FAO has a book out called Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems, published with the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE). There’s an informative interview with Barbara Burlingame, senior nutrition officer at FAO and coordinator for the book, on the FAO InTouch website. Unfortunately, this is only available internally at FAO, for reasons which elude me. Here’s a few of the interesting things Dr Burlingame had to say.
We wanted to showcase the many dimensions of these traditional food resources, breaking them down by nutrition, health, culture and environmental sustainability. So much knowledge of early cultures is contained within traditional foods and their cultivation, and they have a direct impact on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health of indigenous communities. Indigenous foods can have important nutritional benefits, for example. For instance plant foods are generally viewed as good sources of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. These foods also provide important economic benefits, such as helping create self-sufficient communities and establishing a strong foundation of food security.
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We believe the information can be a help to those in nutrition, agriculture, environmental and health education, and science, including policymakers. Nutritionists can use the information to try and correct imbalances in certain regions. For example, we discovered in research that the Pohnpei district community in the Federated States of Micronesia was severely deficient in vitamin A, despite the fact that a species of banana rich in vitamin A beta-carotenes was indigenous to the region. Once we determined the nutritional composition of the banana, we were able to educate the people about its benefit and encourage them to eat the local fruit, which helped reverse the deficiency.
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Yes, another book is under way that focuses more on nutrition and public health. It will look at policy dimensions, stemming the tide of obesity in indigenous peoples, the value of indigenous weaning foods for babies, and a ‘go local’ campaign in Micronesia encouraging communities to eat local food items. We will also continue in our efforts in integrating elements of biodiversity into all aspects of nutrition.
“Go Local” of course refers to the campaign to promote traditional foods in the Pacific spearheaded by Lois Englberger and her colleagues at the Island Food Community of Pohnpei, who have appeared frequently on these pages. It’s great to see my old friends from the Pacific getting this kind of international exposure for their efforts, and making a difference beyond their immediate region.
Also on InTouch is a related interview with Dr Dirk Schulz, who is the FAO nutritionist based at the regional office in Samoa. Here’s a few excerpts.
“So we helped build the capacity of laboratory staff at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and upgraded its equipment to analyze a broader spectrum of nutrients, as well as heavy metals in food. We helped the laboratory become the first in the Pacific to be internationally recognized.”
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This project also led to increased analysis of local and indigenous food, meaning those found to be very rich in vitamins could be promoted more among local communities.“One such crop is the pandanus tree, which has fruits very rich in provitamin A. Its use in diets has been rapidly declining as younger people turn to imported, processed ‘convenience foods’.
In parallel with these dietary changes, traditional knowledge of cultivation and preparation of this and other traditional crops is being lost.
Information on its nutritional value, and technical assistance to help add value, convenience and shelf life –- for example in creating bottled pandanus juice -– is helping to revive interest and income opportunities among islanders.”
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“Diets have been moving away from healthy root crops, green leaves and vegetables, and towards bread, instant noodles, white processed rice and so on. The latter are often cheaper than locally grown food and quicker to cook, but many also contain high contents of fat, salt and sugar and less vitamins and minerals.This dietary change has caused other problems in addition to obesity, such as people suffering from iron-deficiency anaemia, a common condition in the region that among other things leads to reduced productivity.
I’ve also witnessed people catching fish, selling it and then going to buy canned fish to eat. These are habits we need to change.”
He explained that the issue of fluctuating food prices across the world had in some ways provided opportunities to change these habits, making people realize the importance of locally produced, more accessible products in ensuring the food security of island populations. This has led many countries to run ‘go local’ campaigns.
“We’re helping sellers make products more attractive and thereby competitive on the market. For example, we’ve advised producers in Tonga and Samoa on producing frozen sweet potatoes and breadfruit, which can be used as a substitute for imported potato fries.”
Sorry for quoting at such length, but as I said, I can’t link to these interviews. InTouch, please note.
We must reach out and save our American Brothers and Sisters from their terrible diet! They will starve as oil shortages cut back corn production, and the subsequent beef production at their Factory Farms, and high amount of fatty beef they consume is rapidly reduced! They are on the brink! They now produce Ethanol for cars, dilute it with gasoline to appease G. Bush’s plans for the oil barons, and destroy its true potential as fuel in ethanol-specific engines (to hide the truth from the people) , all the while leaving less and less corn for feeding the cows, that in turn support the people’s huge body masses! Research must be done among them, studying survival rates of those removed from their high calorie diets! Will they survive – We need numbers post-haste! Can the great dying hulks be rendered? into bio-diesel? Can they be buried without floating to the top-soil and contaminating it with oil? Is cremation explosion-safe? Kosher? Much research to be done! Hopefully they will survive a conversion to veganism as the dollar slides to all time lows, and meats are priced outside their means along with gasoline and other fossil fuel products. Pray for them, they go through a trial the God’s have graciously excluded the rest of mankind from, but yet we must still witness! Beware! We have not the resources to save them! We have no idea the disproportionate daily calorie intake they demand to survive, and for little output! It takes the daily food of twelve of us to feed one of them! And the fuel oil we use in a year, barely covers them for a day! We cannot afford to help them in this way! We simply cannot, and survive ourselves!