We can’t imagine that some of our favourite foods and flavors might someday disappear from menus. Great classics like the Double Stacker will always be with us, and it’s a safe bet that generations of porkers will continue to supply the bacon to adorn each towering burger.
But nature has been warning us for a very long time that the tastes and colours of some nutritious fruits, vegetables and grains may not endure. For example, a recent study projects that more than a quarter of all flowering plants may be gone within several decades, many before their beauty has ever been seen. One organization is working to reverse the tide, fighting hard to ensure that some of nature’s greatest flavours survive these currents of extinction. A project of the global Slow Food Movement, the Ark of Taste is on a mission to save endangered grains, fruits, vegetables and more from the rising flood of processed foods. Booking safe passage on the Slow Food Movement’s metaphorical ark may be the last best hope for such sublime tastes as North American antebellum peanuts, Harrison cider apples and Ojai pixie tangerines. “The Ark is an international catalogue of foods that are threatened by industrial standardization, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage,” explains Slow Food. “In an effort to cultivate consumer demand — key to agricultural conservation — only the best tasting endangered foods make it onto the Ark.” In the past 25 years, more than 800 products from over 50 countries have been added to the international Ark of Taste catalogue. South of our border, Ark of Taste profiles over 200 rare regional foods, and is a tool that helps American farmers, ranchers, fishers, chefs, retail grocers, educators and consumers celebrate the continent’s extraordinary biological, cultural and culinary heritage. The project has been enthusiastically endorsed by Michael Pollan, celebrated author of such healthy food classics as The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, and Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. In a review, he pointed out what makes this movement — and the plants it hopes to save — so special: “Of course seed-saver groups have been around for a while now, preserving heirloom varieties from the onslaught of patented hybrids, but Slow Food takes that project a step further,” he wrote. “The movement understands that every set of genes on its Ark of Taste encodes not only a set of biological traits but a set of cultural practices as well, and in some cases even a way of life. “Take the example of Iroquois white corn. By working to find new markets for this ancient cultivar, Slow Food (along with the Collective Heritage Institute, its partner in this particular project) is ensuring the livelihood of the Native Americans who grow, roast, and grind this corn. Save the genes, and you help save the land and the culture as well. “Slow Food recognizes that the best place to preserve biological and cultural diversity is not in museums or zoos but, as it were, on our plates.” Comments are closed.
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AuthorJason Hill is a respected entrepreneur and innovator who learned important lessons about life, business and success growing up in Six Nations, Ontario. Archives
January 2023
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