THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SUSTAINABLE … ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND GASTRONOMY...

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND

GASTRONOMY

Edited by Philip Sloan, Willy Legrand and Clare Hindley

Preface by Roberto Flore, Nordic Food Lab

Copyrighted material - Provided by Taylor & Francis Josh Evans. Nordic Food Lab. 10/07/2015

First published 2015by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataThe Routledge handbook of sustainable food and gastronomy / edited by Philip Sloan, Willy Legrand and Clare Hindley. Includes bibliographical references and index.1. Food supply—Environmental aspects. 2. Food industry and trade—Environmental aspects. 3. Gastronomy. I. Sloan, Philip. II. Legrand, Willy. III. Hindley, Clare. HD9000.5.R68 2015338.1′90286—dc23

2014042676

ISBN: 9780415702553 (hbk)ISBN: 9780203795699 (ebk)

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v

CONTENTS

Foreword xEditors’ biography xiiEditorial intro duc tion xivAcknowledgements xviiNotes on contrib ut ors xviii

PART 1

Anthropology of food 1

1 “Luxurioussimplicity”:self-sufficientfoodproductioninItalianecovillages 3Alice Brombin

2 Spirituality,socialidentity,andsustainability 21Peter Varga

3 ‘Sustainablefood’:whoseresponsibilityisitanyway?Apersonalcommentary 29Clare Hindley

4 Foodforthought:culinaryheritage,nostalgia,andfoodhistory 34Paul Cleave


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Contents

PART 2

Local food initi at ives 45

5 Does the pursuit of local food destroy our envir on ment? Questions of authen ti city and sustain ab il ity 47Sean Beer

6 Back to the roots – when hip meets sustain able: a case study of the Kartoffelkombinat in Munich 57Thomas Berron

7 Nutrition in rural India 65Richa Govil

8 Aboriginal food: tradi tional dishes surviv ing in the fast food era 76Donald Sinclair and Carolann Marcus

9 Sustaining and spread ing local food culture through cooking classes: a case study of Chiang Mai, Thailand 86Wantanee Suntikul, Rodrigues Ng Iris, Ho Weng, Luo Xiao Yan, Lam Iok Cheng and Chan Weng San

10 The use of local culture and sustain ab il ity in local food and bever age entre pren eur ship: case studies in Cornwall 96John Tredinnick-Rowe and Tim Taylor

PART 3

Food move ments 111

11 Vegetarianism for public health and for the envir on ment: major F&B implic a tions 113Maryam Fotouhinia Yepes

12 Reducing the food miles: loca vor ism and seasonal eating 120Jan Arend Schulp

13 Spa cuisine: an oppor tun ity for the hospit al ity industry? 126Sandra J. Cooper

14 Discussions on Slow Food and San Francisco 135Alissa Folendorf, Colin Johnson and Mehmet Ergul


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Contents

PART 4

Social pillar/social entre pren eur ship 143

15 Ethical employ ment in the cater ing industry 145Gaurav Chawla

16 The Peruvian cacao value chain’s success: foster ing sustain able entre pren eur ship, innov a tion, and social inclusion 157Sandor G. Lukacs de Pereny

17 An analysis of the poten tial restaur ant oper a tions have for rehab il it at ing offend ers: a case study of Her Majesty’s Prison, The Verne 187Sonja Beier

PART 5

Food innov a tion/future 197

18 Broadening insect gast ro nomy 199Afton Halloran, Christopher Münke, Paul Vantomme, Benedict Reade and Josh Evans

19 Wild ideas in food 206Christopher Münke, Afton Halloran, Paul Vantomme, Josh Evans, Benedict Reade, Roberto Flore, Roland Rittman, Anders Lindén, Pavlos Georgiadis and Miles Irving

20 Foods from aquacul ture: varied and growing 214Ricardo Radulovich

21 Fermentation art and science at the Nordic Food Lab 228Benedict Reade, Justine de Valicourt and Josh Evans

PART 6

A sustainable restaur ant system 243

22 Sustainable restaur ant concepts, focus on F&B 245Elena Cavagnaro

23 Foodservice, health and nutri tion: respons ib il ity, strategies and perspect ives 253Laure Saulais


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Contents

24 Sustainable supply chains and envir on mental and ethical initi at ives in restaur ants 267Christine Demen Meier, Nicolas Siorak, Stéphanie Bonsch Buri and Clémence Cornuz

25 How self suffi cient can a restaur ant be? Introducing the Foodzone model, a mana gerial tool 279Jaap Peter Nijboer, Peter R. Klosse and Jan Arend Schulp

26 Business model devel op ment for a sustain able and respons ible restaur ant concept: the dimen sions and busi ness rationales of CSR and sustain ab il ity 286Anders Justenlund

27 The sustain able restaur ant: does it exist? 297Charles Barneby and Juline E. Mills

PART 7

Culinary tourism 305

28 Local foods: market ing and the destin a tion 307Martyn Pring, Sean Beer, Heather Hartwell and Jeffery Bray

29 Authenticity and exper i ence in sustain able food tourism 315Sonia Ferrari and Monica Gilli

30 The autumn pear: a symbol for local iden tity, local speci al it ies, biod iversity and collab or at ive park manage ment, an Austrian case study 326Ulrike Pröbstl-Haider, Elisabeth Hochwarter and Josef Schrank

31 Tourism, food tradi tions and support ing communit ies in Samoa: the Mea’ai Project 338Tracy Berno

32 Foodways of lowland Sariaya: towards a sustain able food tourism 348Shirley V. Guevarra and Corazon F. Gatchalian

33 Gastronomic tourism: devel op ment, sustain ab il ity and applic a tions – a case study of County Cork, Republic of Ireland 360Clare Carruthers, Amy Burns and Gary Elliott


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Contents

34 Responsible travel as a means to preserve cultural and natural herit age: initi at ives in Crete, Greece 370Nikki Rose

PART 8

General issues/world food crisis 377

35 International and national regu la tions in favour of sustain able oper a tions in food service 379Nicolas Siorak, Christine Demen Meier, Stéphanie Bonsch Buri and Clémence Cornuz

36 The polit ical and economic real it ies of food system sustain ab il ity 391Christina Ciambriello and Carolyn Dimitri

37 Customer expect a tions regard ing organic and healthy food 408Christine Demen Meier, Nicolas Siorak, Stéphanie Bonsch Buri and Clémence Cornuz

Index 421


206

Introduction

Foraging for all manner of wild plants, animals and fungi and their products makes up part of the tradi tional diets of approx im ately 300 million world wide (Bharucha and Pretty, 2010). Furthermore, their relev ance in the global food supply is often under es tim ated, as policies and stat ist ics at national and regional levels tend to neglect their import ance for food sover eignty and food culture (Bharucha and Pretty, 2010). Foraged plants often grow spon tan eously and many exist inde pend ent of human inter ac tion (Heywood, 1999).

Foraging, or ‘search ing widely for food or provi sions’ (Oxford English Dictionary, 2013), is an inter act ive and intim ate activ ity. Foraged foods can convey distinct ive ness of local iden tity, repres ent ing ethni city, culture, land scape, social context, connec tion to nature and stories of survival and wealth (Hall et al., 2003; Timothy and Amos, 2013). Moreover, foraged foods – gathered from varied and robust ecosys tems – hold a vivid array of unique flavours, textures and aromas, and together repres ent the season al ity and biod iversity of differ ent regions. Historical ethno botan ical surveys on wild plants estim ate that approximately 7,000 species have been a part of human diets over time (Grivetti and Ogle, 2000). For example, more than 1,100 edible mush room species are known world wide (FAO, 2004).

Diversification of food sources promotes ecolo gic ally resi li ent and nutri tious food systems; thus, foraged foods offer a great oppor tun ity to broaden culin ary hori zons while simul taneously promot ing diverse food scapes. Wild foods are invari ably more diverse than farmed foods, espe cially consid er ing that 75 per cent of human food is derived from just 12 plants and five animals ( Jaenicke and HöschleZeledon, 2006).

From elder flowers (Sambucus nigra) to samphire (Salicornia euro paea) to wood sorrel (Oxalis acet osella), this diversity provides the oppor tun ity to emphas ize and celeb rate local ity by strength en ing the sensory connec tion of the eater to their surround ings through food. In some areas of the world wild gathered foods risk disap pear ing from human diets (Leonti et al., 2006). On the other hand, foraging in forests, fields, lakes and by the sea is exper i en cing a gast ro nomic revival and is regain ing signi fic ance in contem por ary food culture, nutri tion paradigms, local econom ies and society at large. This resur gence is due in part to the interest in wild products by some of the world’s leading chefs, such as Michel Bras (Bras, Aveyron,

19

WILD IDEAS IN FOOD

Christopher Münke, Afton Halloran, Paul Vantomme, Josh Evans, Benedict Reade, Roberto Flore, Roland Rittman, Anders Lindén, Pavlos

Georgiadis and Miles Irving


207

Wild ideas in food

France), Rene Redzepi (Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark), Alex Atala (DOM, São Paulo, Brazil) and many others.

In order to exem plify this ecolo gical diversity and inter ac tion with foraged foods in gast ro nomy, we provide four cases, each with a differ ent theme (ethno botan ical know ledge, entre pren eur ship, natural resources and conser va tion), from differ ent parts of the globe: the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, south ern Sweden, England and the Yunnan Province in China. These cases valor ize the herit age of foraged foods and show how local know ledge renders products access ible to modern gast ro nomic entre pren eurs and chefs while drawing from a region’s histor ical, geograph ical and social diversity (Hall et al., 2003).

Most wild harves ted products are accessed through tradi tional ecolo gical know ledge of edible species, which provides further reason to preserve and enhance this know ledge before it vanishes. Indigenous know ledge accu mu lated over gener a tions serves as the basis of agri cul ture, food produc tion, human and animal health, as well as natural resource manage ment decision making (Slikkerveer, 1994). To exem plify the import ance of inter con nec ted know ledge systems, chef and forager Roberto Flore presents his approach to gast ro nomy, and its rela tion to the protec tion of biod iversity and food sover eignty in Sardinia.

Wild idea #1: Sardinia – handing down a family history through food: the tale of a chef- forager

Roberto Flore, Sardinian chef

‘Chef forager’ is a relat ively unknown term, and for some it may even seem like a new food fad.

However, in reality it describes the genuine aware ness of how to handle food through a greater

contact with nature and the redis cov ery of a region’s own flavours.

The term ‘foraging’, when trans lated into the Sardinian language, is ‘erbuzzae’, meaning the

act of collect ing wild herbs. Through my work, foraging, culin ary research and inter pret a tion

I have the possib il ity of engaging in one of the most ancient of human activ it ies: the collec tion

of wild species. Since prehis toric times – when farming and agri cul tural systems were yet to

develop – human beings foraged for seeds, fruits and herbs, which were used to feed, to heal and

to perform spir itual rites. These prac tices still affect our every day lives, even if now in a limited

way. In Sardinia, wild species such as Mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), Myrtle (Myrtus communis), wild

fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and borage (Borago offi cinalis) have created a sound found a tion for our

histor ical and cultural herit age and are still used in most communit ies. As such, their protec tion

needs to be ensured. The know ledge of wild herbs is often trans ferred orally to young people

using the specific names in the Sardinian language, as their names in Italian are often not known.

Plant names are often used as place names to identify where a given species prevails. This gives

a clue as to what kind of veget a tion, such as trees, shrubs, fruits and herbs, one can find in a given

place. The names of wild plant species are also used to define the phys ical and psycho lo gical

char ac ter ist ics of a person. From these multiple signi fic ances it is easy to see the import ance of

wild herbs in our culture.

My train ing was born in the arms of my grand mother. She taught me how to cook and

recoun ted to me how she had survived World War II nour ished only by self made foods, wild

herbs and fruits. These stories have changed my perspect ive on food and cooking. Even as a child

I was very aware of the origins of my food, as I was often foraging for it myself. The story of my


Christopher Münke et al.

208

family has been passed down through food; as a result food for me has always provoked strong

emotions, which then feed my passion for food and cooking. For me the act of cooking is far

more complex than just feeding people: a plate of food becomes a means to inspire young people

or to illus trate to conscious trav el lers the image of ‘la mia Sardegna’. Therefore, it is essen tial to

use high quality local products and to fight for the preser va tion of small scale produ cers. In this

respect my former train ing as an agri cul tural tech ni cian has helped me become closer to produ

cers and under stand the quality of their products. The know ledge that I have accu mu lated has

allowed me to inter act with inter na tional colleagues who have a similar vision and allows me to

promote local devel op ment in a global context.

Roberto Flore’s example illus trates a sharing of know ledge based on a tradi tional understand ing of the diversity of food resources. These resources play an import ant role in times of crisis, but even more so they play a role in the preser va tion of know ledge and culture, which shapes the iden tity of place (Fischler, 1988). Consumers often look for ‘authen tic’ exper i ences asso ci ated with local, tradi tional foods and the history of an area, and are taken up by many market ing and brand ing initi at ives in order to promote regional products (Sims, 2009). Shaping or creat ing an iden tity can be a spon tan eous or a delib er ate process, but often contains elements of both.

The arrival of fresh, wild products on our plates can be achieved in a variety of ways. In recent years there has been an increase in commer cial foraging enter prises that supply wild food to restaur ants, such as herbs, mush rooms, berries, fruits and nuts (Luczaj et al., 2012). Wild food enthu si asts have applied their know ledge to promote local food systems by enabling the provi sion of these foods to import ers, whole salers, green gro cers and restaur ants.

The Swedish profes sional foragers of Roland Rittman Ltd. present their exper i ences as entre pren eurs, and their work that contrib uted to the expan sion of New Nordic cuisine.

Wild Idea #2: Sweden – Roland Rittman and the Yellow Archangel

Roland Rittman and Anders Lindén – profes sional foragers, Sweden

This is the story of how wild tastes arrived on the plates of Noma in Copenhagen, considered

the world’s premier restaur ant 2010–2012 accord ing to ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’. Our

narrator is Roland Rittman, former teacher, field biolo gist and envir on mental activ ist who has

played a signi fic ant role in bring ing these flavours to market.

‘It all started with a modest sale of mush rooms at the farmers market in Lund some 15 years

ago. I gradu ally expan ded the assort ment with classic weeds such as nettles (Urtica dioica). Shortly

there after, I built up the courage to enter a restaur ant kitchen for the first time in my life and I

was over the moon when I left the build ing with my crates empty. At this point, I exten ded the

hobby of foraging to an activ ity of survival! There was no grand plan for my little enter prise or

any idea where it would lead. However, some thing funda ment ally changed when I decided to

take my wagon across the bridge from Skåne, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I came

into contact with René Redzepi. The culin ary chem istry between my products and René was

consid er able and his enthu si asm stim u lated my contin ued redis cov ery of tastes from the wild. To


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Wild ideas in food

the people involved in my company, foraging as a profes sion has meant a lot of hard work and

weekly deliv er ies to Copenhagen but it has also given us many precious hours in the forests and

on the beaches of our beau ti ful province. Among our current selec tion of more than 30 wild

products, there is one herb that holds a special place in my heart.

During the mild winters of the early years, I foraged for Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeo-

b dolon) among magni fi cent columns of Beech (Fagus sylvat ica) and as dusk fell over the forest, roe

deer (Capreolus capre olus) frequently joined me at a distance. These gast ro nomes often just pick

the very best shoot of a plant before moving on to a differ ent taste, util iz ing up to three quar ters

of avail able herbs depend ing on the season. Now that is curi os ity for flavour worth aspir ing to! I

knew that this type of ecosys tem had been provid ing for humans and other wild life for thou sands

of years and I never felt lonely as I navig ated from one natural treas ure to the next. Two close

relat ives of the Yellow Archangel, White Deadnettle (Lamium album) and Purple Deadnettle

(Lamium purpureum) were already known as herb aceous delic acies. Deadnettles do well with scal

lops or flat fish and René created a dish combin ing Yellow Archangel with blood sausage. These

herbs were also used in sweeter contexts such as in Quince (Cydonia oblonga) marmalade. The

results were well received and as Noma grew in repu ta tion, Lamiastrum from our humble forests

came to popu late plates across the region. Through success ful rela tion ships with Noma, many

wild herbs now have the atten tion of the gast ro nomic world and they have made a contri bu tion

to estab lish ing Copenhagen as the deepest taproot of the New Scandinavian Kitchen/Nordic

Cookery/Nordic Cuisine.’

‘Wild’ as a theme and a source of inspir a tion for chefs involves differ ent tech niques aside from wild gath er ing to ensure a stable supply. Beyond the image of collect ing rare species from the wild, cultiv at ing wild plants within agri cul tural food systems is not yet fully acknowledged (Luczaj et al., 2012).

Prior to the dawn of agri cul ture, ‘weeds’ as we know them did not exist as such (Harlan, 1992). After all, the category of ‘weeds’ is much more cultural than botan ical, as evid enced by the varying value of these plants as either unwanted pests or desired herbs. The same wild plants can be seen both as a detri ment to agri cul tural systems and demand ing removal, and as an edible and deli cious resource – depend ing on history, culture and the indi vidual forager. Although highly depend ent on species, some wild plants can be semi domest ic ated for commer cial use. Some farmers and garden ers, such as Søren Wiuff and Søren Espersen in Denmark, produce food in this grey area between ‘wild’ and ‘cultiv ated’, letting wild plants grow along side planted crops, and trans plant ing wild species into fields without select ing seed. Here the United Kingdom’s leading profes sional forager recounts his exper i ence with the inclu sion of a wild resource in the broader agri cul tural paradigm.

Wild Idea #3: United Kingdom – search ing for fat hen (Chenopodium album)

Miles Irving – Forager Ltd.

The search for uses for our edible wild plants is a bit like the Greek god Janus, with one face to

the future and one face to the past. We look back to see where plants have been used in the past,



210

and this can provide a start ing point for using them now. However, it is not a process of nostal gic

prim it iv ism that limits us to these historic uses. With all the resources of our contem por ary

cosmo pol itan context at our disposal, we can forge a future that devel ops the possib il it ies of these

plants beyond only what has been done before. We have tech niques, tech no logy and the ability

to learn and commu nic ate far beyond those our ancest ors possessed. With this in mind, we are

presently explor ing the possib il it ies of various edible weed seeds with a strong history of use, but

a future of use that we believe is even stronger.

This year we have homed in on fat hen (Chenopodium album), a plant whose place in the

culture of rural Suffolk was strong enough to give its name – ‘melde’ – to several towns and

villages, for example Milden and Melbourne (the original Melbourne being a Cambridgeshire

village). Seeds of fat hen have been found in the stomach of several of the mummi fied peat bog

men as well as on many sites of ancient settle ment (Glob, 1969). However, the culture of using

edible weeds along with the crop they share ground with has long since disap peared in Europe,

despite being alive and well in most parts of the world where subsist ence farming is still prac tised.

For a farmer, fat hen, with its ability to produce as many as 50,000 seeds from a single plant, is

public enemy #1. Yet fat hen shares the nutri tional profile of its South American cousin quinoa

(from which it is virtu ally indis tin guish able to the untrained eye prior to flower ing), having very

high levels of calcium, vitamin A and protein. Farmers invest consid er able resources trying to get

rid of it, which only goes to prove its super ior vital ity as compared to the much less resi li ent

cultivars with which it competes for ground. We think it wiser to work with the one that flour

ishes in spite of oppos i tion!

This year we have harves ted 20kg or so of ripe fat hen seeds. There are chal lenges with the

processing of them – the seed coats are heavy in sapon ins, the removal of which demands

repeated wash ings. At least some of what remains of this black outer coating should prob ably also

be removed to allow the seed to swell, as mech an ic ally prepared quinoa does, when cooked. But

these are mere tech nical prob lems. It may be that fat hen seeds were aban doned precisely because

earlier tech no lo gies could not solve these prob lems effi ciently, so that large grass grains such as

wheat and rye came to predom in ate. With all the tech nical tools avail able to us now, however,

we are sure that processing fat hen seed quickly and effi ciently will be just a matter of track ing

down the right equip ment and tech niques. The first part of the processing is already happen ing:

every year tons of fat hen seed gets processed through combine harvesters where it occurs as a

weed in organic grain crops. Some of this gets sold as bird seed but often it is thrown away. This

is a moment ous step because we are edging a food produc tion system back towards the wild by

purpose fully includ ing a wild resource in the agri cul tural regime. This act, even just for this

plant, has global implic a tions: either fat hen or one of its close relat ives is a prolific weed on every

contin ent. The poten tial is vast.

Wild edible plant species grow within a diverse array of terrestrial and aquatic ecosys tems. While these ecosys tems are often defined by their resi li ency, human pres sures such as over har vest ing, unsus tain able forestry prac tices, intro duc tion of invas ive species and urbaniz a tion affect the biod iversity and popu la tion dynam ics of wild edible plants (Heywood, 1999). As another example, Pavlos Georgiadis explains the import ance of the wild edible golden orchid in Yunnan Province and the threat of over har vest ing and habitat destruc tion.


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Wild ideas in food

Wild Idea #4: China – the wild edible golden orchid

Pavlos Georgiadis

Orchids (Orchidaceae) are the largest plant family, comprised of more than 40,000 known species.

Several orchid species are traded as orna mental plants by virtue of their wide diversity of

conspicu ous floral patterns and arrange ments. Many species from several genera have been used

for a long time in the prepar a tion of herbal treat ments, espe cially in tradi tional Chinese medi cine

(Ye and Zhao, 2002) and Ayurveda (Georgiadis, 2007). Ethnobotanical research in

Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province in China has revealed that orchids might have more to offer

than just a showy image and medi cinal prop er ties, but also are elements of indi gen ous food

culture, what can be called ‘ethno gast ro nomy’.

Embodying the power ful spirit of nature, life, balance and love, the ‘golden orchid’

(Dendrobium chryso toxum) possesses the rare ability to induce the balance between yin and yang,

a natural duality forming the guiding philo soph ical prin ciple in tradi tional Chinese medi cine.

This beau ti ful epiphyte has thus become highly sought after, with its stems corres pond ing to the

(Herba dendrobii), the most commonly used herbal mater ial in Chinese medi cine (Li et al., 2005).

These stems are still dried and sucked as cough drops as they are believed to induce the produc

tion of body fluids and to strengthen the immune system.

A rare ‘golden tea’ is also prepared from the flowers of D. chryso toxum, which are care fully

harves ted from its bright yellow racemes, followed by sun drying. A dozen dried flowers are

infused into a glass of hot water and drained three times to yield a golden yellow ish concoc tion

with a smooth texture and warm, woody flavour remin is cent of wild forest honey. A larger

dosage of flowers yields a stronger concoc tion with a more intense taste, while the dehyd rated

flowers can be inges ted directly, in salads or preserved in marmalades. This special tea is

prescribed by local healers to lower blood pres sure, strengthen the immune system, enhance

repro duc tion capa city, and to induce a calm sleep, free of bad dreams. Recent studies have

revealed an array of bene fi cial substances present in this orchid (Gong et al., 2004; Yang et al.,

2004), espe cially poly sac char ide with anti oxidant, anti hyper gly cemic and immune stim u la

tion prop er ties (Zhao et al., 2007).

Overharvesting due to high demand as well as habitat destruc tion from ecolo gic ally ill

conceived devel op ment activ it ies in this global biod iversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000) are

threat en ing the exist ence of D. chryso toxum. Once abund ant in the wild, its occur rence is now

limited, growing in support struc tures atop tradi tional homes in trop ical forest communit ies

around the Mekong River basin in south ern China, Thailand and Myanmar. Scientific evid ence

and increased recog ni tion for its anti diabetic prop er ties may hold the key for the conser va tion of

this beau ti ful orchid. Research and devel op ment in emer ging fields of gast ro nomy for the creation

of premium products based on edible D. chryso toxum should aim for the valor iz a tion of its organ

o leptic and medi cinal prop er ties in innov at ive food concepts. A moder ate demand from high end

gast ro nomy can be met by sustain able produc tion through tissue culture inside the orchid’s

natural habitat, as part of adapted agro forestry systems and/or recov ery initi at ives for restor ing

native biod iversity in the trop ical moun tain forests of Xishuangbanna and neigh bour ing regions.

This research was funded by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Hohenheim

and the Fiat Panis Foundation, Ulm, Germany. Thanks are due to the TianZi Biodiversity

Research & Development Center, Jinghong.



212

The case by Pavlos Georgiadis brings to our mind that wild edible plants are not just edible but they also can have an orna mental func tion and be valued for medi cinal prop er ties, which are deeply embed ded into local culture. However, this multiple func tion can increase demand and threaten the wild popu la tion. Setting up sustain able harvest ing stand ards in combin a tion with breed ing and domest ic a tion, there fore, can ensure future supply and protec tion of some species, which are under pres sure.

Conclusion

The untamed and fluid nature of ‘wild’ foods brings a myriad of flavours, textures and aromas that repres ent the season al ity and biod iversity of differ ent regions. Wild plants have always comprised an import ant compon ent of tradi tional diets, and continue to do so in many countries. These wild foods are uniquely adapted to specific agro ecolo gical niches, do not require inputs such as fertil izers to grow, and often have multiple uses ( Jaenicke and HöschleZeledon, 2006).

With an increas ing interest from leading chefs, as well as consumers, many wild foods are under go ing an import ant reval or iz a tion. The estab lish ment of strong rela tion ships between chefs and foragers helps to preserve, record, spread and build upon tradi tional know ledge, as well as to tell a story through specific gast ro nomic exper i ences. Nonetheless, the increased interest in wild foods must go hand inhand with sustain able harvest ing prac tices in order to conserve wild popu la tions. It is thus of crucial import ance that the value of these resources becomes more deeply under stood – allow ing gast ro nomic enter prises to continue explor ing the poten tial of these diverse and deli cious wild resources while ensur ing that they continue to thrive in the ecolo gies where they origin ate.

References

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