Regeneration

(Second of two parts)

We also must bear in mind that the more we eat what we locally produce vs imported food, we also help the farmers stay sustainable and productive. Saving our local varieties of food is fundamental in survival not just of today’s populations, but for future generations of people who will consume what is originally Filipino as opposed to hybrids, invasive species and introduced varieties which kill what is native to our lands.

At Terra Madre we also see the similarities between cultures not only because of geography (i.e. Asian products) but because of a shared history of colonization and invasion which has colored each country’s palate and cuisine. These are done through taste sessions and taste workshops where something as basic as rice or corn can reveal many stories of indigenous peoples and what they have consciously preserved over the years. And stories of influence by other cultures due to wars and conquests. Food, indeed, has a story to tell for today’s young generations to appreciate their roots and their specific origins, which could easily get lost in today’s digital environment due to blurred lines of provenance and adaptation or assimilation of other cultures.

Regeneration can also make us recreate our past and seek the origins of our food culture to better shape our soul as individual nations and races. It may awaken us to find what is originally ours vs creating a hybrid whose source we can no longer trace. When we find ourselves and understand our food culture, we can better define our soul as a people.

Just like our soil which has regenerated to allow our native vegetables to survive and thrive despite weather disturbances, so will our food culture survive and keep its head above water. We should make it a mission to save our local food and promote awareness of its origins if we want our future generations to have an identity that is its own. The more we import food, the more our local food is submerged in deep waters to be recognized as originally ours.

While we share our food with others like Filipino chefs sharing our adobo and lumpia to other cultures, we must look back at what we have at home, too. There may come a time when everything we eat will already be a mishmash of cultures, obliterating our very own. We thank the chefs abroad who wave our flag in other places and are doing good in promoting what Filipino food is. But we must also keep the original recipes here at home so we have something pure to come home to. And keeping these recipes means preserving the very ingredients that make a sinigang what it is, an adobo what it should taste like.

Let us allow our food culture to regenerate. To be rebuilt, revived and reborn. Because if we are not careful we may wake up one day without a food culture, a country without soul.