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Last year, I was living with
this indigenous family in India.

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One afternoon,

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the young son was eating,

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and at the sight of me,
he quickly hid his curry behind his back.

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It took a lot of persuasion to get him
to show me what he was eating.

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It turned out to be moth larvae,

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a traditional delicacy
with the Madia indigenous people.

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I cried,

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"Oh my God, you're eating these!

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I hope there's a little left for me!"

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I saw disbelief in the boy's eyes.

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"You ... eat these?"

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"I love these," I replied.

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I could see he did not trust me one bit.

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How could an urban, educated woman
like the same food as him?

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Later, I broached the subject
with his father,

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and it turned out to be
a mighty touchy affair.

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He said things like,

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"Oh, only this son of mine
likes to eat it.

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We tell him, 'Give it up. It's bad.'

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He doesn't listen, you see.

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We gave up eating all this ages back."

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"Why?" I asked.

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"This is your traditional food.

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It is available in your environment,

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it is nutritious,

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and -- I can vouch for it -- delicious.

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Why is it wrong to eat it?"

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The man fell silent.

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I asked,

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"Have you been told that your food is bad,

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that to eat it is backward,

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not civilized?"

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He nodded silently.

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This was one of the many, many times
in my work with indigenous people in India

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that I witnessed shame around food,

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shame that the food you love to eat,

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the food that has been
eaten for generations,

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is somehow inferior,

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even subhuman.

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And this shame is not limited
to out-of-the-way, icky foods

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like insects or rats, maybe,

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but extends to regular foods:

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wild vegetables,

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mushrooms, flowers --

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basically, anything that is foraged
rather than cultivated.

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In indigenous India,
this shame is omnipresent.

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Anything can trigger it.

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One upper-caste vegetarian schoolmaster
gets appointed in a school,

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within weeks, children are telling
their parents it's yucky to eat crabs

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or sinful to eat meat.

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A government nutrition program
serves fluffy white rice,

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now no one wants to eat
red rice or millets.

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A nonprofit reaches this village with
an ideal diet chart for pregnant women.

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There you go.

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All the expectant mothers are feeling sad

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that they cannot afford apples and grapes.

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And people just kind of forget the fruits

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that can be picked off the forest floor.

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Health workers,

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religious missionaries,

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random government employees

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and even their own educated children

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are literally shouting it down
at the indigenous people

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that their food is not good enough,

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not civilized enough.

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And so food keeps disappearing,

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a little bit at a time.

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I'm wondering if you all
have ever considered

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whether your communities would have
a similar history around food.

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If you were to talk
to your 90-year-old grandmother,

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would she talk about foods
that you have never seen or heard of?

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Are you aware how much
of your community's food

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is no longer available to you?

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Local experts tell me

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that the South African food economy
is now entirely based on imported foods.

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Corn has become the staple,

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while the local sorghum, millets,
bulbs and tubers are all gone.

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So are the wild legumes and vegetables,

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while people eat potatoes and onions,
cabbages and carrots.

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In my country,

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this loss of food is colossal.

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Modern India is stuck with rice, wheat

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and diabetes.

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And we have totally forgotten foods
like huge varieties of tubers,

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tree saps, fish, shellfish,

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oil seeds,

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mollusks, mushrooms, insects,

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small, nonendangered animal meats,

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all of which used to be available
right within our surroundings.

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So where has this food gone?

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Why are our modern food baskets so narrow?

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We could talk about the complex
political economic and ecological reasons,

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but I am here to talk about
this more human phenomenon of shame,

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because shame is the crucial point

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at which food actually
disappears off your plate.

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What does shame do?

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Shame makes you feel small,

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sad,

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not worthy,

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subhuman.

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Shame creates a cognitive dissonance.

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It distorts food stories.

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Let us take this example.

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How would you like to have

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a wonderful, versatile staple

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that is available abundantly
in your environment?

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All you have to do is gather it,

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dry it, store it,

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and you have it for your whole year

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to cook as many different
kinds of dishes as you want with it.

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India had just such a food,
called "mahua,"

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this flower over there.

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And I have been researching this food
for the past three years now.

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It is known to be highly nutritious
in indigenous tradition

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and in scientific knowledge.

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For the indigenous,

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it used to be a staple
for four to six months a year.

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In many ways, it is very similar
to your local marula,

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except that it is a flower, not a fruit.

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Where the forests are rich,

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people can still get enough to eat
for the whole year

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and enough spare to sell.

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I found 35 different dishes with mahua

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that no one cooks anymore.

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This food is no longer
even recognized as a food,

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but as raw material for liquor.

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You could be arrested
for having it in your house.

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Reason? Shame.

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I talked to indigenous people
all over India

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about why mahua is no longer eaten.

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And I got the exact same answer.

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"Oh, we used to eat it
when we were dirt-poor and starving.

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Why should we eat it now?

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We have rice or wheat."

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And almost in the same breath,

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people also tell me
how nutritious mahua is.

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There are always stories of elders
who used to eat mahua.

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"This grandmother of ours,
she had 10 children,

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and still she used to work so hard,
never tired, never sick."

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The exact same dual narrative
every single where.

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How come?

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How does the same food

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get to be seen as very nutritious
and a poverty food,

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almost in the same sentence?

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Same goes for other forest foods.

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I have heard story
after heartrending story

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of famine and starvation,

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of people surviving on trash
foraged out of the forest,

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because there was no food.

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If I dig a little deeper,

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it turns out the lack
was not of food per se

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but of something respectable like rice.

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I asked them,

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"How did you learn
that your so-called trash is edible?

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Who told you that certain
bitter tubers can be sweetened

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by leaving them in a stream overnight?

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Or how to take the meat
out of a snail shell?

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Or how to set a trap for a wild rat?"

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That is when they start
scratching their heads,

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and they realize that they learned it
from their own elders,

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that their ancestors had lived
and thrived on these foods for centuries

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before rice came their way,

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and were way healthier
than their own generation.

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So this is how food works,

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how shame works:

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making food and food traditions disappear
from people's lives and memories

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without their even realizing it.

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So how do we undo this trend?

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How do we reclaim our beautiful
and complex systems of natural food,

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food given to us lovingly by Mother Earth
according to her own rhythm,

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food prepared by our foremothers with joy

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and are eaten by our forefathers
with gratitude,

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food that is healthy, local, natural,

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varied, delicious,

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not requiring cultivation,

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not damaging our ecology,

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not costing a thing?

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We all need this food,

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and I don't think I have to tell you why.

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I don't have to tell you
about the global health crisis,

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climate change, water crisis,

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soil fatigue,

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collapsing agricultural systems,

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all that.

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But for me, equally important reasons
why we need these foods

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are the deeply felt ones,

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because food is so many things, you see.

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Food is nourishment, comfort,

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creativity, community,

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pleasure, safety, identity

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and so much more.

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How we connect with our food

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defines so much in our lives.

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It defines how we connect with our bodies,

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because our bodies are ultimately food.

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It defines our basic sense of connection

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with our existence.

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We need these foods most today

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to be able to redefine our space as humans

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within the natural scheme of things.

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And are we needing
such a redefinition today?

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For me, the only real answer is love,

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because love is the only thing
that counters shame.

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And how do we bring more of this love
into our connections with our food?

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For me, love is, in a big way,

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about the willingness
to slow down,

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to take the time to feel,

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sense, listen, inquire.

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It could be listening to our own bodies.

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What do they need
beneath our food habits, beliefs

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and addictions?

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It could be taking time out
to examine those beliefs.

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Where did they come from?

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It could be going back into our childhood.

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What foods did we love then,

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and what has changed?

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It could be spending
a quiet evening with an elder,

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listening to their food memories,

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maybe even helping them
cook something they love

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and sharing a meal.

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Love could be about remembering

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that humanity is vast

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and food choices differ.

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It could be about showing
respect and curiosity

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instead of censure

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when we see somebody enjoying
a really unfamiliar food.

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Love could be taking the time to inquire,

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to dig up information,

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reach out for connections.

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It could even be
a quiet walk in the fynbos

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to see if a certain plant
speaks up to you.

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That happens.

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They speak to me all the time.

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And most of all,

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love is to trust that
these little exploratory steps

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have the potential to lead us
to something larger,

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sometimes to really surprising answers.

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An indigenous medicine woman once told me

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that love is to walk on Mother Earth

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as her most beloved child,

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to trust that she values
an honest intention

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and knows how to guide our steps.

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I hope I have inspired you

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to start reconnecting
with the food of your ancestors.

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Thank you for listening.

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(Applause)