Decolonize sua Comida: Campanha da Rede dos Povos Indígenas Slow Food contra a Perda de Biodiversidade

On the occasion of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples 2023, commemorated on August 9, the Slow Food Indigenous Peoples Network launches a global campaign to support indigenous communities in preserving their food heritage for our common future.

As indigenous communities protect an extraordinary variety of plant and animal species, as well as traditional knowledge, foods and languages ​​against the risk of extinction. Looking to the future of these communities, Campanha Decolonize your Food perfectly follows the main theme of this year’s International Day, which is a Indigenous Youth as Moving Agent for Self-determination.  “Historically, our capabilities, skills and knowledge of indigenous women and young people who contribute to the world’s food systems are invisible. Many times, it is said that we are young, that we do not know, that we are only inexperienced, that we have to wait until later to be able to express our opinions; But it is said that youth is a source of energy, dreams, new abilities and skills. „If we, as young people, also have respect and dignity for our oldest children, together we can create thousands of wonderful projects with solutions for climate change and for the loss of biodiversity, because we complement each other,“ he comments Dalí Nolasco Cruz, Nahua woman, member of the Slow Food International Council.

A Colonization of Indigenous Foods

Oitenta percent of the biodiversity is protected by indigenous peoples. These communities are also guardians of traditional knowledge and foods. However, their subsistence is threatened by land degradation, violations of indigenous peoples‘ rights, climatic changes and unsustainable agricultural practices. Além dessas causes visíveis, há uma colonização less perceptível acontecendo através da Alimentação. On the one hand, as multinationals we want to obtain knowledge and indigenous foods without consent, recognition or benefit for the communities that raise them and, on the other hand, the growing dominance of industrialized and globalized foods is replacing traditional local foods. The means of mass communication and public policies promote the consumption and production of food, raising food insecurity, the standardization of diets and the loss of flavors, flavors, food celebrations, local economies and food identities, particularly impacting indigenous youth.

Indigenous and traditional foods can play an important role in the fight against poverty and undernutrition: The dietary regimes and biodiverse production practices of which we are part contribute to a healthy life and preserve local ecosystems and environmental resources that we can protect against this. micronutrient deficiencies. Currently, this model faces a considerable competition from the processed foods of the agri-food industry and the increasing use of GMOs. The flooding of the market with these products has led to a considerable change in two dietary habits, whose harmful effects on the health of the population will become evident shortly after.

“Our food connects us to our communities, to Mãe Terra and to our ancestors,” says Dali Nolasco Cruz, “is our culture, our knowledge, our life: our identity. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that indigenous foods continue to be respected, protected and celebrated as an integral part of the global gastronomic scene. For meio da Campanha Decolonize your Food, the Network of Indigenous Peoples Slow Food seeks to raise awareness about the continuous efforts to protect the foodstuffs of indigenous peoples from extinction and life everyone to discover the indigenous origins of two foods every day, and to discover the lands and communities where they are still produced.”

A journey of consciousness across continents

Slow Food presents a vision of an ideal world among some indigenous foods highlighted by the network of Slow Food Indigenous Peoples, which spans 86 countries and more than 370 communities.

The Slow Food Indigenous Peoples Network in Mexico will participate more actively, we have recently launched a national campaign asking indigenous communities to highlight foods locais that gostaram decolonize. Or same goes for oSlow Food Uganda, which apresentou your campaignMy Food My Identityto raise awareness among the local population about indigenous foods that can be a powerful alternative to guarantee food sovereignty and valuable support in the fight against climate change.

A Aliança de Cozinheiros Slow Food: Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan was recently launched in Taiwan. In addition to defending biodiversity and local products, the first 18 indigenous cooks who founded Aliança pay attention to indigenous traditions and ingredients. Saiba mais: https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/nazioni-alleanza/taiwan-en/

Na Europe, the producers of Fortaleza Slow Food Sapmi Reindeer Gurpi indicateram o

gurpi, a type of cured reindeer meat, special for the Sámi, a nomadic indigenous people who live in the mountains in the north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.

We can all get involved in the campaign by learning more about food and indigenous communities and the importance of decolonizing our food systems and mentalities. It is essential to defend changes in policies that protect biodiversity and recognize the rights and contributions of indigenous peoples. More: https://www.slowfood.com/our-network/indigenous/decolonize-your-food/

International Day of Indigenous Peoples 2023: on December 23, 1994, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided, in its Resolution 49/214, that the International Day of Indigenous Peoples It would be commemorated every year, not on August 9. This marks the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. https://social.desa.un.org/issues/indigenous-peoples/events/international-day -of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-2023

Say more about the Slow Food Indigenous Peoples Network: https://www.slowfood.com/our-network/indigenous/

IFAD and Slow Food share a vision of small-scale agriculture as a fundamental source of income and food for rural communities and the engine of rural economic growth. Since 2009, the partnership between IFAD and Slow Food has contributed to innovative projects that promote local value chains for traditional foods, such as the development of a Network of Indigenous Peoples involving thousands of people in 86 countries. Currently, this partnership is implementing a new project that aims to promote the transformation of the food system, promoting the centrality of two agroecological food systems and the inestimable knowledge of two indigenous peoples of Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific.