November 9, 2007 by Mirjam Hirch.

My World In My Kitchen

Food and how we prepare food is one of the most central aspects of daily life. More intimate than our language can ever be, cooking expresses most eloquently our personal creativity as well as cultural mythologies and beliefs.
When you take away the food you take away the culture and ultimately the health of peoples. Relocating peoples, wiping out local foods or forbidding indigenous cultures through “legal” means to hunt and gather traditional foods is the most subtle and thorough way of colonization. Impeding access to traditional foods goes deeper than physical weapons ever could as cultures get shaken to the very core of their spiritual and phsical health and well-being.

Smells taste and looks of food install in us a sense of place and identity, strongly connected to our personal histories and regional upbringing. Thus the cloudberry is to the Finn what the salmonberry is to peoples inhabiting the wild Pacific Northwest.
Illustrated and spread is the knowledge of the beautiful variety of local food cultures by use of cookbooks, which can have great political power too. No wonder one could find a whole stack of cookbooks right at the entrance of the UN library in New York.

Sacred foods, the seeds for growing cultures, nowadays to many inhabitants of the developed world have completely lost meaning. Reduced to a mere commodity available only in big supermarkets. Thus the adventure trip in modern times becomes a well planned tour into the depth of buyers’ paradise with a lot of dead food sitting as special offers on top of shelves. Not the palate and the idea of how to best nourish body and soul make the modern hunter decide what food to get. He is led by clever advertisement campaigns and the driving thought the cheaper the better. Upon showing the processed long-lasting trophies at home it is proudly announced how much was saved. No word about the natural smell or excellent taste of the food is lost. Maybe because there is no such thing? What sensual experiences are possible when consuming pre-prepared food? Now what might that tell us about the quality of life and personalities?

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November 9, 2007 by Rudolph Ryser.

The Russians dump nuclear waste in the Arctic seas, the Republic of Congo sees companies with the consent of some government officials dump 20 metric tons of toxic waste into an old uranium mine and they succeed in contaminating the Mura river; and PCBs and mercury from coal fire electrical production contaminate the oceans.  China pushes industrial development in Shanghai while the Yellow River becomes the source for death from contamination. Socialist and capitalist economic systems equally pursue money and power at the expense of life-giving nature–the rivers, the land, the air and all the plants and animals.  President Bill Clinton argues that “you can have strong wages and business while protecting the environment.” He urges as do many US and European political leaders that “we can have our cake and eat it too.”

When the discussion turns to reducing carbon dioxide and other climate warming emissions the decision is to balance what is now going into the air with increased capacity to absorb–otherwise called carbon sequestration.  The result is no reduction of carbon emissions; only an eventual precarious balance of present emissions.

Business, industry and government policy on reducing or eliminating damage to the environment translates into continued destruction.  The economic systems on which business, industry and governments rely are at root the major problem.  Neither capitalism nor socialism contribute to life giving support of the world on whom we all must depend for life.  When an economic system is concerned with money and the consumption of material goods, there is an assumption that what nature has is free for the taking.  Growth of business and unlimited consumption are simply impossible, yet the assumption of those traveling the path of “development” is that “a few will get there’s while everyone else can eat smoke.”  In the end, this is not only foolish but utterly destructive of life on this planet.

While it isn’t easy shifting from a consumer economy to an economy that supports life, we are compelled by the limites of life-giving nature to make the shift.  Either we will decide to make the shift or we will be forced by the necessities.

(c) 2007 Center for World Indigenous Studies

Technorati Tags: growth, socialism, capitalism, consumerism, life, carbon emissions

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