebrate the good times together.

"As businesses I think there should be more of it happening."

By embracing sustainability and slow-food philosophy, fellow delegate, chef and producer Jodie Williams has made a big difference in the tiny Noosa hinterland town of Kin Kin.

Kin Kin's general store was closed for seven years before she reopened it with a friend.

Her cafe and Blackant Gourmet catering company now employs 18 staff — seven work full-time.

More than half of the food is sourced locally and Jodie's aiming for 90 per cent by 2020.

Jodie Williams runs Blackant Gourmet catering, and a popular cafe at the Kin Kin general store ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

Solar panels help power the business, which also provides its own water and manages its waste.

She hopes to learn how urban Italians stay true to their village roots in purchasing and putting food on plates.

"They're very, very loyal to their local community," Ms Williams said.

"In Australia we seem to do things a little bit back to front by sending things all the way down to market to get them sent back in the same door again, which seems like a lot of food miles."

Karen Jarling is eager to discuss regenerative agriculture at Terre Madre.

It is what she and her husband Warren McEwan are doing on the family farm they have purchased at Glastonbury.

Their company name, CGL Beef, is short for clean, green and local.

Eroded gullies have been fenced off to control stock access and cattle numbers are deliberately kept low to increase pasture diversity.

The couple uses electric fences and cart water in to keep stock grazing on fresh unsoiled land.

Ms Jarling and Mr McEwan run CGL Beef, with sons Jonte and Hamish. ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

"To a lot of people it would be madness what we're doing here but we know that managed grazing will make a big difference to how our little farm goes forward," Ms Jarling said.

Business is personal for this family, which delivers chemical-free, grass-fed beef and pastured-meat chickens direct to online customers.

"They trust us to feed them and to put food into their families and that's very intimate," she said.

Slow Food Noosa president Erika Hackett has experienced the excitement of the international festival first hand and joined the producers at The Cooking School Noosa.

Its executive chef, Zeb Gilbert, is the only male delegate and co-owner of the Wasabi Group which also operates a multi-award-winning Japanese restaurant with spectacular Noosa River views.

The company prides itself on tastes created by growing food on its own farm and sourcing the freshest local fish, meat and produce.

"It really does make all the difference," Mr Gilbert said.

Rosella-cooking queen CC Diaz-Petersen is collaborating with Wasabi Group executive chef Zeb Gilbert. ( Landline: Jennifer Nichols )

"To use local pork and local fish and even the fruit and vegetables that are grown organically definitely translates on the plate.

"That's how we try to tell our story through the cooking school and also through the restaurant — where food comes from and the difference it makes."

Zeb Gilbert and Jodie Williams are working on a plate to showcase their region and Australia to the world.

Terra Madre Salone del Gusto runs from September 20-24.

For these Australians it will truly be the trip of a lifetime.