WEBVTT 00:00:00.423 --> 00:00:05.309 Last year, I was living with this indigenous family in India. 00:00:06.547 --> 00:00:08.228 One afternoon, 00:00:08.252 --> 00:00:10.680 the young son was eating, 00:00:10.704 --> 00:00:15.805 and at the sight of me, he quickly hid his curry behind his back. 00:00:16.694 --> 00:00:21.278 It took a lot of persuasion to get him to show me what he was eating. 00:00:21.994 --> 00:00:25.345 It turned out to be moth larvae, 00:00:25.369 --> 00:00:28.748 a traditional delicacy with the Madia indigenous people. 00:00:29.364 --> 00:00:30.575 I cried, 00:00:30.599 --> 00:00:33.067 "Oh my God, you're eating these! 00:00:33.091 --> 00:00:35.421 I hope there's a little left for me!" 00:00:36.466 --> 00:00:38.928 I saw disbelief in the boy's eyes. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.952 --> 00:00:40.833 "You ... eat these?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:42.388 --> 00:00:45.338 "I love these," I replied. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:46.513 --> 00:00:49.846 I could see he did not trust me one bit. 00:00:50.678 --> 00:00:55.413 How could an urban, educated woman like the same food as him? 00:00:56.562 --> 00:01:00.277 Later, I broached the subject with his father, 00:01:00.301 --> 00:01:03.388 and it turned out to be a mighty touchy affair. 00:01:04.793 --> 00:01:06.831 He said things like, 00:01:06.855 --> 00:01:10.190 "Oh, only this son of mine likes to eat it. 00:01:10.214 --> 00:01:13.084 We tell him, 'Give it up. It's bad.' 00:01:13.108 --> 00:01:14.978 He doesn't listen, you see. 00:01:15.002 --> 00:01:18.275 We gave up eating all this ages back." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.763 --> 00:01:21.831 "Why?" I asked. 00:01:22.752 --> 00:01:25.126 "This is your traditional food. 00:01:26.108 --> 00:01:28.700 It is available in your environment, 00:01:28.724 --> 00:01:30.170 it is nutritious, 00:01:30.194 --> 00:01:32.898 and -- I can vouch for it -- delicious. 00:01:33.584 --> 00:01:35.554 Why is it wrong to eat it?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.768 --> 00:01:38.437 The man fell silent. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:40.529 I asked, 00:01:40.998 --> 00:01:45.343 "Have you been told that your food is bad, 00:01:45.367 --> 00:01:48.472 that to eat it is backward, 00:01:48.496 --> 00:01:49.984 not civilized?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:53.683 He nodded silently. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:55.069 --> 00:02:01.209 This was one of the many, many times in my work with indigenous people in India 00:02:01.233 --> 00:02:03.537 that I witnessed shame around food, 00:02:04.545 --> 00:02:08.171 shame that the food you love to eat, 00:02:08.195 --> 00:02:11.372 the food that has been eaten for generations, 00:02:11.396 --> 00:02:13.416 is somehow inferior, 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:14.813 even subhuman. 00:02:16.008 --> 00:02:21.152 And this shame is not limited to out-of-the-way, icky foods 00:02:21.176 --> 00:02:23.997 like insects or rats, maybe, 00:02:24.021 --> 00:02:27.203 but extends to regular foods: 00:02:27.227 --> 00:02:29.219 wild vegetables, 00:02:29.243 --> 00:02:32.035 mushrooms, flowers -- 00:02:32.059 --> 00:02:36.403 basically, anything that is foraged rather than cultivated. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:37.172 --> 00:02:40.708 In indigenous India, this shame is omnipresent. 00:02:41.946 --> 00:02:43.700 Anything can trigger it. 00:02:44.308 --> 00:02:49.194 One upper-caste vegetarian schoolmaster gets appointed in a school, 00:02:49.218 --> 00:02:53.666 within weeks, children are telling their parents it's yucky to eat crabs 00:02:53.690 --> 00:02:55.364 or sinful to eat meat. 00:02:56.202 --> 00:03:00.272 A government nutrition program serves fluffy white rice, 00:03:00.296 --> 00:03:03.392 now no one wants to eat red rice or millets. 00:03:03.984 --> 00:03:08.798 A nonprofit reaches this village with an ideal diet chart for pregnant women. 00:03:09.344 --> 00:03:10.640 There you go. 00:03:10.664 --> 00:03:13.015 All the expectant mothers are feeling sad 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:15.581 that they cannot afford apples and grapes. 00:03:16.009 --> 00:03:19.219 And people just kind of forget the fruits 00:03:19.243 --> 00:03:21.492 that can be picked off the forest floor. 00:03:22.611 --> 00:03:23.999 Health workers, 00:03:25.086 --> 00:03:27.206 religious missionaries, 00:03:27.230 --> 00:03:29.668 random government employees 00:03:29.692 --> 00:03:32.664 and even their own educated children 00:03:32.688 --> 00:03:37.264 are literally shouting it down at the indigenous people 00:03:37.288 --> 00:03:40.562 that their food is not good enough, 00:03:40.586 --> 00:03:42.238 not civilized enough. 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:46.024 And so food keeps disappearing, 00:03:46.972 --> 00:03:48.519 a little bit at a time. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:49.836 --> 00:03:54.185 I'm wondering if you all have ever considered 00:03:54.209 --> 00:03:57.754 whether your communities would have a similar history around food. 00:03:59.468 --> 00:04:02.671 If you were to talk to your 90-year-old grandmother, 00:04:03.587 --> 00:04:07.493 would she talk about foods that you have never seen or heard of? 00:04:08.631 --> 00:04:11.390 Are you aware how much of your community's food 00:04:11.414 --> 00:04:13.280 is no longer available to you? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:14.652 --> 00:04:16.488 Local experts tell me 00:04:16.512 --> 00:04:22.374 that the South African food economy is now entirely based on imported foods. 00:04:23.493 --> 00:04:25.637 Corn has become the staple, 00:04:25.661 --> 00:04:31.635 while the local sorghum, millets, bulbs and tubers are all gone. 00:04:32.384 --> 00:04:35.406 So are the wild legumes and vegetables, 00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:39.058 while people eat potatoes and onions, cabbages and carrots. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:39.921 --> 00:04:41.771 In my country, 00:04:41.795 --> 00:04:44.598 this loss of food is colossal. 00:04:45.077 --> 00:04:49.144 Modern India is stuck with rice, wheat 00:04:49.168 --> 00:04:51.352 and diabetes. 00:04:52.220 --> 00:04:57.401 And we have totally forgotten foods like huge varieties of tubers, 00:04:57.425 --> 00:05:01.260 tree saps, fish, shellfish, 00:05:01.284 --> 00:05:03.176 oil seeds, 00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:07.285 mollusks, mushrooms, insects, 00:05:07.309 --> 00:05:10.436 small, nonendangered animal meats, 00:05:10.460 --> 00:05:14.629 all of which used to be available right within our surroundings. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:15.804 --> 00:05:17.645 So where has this food gone? 00:05:18.630 --> 00:05:21.719 Why are our modern food baskets so narrow? 00:05:22.895 --> 00:05:29.044 We could talk about the complex political economic and ecological reasons, 00:05:29.068 --> 00:05:33.349 but I am here to talk about this more human phenomenon of shame, 00:05:34.590 --> 00:05:38.315 because shame is the crucial point 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:42.438 at which food actually disappears off your plate. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:43.444 --> 00:05:44.900 What does shame do? 00:05:45.845 --> 00:05:48.512 Shame makes you feel small, 00:05:48.536 --> 00:05:50.071 sad, 00:05:50.095 --> 00:05:51.317 not worthy, 00:05:51.341 --> 00:05:52.715 subhuman. 00:05:53.543 --> 00:05:57.549 Shame creates a cognitive dissonance. 00:05:58.115 --> 00:05:59.906 It distorts food stories. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:00.963 --> 00:06:02.676 Let us take this example. 00:06:03.549 --> 00:06:05.793 How would you like to have 00:06:06.742 --> 00:06:08.945 a wonderful, versatile staple 00:06:09.817 --> 00:06:13.113 that is available abundantly in your environment? 00:06:13.137 --> 00:06:15.298 All you have to do is gather it, 00:06:15.322 --> 00:06:17.695 dry it, store it, 00:06:17.719 --> 00:06:20.093 and you have it for your whole year 00:06:20.117 --> 00:06:24.033 to cook as many different kinds of dishes as you want with it. 00:06:24.701 --> 00:06:28.516 India had just such a food, called "mahua," 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:29.981 this flower over there. 00:06:30.989 --> 00:06:34.895 And I have been researching this food for the past three years now. 00:06:35.651 --> 00:06:40.230 It is known to be highly nutritious in indigenous tradition 00:06:40.254 --> 00:06:42.311 and in scientific knowledge. 00:06:43.130 --> 00:06:44.997 For the indigenous, 00:06:45.021 --> 00:06:49.398 it used to be a staple for four to six months a year. 00:06:50.739 --> 00:06:54.447 In many ways, it is very similar to your local marula, 00:06:54.471 --> 00:06:57.403 except that it is a flower, not a fruit. 00:06:58.236 --> 00:07:00.169 Where the forests are rich, 00:07:00.193 --> 00:07:03.548 people can still get enough to eat for the whole year 00:07:03.572 --> 00:07:05.441 and enough spare to sell. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:06.292 --> 00:07:11.273 I found 35 different dishes with mahua 00:07:11.297 --> 00:07:13.971 that no one cooks anymore. 00:07:15.225 --> 00:07:19.860 This food is no longer even recognized as a food, 00:07:19.884 --> 00:07:22.036 but as raw material for liquor. 00:07:23.162 --> 00:07:25.830 You could be arrested for having it in your house. 00:07:26.417 --> 00:07:28.597 Reason? Shame. 00:07:29.211 --> 00:07:32.646 I talked to indigenous people all over India 00:07:32.670 --> 00:07:35.211 about why mahua is no longer eaten. 00:07:35.701 --> 00:07:38.173 And I got the exact same answer. 00:07:39.237 --> 00:07:42.484 "Oh, we used to eat it when we were dirt-poor and starving. 00:07:43.405 --> 00:07:45.224 Why should we eat it now? 00:07:45.248 --> 00:07:47.375 We have rice or wheat." 00:07:48.574 --> 00:07:50.869 And almost in the same breath, 00:07:50.893 --> 00:07:54.111 people also tell me how nutritious mahua is. 00:07:54.835 --> 00:07:58.500 There are always stories of elders who used to eat mahua. 00:07:59.222 --> 00:08:03.186 "This grandmother of ours, she had 10 children, 00:08:03.210 --> 00:08:07.543 and still she used to work so hard, never tired, never sick." 00:08:08.896 --> 00:08:13.584 The exact same dual narrative every single where. 00:08:14.634 --> 00:08:15.865 How come? 00:08:16.442 --> 00:08:18.648 How does the same food 00:08:18.672 --> 00:08:23.764 get to be seen as very nutritious and a poverty food, 00:08:23.788 --> 00:08:25.706 almost in the same sentence? NOTE Paragraph 00:08:26.822 --> 00:08:28.906 Same goes for other forest foods. 00:08:29.653 --> 00:08:32.612 I have heard story after heartrending story 00:08:32.636 --> 00:08:35.528 of famine and starvation, 00:08:35.552 --> 00:08:39.376 of people surviving on trash foraged out of the forest, 00:08:40.455 --> 00:08:42.001 because there was no food. 00:08:43.207 --> 00:08:45.272 If I dig a little deeper, 00:08:45.296 --> 00:08:49.029 it turns out the lack was not of food per se 00:08:49.053 --> 00:08:51.586 but of something respectable like rice. 00:08:52.396 --> 00:08:54.061 I asked them, 00:08:54.085 --> 00:08:57.838 "How did you learn that your so-called trash is edible? 00:08:59.141 --> 00:09:03.878 Who told you that certain bitter tubers can be sweetened 00:09:03.902 --> 00:09:06.213 by leaving them in a stream overnight? 00:09:07.380 --> 00:09:10.395 Or how to take the meat out of a snail shell? 00:09:10.419 --> 00:09:12.869 Or how to set a trap for a wild rat?" 00:09:14.085 --> 00:09:17.327 That is when they start scratching their heads, 00:09:17.351 --> 00:09:20.487 and they realize that they learned it from their own elders, 00:09:21.347 --> 00:09:27.265 that their ancestors had lived and thrived on these foods for centuries 00:09:27.289 --> 00:09:29.470 before rice came their way, 00:09:29.494 --> 00:09:32.529 and were way healthier than their own generation. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:34.029 --> 00:09:36.318 So this is how food works, 00:09:37.898 --> 00:09:39.467 how shame works: 00:09:39.491 --> 00:09:45.857 making food and food traditions disappear from people's lives and memories 00:09:45.881 --> 00:09:48.051 without their even realizing it. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:49.971 --> 00:09:52.914 So how do we undo this trend? 00:09:53.847 --> 00:09:59.882 How do we reclaim our beautiful and complex systems of natural food, 00:10:01.017 --> 00:10:05.818 food given to us lovingly by Mother Earth according to her own rhythm, 00:10:06.718 --> 00:10:10.864 food prepared by our foremothers with joy 00:10:10.888 --> 00:10:13.768 and are eaten by our forefathers with gratitude, 00:10:14.786 --> 00:10:19.487 food that is healthy, local, natural, 00:10:19.511 --> 00:10:22.311 varied, delicious, 00:10:22.335 --> 00:10:25.312 not requiring cultivation, 00:10:25.336 --> 00:10:27.477 not damaging our ecology, 00:10:27.501 --> 00:10:29.106 not costing a thing? 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:32.210 We all need this food, 00:10:32.234 --> 00:10:35.338 and I don't think I have to tell you why. 00:10:36.489 --> 00:10:40.093 I don't have to tell you about the global health crisis, 00:10:40.117 --> 00:10:42.659 climate change, water crisis, 00:10:42.683 --> 00:10:44.023 soil fatigue, 00:10:44.047 --> 00:10:46.039 collapsing agricultural systems, 00:10:46.063 --> 00:10:47.218 all that. 00:10:48.040 --> 00:10:52.333 But for me, equally important reasons why we need these foods 00:10:52.357 --> 00:10:54.139 are the deeply felt ones, 00:10:55.059 --> 00:10:57.652 because food is so many things, you see. 00:10:58.355 --> 00:11:02.072 Food is nourishment, comfort, 00:11:02.096 --> 00:11:04.861 creativity, community, 00:11:04.885 --> 00:11:08.610 pleasure, safety, identity 00:11:08.634 --> 00:11:09.992 and so much more. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:10.708 --> 00:11:13.097 How we connect with our food 00:11:13.121 --> 00:11:15.189 defines so much in our lives. 00:11:15.745 --> 00:11:18.280 It defines how we connect with our bodies, 00:11:19.027 --> 00:11:21.391 because our bodies are ultimately food. 00:11:22.192 --> 00:11:25.759 It defines our basic sense of connection 00:11:25.783 --> 00:11:27.326 with our existence. 00:11:28.464 --> 00:11:31.501 We need these foods most today 00:11:31.525 --> 00:11:35.376 to be able to redefine our space as humans 00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:37.677 within the natural scheme of things. 00:11:38.507 --> 00:11:41.169 And are we needing such a redefinition today? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:43.692 --> 00:11:47.682 For me, the only real answer is love, 00:11:49.261 --> 00:11:54.247 because love is the only thing that counters shame. 00:11:55.571 --> 00:12:00.499 And how do we bring more of this love into our connections with our food? 00:12:02.285 --> 00:12:06.065 For me, love is, in a big way, 00:12:06.089 --> 00:12:09.857 about the willingness to slow down, 00:12:10.826 --> 00:12:14.193 to take the time to feel, 00:12:14.217 --> 00:12:18.470 sense, listen, inquire. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:19.704 --> 00:12:22.188 It could be listening to our own bodies. 00:12:22.875 --> 00:12:29.587 What do they need beneath our food habits, beliefs 00:12:30.188 --> 00:12:31.565 and addictions? 00:12:32.488 --> 00:12:36.497 It could be taking time out to examine those beliefs. 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:38.756 Where did they come from? 00:12:39.586 --> 00:12:42.115 It could be going back into our childhood. 00:12:43.012 --> 00:12:44.719 What foods did we love then, 00:12:45.577 --> 00:12:47.107 and what has changed? 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:53.038 It could be spending a quiet evening with an elder, 00:12:53.062 --> 00:12:55.748 listening to their food memories, 00:12:55.772 --> 00:12:58.697 maybe even helping them cook something they love 00:12:58.721 --> 00:13:00.162 and sharing a meal. 00:13:02.035 --> 00:13:06.251 Love could be about remembering 00:13:06.275 --> 00:13:08.433 that humanity is vast 00:13:08.457 --> 00:13:10.279 and food choices differ. 00:13:11.018 --> 00:13:14.782 It could be about showing respect and curiosity 00:13:14.806 --> 00:13:16.663 instead of censure 00:13:16.687 --> 00:13:20.375 when we see somebody enjoying a really unfamiliar food. 00:13:22.344 --> 00:13:25.647 Love could be taking the time to inquire, 00:13:26.591 --> 00:13:28.423 to dig up information, 00:13:28.447 --> 00:13:30.326 reach out for connections. 00:13:31.233 --> 00:13:34.598 It could even be a quiet walk in the fynbos 00:13:35.485 --> 00:13:39.969 to see if a certain plant speaks up to you. 00:13:39.993 --> 00:13:41.159 That happens. 00:13:41.183 --> 00:13:42.793 They speak to me all the time. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:46.493 And most of all, 00:13:46.517 --> 00:13:51.271 love is to trust that these little exploratory steps 00:13:51.295 --> 00:13:54.812 have the potential to lead us to something larger, 00:13:55.738 --> 00:13:58.605 sometimes to really surprising answers. 00:13:59.756 --> 00:14:02.981 An indigenous medicine woman once told me 00:14:03.005 --> 00:14:06.454 that love is to walk on Mother Earth 00:14:06.478 --> 00:14:08.859 as her most beloved child, 00:14:10.108 --> 00:14:14.866 to trust that she values an honest intention 00:14:14.890 --> 00:14:17.044 and knows how to guide our steps. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:17.808 --> 00:14:19.882 I hope I have inspired you 00:14:19.906 --> 00:14:23.453 to start reconnecting with the food of your ancestors. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:23.477 --> 00:14:24.936 Thank you for listening. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.141 (Applause)