Session 40 summary
His journey of the love for food and exploration of the whole food system started when he was introduced to food by his grandmother and the love continued as he grew up. He pursued his career as a journalist for a decade then entered into the world of food and got associated with Slow Food in 2015, where he became friends with the local food chapter group. The group had the second Indigenous Terra Madre of Slow Food in Shillong and he got to be a part of it, where he learned a lot about what goes behind food, food system, designing of food and why it happens and in which particular community. He took a lot of interest in Slow Food and the group also saw his interest and offered him a scholarship to study more about tools of slow food and how to use them. These tools are there to benefit the youth and locals of that community and thus spreading the gospel of Slow Food and what Slow Food does together with the Indigenous Network. The indigenous network of slow food plays an integral role and work hand in hand with Slow Food. Slow Food is an organization that works on various platforms to preserve the biodiversity, the food and the food system and the indigenous people are the key players in this entire process. Slow Food focuses on various regions where there is a need to drive the youth interest of the farmers, propagate the slow food philosophy to make their livelihood better. Slow food also works a lot with youth because they will be deciding the future. Usually people don’t discuss the act of eating and the food choices that they make for each meals. But these choices decide whether we are eating good food or bad food.
Raja Sharma Rymbai shares some of his projects that are a ‘foundation for biodiversity’. The first being Presidia where he worked with small groups of producers, Ark of Taste was a project where the endangered foods, fruits, etc. were catalogued, In Earth Market an international network of farmers and markets was built to promote good, clean and fair food, there is a plan to build 10,000 food gardens with the 10,000 Gardens in Africa project and there is also the Indigenous Terra Madre where advises are shared from all the regions of the world. To reduce many evils in this earth, one being mono-cropping Slow Food is fighting against such situations by mass mobilizing farmers and consumers because they believe that consumers are co-producers, because it is their demand that the farmers produce. So if people are eating sustainably then the farmers will produce sustainably.
Slow food in India is very critical because there are lots of mouths to feed so the food prepared should be clean and healthy. India is a growing economy with the youth moving to the urban cities which is why it is more important to have slow food chapters where they discuss philosophy and tools. These tools should be spread, not just in the elite groups but also imbibe these philosophies in the grass root level. There is a need to take the indigenous philosophy and belief and share the knowledge of the environment. It is important to share with others about why what they eat is very important and integral to them and the entire world.
Apart from Slow Food Raja is also fighting against the land grabbing in various regions of the world where, with his group he is working to mobilize a lot of information and people to go against it.
Slow Food as a whole is a big network of communities with about One million supporters and 100,000 members. They have Slow Fish, Slow Food Coffee Coalition, Slow Food Wine Coalition, where they emphasize on clean way, equal pay and no use of pesticides or any harmful chemicals. Most important network that they have is the Slow Food Youth Network based out of Netherlands youth who are the driving force of it all around the world.
Slow food also works with migrants because migrants carry a lot of food culture with them.
About the Speaker
Raja Sharma Rymbai
Member – South East Asia, Advisory Board for the Indigenous Peoples’ Network
Slow Food International
Helsinki, Finland
He is a member of the Jaintia people from Meghalaya, India. He has a Master’s Degree in Food Culture & Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, and currently works at Slow Food International to support the development of the Slow Food network in India. He has been instrumental in highlighting the work of indigenous cooks and chefs in the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance. He is committed to defending the rights of indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia by working with youth & food communities to promote sustainability and enhanced livelihood through indigenous knowledge.
