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The Renewing America’s Food Traditions Alliance
Renewing America's Food Traditions —
Regional Workshops on Traditional Foods at Risk
The Renewing America's Food Traditions consortium recently
held the first of two regional workshops assessing the current
status of uniquely American traditional foods in our fields,
streams, kitchens and cafes. The first two workshops-- in
the "Salmon Nation" of the Pacific Northwest and
the "Chile Pepper Nation" of the Southwest borderlands--
brought together more than 50 farmers, fishermen, food historians,
folklorists, chefs, and conservationists to develop regional
red lists of foods deserving biological recovery, cultural
revitalization and culinary celebration. More workshops are
now being planned for Cornbread Nation, Clambake Nation and
Bison Nation.
The participants in these workshops first identify what foods
are unique to the region, and significant in its history and
cultural identity. They then assess which are "at risk"--
not merely in terms of biological endangerment, but more importantly,
in terms of sustainable use by the region's resident cultures.
The goal is to develop more public awareness of foods that
need celebration and promotion, not merely "protection"
from further contamination, habitat loss or competition. In
this sense, the RAFT List is unlike Seafood Watch or Endangered
Species lists that primarily discourage harvest and use, because
it focuses on conservation through appropriate uses.
Nevertheless the final red list for Salmon Nation includes
180 distinctive foods of the Pacific Northwest, two thirds
of which deserve recovery and revitalization. It will be published
in March 2006. The list for Chile Pepper Nation currently
contains more than 300 food species and varieties unique to
the Southwest borderland state, but it too includes many foods
that have recently fallen out of cultural use. Surprisingly,
many varieties of chiles, squash, sunflowers, beans and corn
that were once mainstays of the Southwest region's cuisines
have fallen into disuse. The Chile Pepper Nation list will
be released to the public by Summer Solstice of 2006.
"Identifying a region's unique culinary treasures is
a participatory process that has involved experts from many
cultures, many non-profits and many professions as well as
avocations," explained Dr. Gary Nabhan, RAFT founder,
based at the Center for Sustainable Environments in Flagstaff,
Arizona. "We not only welcome input from all sectors
from our society, but encourage every inspired individual
to adopt a traditional food and bring it alive in his or her
community once more."
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