0:00:00.632,0:00:05.244
I was living with this[br]Indigenous family in India.

0:00:05.577,0:00:08.046
One afternoon,

0:00:08.046,0:00:10.464
the young son was eating

0:00:10.464,0:00:15.608
and at the sight of me[br]he quickly hid his curry behind his back.

0:00:16.877,0:00:22.209
It took a lot of persuasion to get him[br]to show me what he was eating.

0:00:22.209,0:00:25.195
It turned out to be moth larvae,

0:00:25.528,0:00:29.167
a traditional delicacy[br]with the [?] Indigenous people.

0:00:29.507,0:00:30.741
I cried,

0:00:30.741,0:00:33.176
"Oh my God, you're eating these.

0:00:33.176,0:00:35.901
I hope there's a little left for me."

0:00:36.696,0:00:39.507
I saw disbelief in the boy's eyes.

0:00:39.507,0:00:41.590
"You, eat these?"

0:00:41.590,0:00:45.912
"I love these," I replied.

0:00:45.912,0:00:50.964
I could see he did not trust me one bit.

0:00:50.964,0:00:55.269
How could an urban, educated woman[br]like the same food as him?

0:00:56.808,0:01:01.437
Later, I broached the subject[br]with his father,

0:01:01.437,0:01:04.397
and it turned out to be[br]a mighty touchy affair.

0:01:04.397,0:01:07.092
He said things like,

0:01:07.092,0:01:10.884
"Oh, only this son of mine[br]likes to eat it.

0:01:10.884,0:01:13.203
We tell him, 'Give it up. It's bad.'

0:01:13.520,0:01:15.445
He doesn't listen, you see.

0:01:15.445,0:01:18.563
We gave up eating all this ages back."

0:01:19.581,0:01:22.140
"Why?" I asked.

0:01:22.723,0:01:27.362
"This is your traditional food.

0:01:27.362,0:01:29.216
It is available in your environment,

0:01:29.216,0:01:31.086
it is nutritious,

0:01:31.086,0:01:33.104
and I can vouch for it, delicious.

0:01:33.489,0:01:36.421
Why is it wrong to eat it?"

0:01:36.768,0:01:39.686
The man fell silent.

0:01:39.686,0:01:41.354
I asked,

0:01:41.354,0:01:45.298
"Have you been told that your food is bad,

0:01:45.298,0:01:48.171
that to eat it is backward,

0:01:48.171,0:01:50.218
not civilized?"

0:01:51.070,0:01:53.872
He nodded silently.

0:01:55.332,0:02:00.852
This was one of the many, many times[br]in my work with Indigenous people in India

0:02:00.852,0:02:04.055
that I witnessed shame around food,

0:02:04.055,0:02:07.965
shame that the food you love to eat,

0:02:07.965,0:02:11.269
the food that has[br]been eaten for generations,

0:02:11.269,0:02:13.536
is somehow inferior,

0:02:13.536,0:02:16.246
even subhuman.

0:02:16.246,0:02:21.413
And this shame is not limited[br]to out-of-the-way icky foods

0:02:21.413,0:02:24.188
like insects or rats, maybe,

0:02:24.188,0:02:27.463
but extends to regular foods:

0:02:27.463,0:02:29.331
white vegetables,

0:02:29.331,0:02:31.617
mushrooms, flowers,

0:02:31.617,0:02:36.061
basically anything that is foraged[br]rather than cultivated.

0:02:37.410,0:02:40.612
In Indigenous India,[br]this shame is omnipresent.

0:02:41.179,0:02:44.298
Anything can trigger it.

0:02:44.515,0:02:48.325
One upper caste vegetarian schoolmaster[br]gets appointed in a school.

0:02:49.410,0:02:53.881
Within weeks, children are telling[br]their parents it's yucky to eat crabs

0:02:53.881,0:02:56.216
or sinful to eat meat.

0:02:56.425,0:03:00.360
A government nutrition program[br]serves fluffy white rice.

0:03:00.360,0:03:03.747
Now no one wants to eat[br]red rice or millets.

0:03:04.198,0:03:08.774
A nonprofit reaches this village with[br]an ideal diet chart for pregnant women.

0:03:09.408,0:03:10.826
There you go.

0:03:10.826,0:03:13.245
All the expectant mothers are feeling sad

0:03:13.245,0:03:15.997
that they cannot afford apples and crepes.

0:03:16.247,0:03:20.225
And people just kind of forget[br]the fruits that can be picked

0:03:20.225,0:03:22.611
off the forest floor.

0:03:22.611,0:03:25.245
Health workers,

0:03:25.245,0:03:27.388
religious missionaries,

0:03:27.388,0:03:29.740
random government employees,

0:03:29.740,0:03:32.927
and even their own educated children

0:03:32.927,0:03:35.763
are literally shouting it down

0:03:35.763,0:03:37.721
at the Indigenous people

0:03:37.721,0:03:40.444
that their food is not good enough,

0:03:40.690,0:03:42.342
not civilized enough.

0:03:43.695,0:03:46.536
And so food keeps disappearing,

0:03:46.536,0:03:48.939
a little bit at a time.

0:03:49.405,0:03:54.259
I am wondering if you all[br]have ever considered

0:03:54.259,0:03:58.187
whether your communities would have[br]a similar history around food.

0:03:58.904,0:04:03.842
If you were to talk[br]to your 90-year old grandmother,

0:04:03.842,0:04:07.986
would she talk about foods[br]that you have never seen or heard of?

0:04:08.870,0:04:12.039
Are you aware how much[br]of your community's food

0:04:12.039,0:04:14.225
is no longer available to you?

0:04:14.875,0:04:16.734
Local experts tell me

0:04:16.734,0:04:22.822
that the South African food economy[br]is now entirely based on imported foods.

0:04:22.822,0:04:25.909
Corn has become the staple,

0:04:25.909,0:04:32.622
while the local sorghum, millets,[br]bulbs and tubers are all gone.

0:04:32.622,0:04:35.693
So are the wild legumes and vegetables,

0:04:35.693,0:04:39.102
while people eat potatoes and onions,[br]cabbages and carrots.

0:04:40.136,0:04:41.954
In my country,

0:04:41.954,0:04:44.757
this loss of food is colossal.

0:04:45.307,0:04:48.099
Modern India is stuck with rice,

0:04:48.099,0:04:51.352
wheat and diabetes.

0:04:52.220,0:04:57.132
And we have totally forgotten foods[br]like huge varieties of tubers,

0:04:57.132,0:05:00.784
tree saps, fish, shellfish,

0:05:01.284,0:05:02.736
oil seeds,

0:05:02.736,0:05:06.830
mollusks, mushrooms, insects,

0:05:07.548,0:05:10.667
small, non-endangered animal meats,

0:05:10.667,0:05:15.021
all of which used to be available[br]right within our surroundings.

0:05:16.122,0:05:18.281
So where has this food gone?

0:05:18.765,0:05:21.634
Why are our modern food baskets so narrow?

0:05:23.118,0:05:29.047
We could talk about the complex[br]political economic and ecological reasons,

0:05:29.047,0:05:33.368
but I am here to talk about[br]this more human phenomenon of shame,

0:05:33.951,0:05:37.212
because shame is the crucial point

0:05:38.379,0:05:42.799
at which food actually[br]disappears off your plate.

0:05:43.651,0:05:45.519
What does shame do?

0:05:45.519,0:05:48.745
Shame makes you feel small,

0:05:48.745,0:05:50.230
sad,

0:05:50.230,0:05:51.615
not worthy,

0:05:51.615,0:05:53.168
subhuman.

0:05:53.734,0:05:57.243
Shame creates a cognitive dissonance.

0:05:58.227,0:06:00.963
It distorts food stories.

0:06:00.963,0:06:03.382
Let us take this example.

0:06:03.382,0:06:09.516
How do you like to have[br]a wonderful versatile staple

0:06:09.516,0:06:12.646
that is available abundantly[br]in your environment?

0:06:13.073,0:06:15.667
All you have to do is gather it,

0:06:15.667,0:06:17.935
dry it, store it,

0:06:17.935,0:06:20.354
and you have it for your whole year

0:06:20.354,0:06:24.282
to cook as many different[br]kinds of dishes as you want with it?

0:06:24.948,0:06:28.786
India had just such a food called mahua,

0:06:28.786,0:06:30.937
this flower over there.

0:06:30.937,0:06:35.699
And I have been researching this food[br]for the past three years now.

0:06:35.699,0:06:38.335
It is known to be highly nutritious

0:06:38.335,0:06:42.311
in Indigenous tradition[br]and in scientific knowledge.

0:06:43.297,0:06:46.181
For the Indigenous,

0:06:46.181,0:06:50.419
it used to be a staple[br]for four to six months a year.

0:06:50.419,0:06:54.463
In many ways, it is very similar[br]to your local ??,

0:06:54.713,0:06:58.150
except that it is a flower, not a fruit.

0:06:58.150,0:07:00.018
Where the forests are rich,

0:07:00.018,0:07:03.712
people can still get enough to eat[br]for the whole year

0:07:03.712,0:07:06.214
and enough spare to sell.

0:07:06.514,0:07:11.486
I found 35 different dishes with mahua

0:07:11.486,0:07:14.395
that no one cooks anymore.

0:07:15.463,0:07:19.917
This food is no longer[br]even recognized as a food,

0:07:19.917,0:07:22.392
but as raw material for liquor.

0:07:23.393,0:07:26.696
You could be arrested[br]for having it in your house.

0:07:26.696,0:07:28.681
Reason? Shame.

0:07:29.465,0:07:32.208
I talked to Indigenous people

0:07:32.208,0:07:33.329
all over India

0:07:33.329,0:07:35.894
about why mahua is no longer eaten,

0:07:35.894,0:07:39.064
and I got the exact same answer.

0:07:39.064,0:07:42.508
"Oh, we used to eat it[br]when we were dirt poor and starving.

0:07:42.508,0:07:47.595
Why should we eat it now?[br]We have rice, or wheat."

0:07:48.813,0:07:51.131
And almost in the same breath,

0:07:51.131,0:07:54.258
people also tell me[br]how nutritious mahua is.

0:07:55.042,0:07:59.263
There are always stories of elders[br]who used to eat mahua.

0:07:59.263,0:08:01.321
"This grandmother of ours,

0:08:01.321,0:08:02.973
she had 10 children

0:08:02.973,0:08:07.543
and still she used to work so hard,[br]never tired, never sick."

0:08:08.762,0:08:13.373
The exact same dual narrative[br]every single where.

0:08:14.690,0:08:16.442
How come?

0:08:16.442,0:08:18.911
How does the same food

0:08:18.911,0:08:23.788
get to be seen as very nutritious[br]and a poverty food

0:08:23.788,0:08:27.108
almost in the same sentence.

0:08:27.108,0:08:29.693
Same goes for other forest foods.

0:08:29.693,0:08:32.826
I have heard story[br]after heartrending story

0:08:32.826,0:08:35.456
of famine and starvation,

0:08:35.456,0:08:40.261
of people surviving on trash[br]foraged out of the forest

0:08:40.261,0:08:42.836
because there was no food.

0:08:42.836,0:08:45.355
If I dig a little deeper,

0:08:45.355,0:08:49.108
it turns out the lack[br]was not of food per se

0:08:49.108,0:08:52.352
but of something respectable like rice.

0:08:52.352,0:08:54.004
I asked them,

0:08:54.004,0:08:59.141
"How did you learn[br]that your so-called trash is edible?

0:08:59.141,0:09:03.585
Who told you that certain[br]bitter tubers can be sweetened

0:09:03.585,0:09:06.605
by leaving them in a stream overnight?

0:09:07.339,0:09:10.692
Or how to take the meat[br]out of a snail shell?

0:09:10.692,0:09:13.334
Or how to set a trap for a wild rat?"

0:09:14.085,0:09:17.505
That is when they start[br]scratching their heads,

0:09:17.505,0:09:21.458
and they realize that they learned it[br]from their own elders,

0:09:21.458,0:09:26.120
that their ancestors had lived[br]and thrived on these foods

0:09:26.120,0:09:29.807
for centuries before rice came their way,

0:09:29.807,0:09:33.083
and were way healthier[br]than their own generation.

0:09:33.950,0:09:37.037
So this is how food works,

0:09:37.037,0:09:39.789
how shame works,

0:09:39.789,0:09:43.731
making food and food traditions disappear

0:09:43.731,0:09:45.700
from people's lives and memories

0:09:45.700,0:09:48.070
without their even realizing it.

0:09:49.638,0:09:52.581
So how do we undo this trend?

0:09:54.117,0:09:59.922
How do we reclaim our beautiful[br]and complex systems of natural food,

0:10:00.730,0:10:05.818
food given to us lovingly by Mother Earth[br]according to her own rhythm,

0:10:06.718,0:10:10.779
food prepared by our foremothers with joy

0:10:10.779,0:10:15.040
and are eaten by[br]our forefathers with gratitude,

0:10:15.040,0:10:19.450
food that is healthy, local, natural,

0:10:19.450,0:10:22.633
varied, delicious,

0:10:22.633,0:10:25.237
not requiring cultivation,

0:10:25.741,0:10:27.676
not damaging our ecology,

0:10:27.676,0:10:29.700
not costing a thing?

0:10:30.084,0:10:32.571
We all need this food,

0:10:32.571,0:10:36.022
and I don't think I have to tell you why.

0:10:36.823,0:10:40.450
I don't have to tell you[br]about the global health crisis,

0:10:40.450,0:10:41.719
climate change, water crisis,

0:10:41.719,0:10:44.304
soil fatigue,

0:10:44.304,0:10:48.374
collapsing agricultural systems, all that.

0:10:48.374,0:10:52.752
But for me, equally important reasons[br]why we need these foods

0:10:52.752,0:10:55.338
are the deeply felt ones,

0:10:55.338,0:10:58.641
because food is so many things, you see.

0:10:58.641,0:11:02.601
Food is nourishment, comfort,

0:11:02.601,0:11:05.187
creativity, community,

0:11:05.187,0:11:09.024
pleasure, safety, identity

0:11:09.024,0:11:11.065
and so much more.

0:11:11.065,0:11:13.384
How we connect with our food

0:11:13.384,0:11:15.452
defines so much in our lives.

0:11:15.936,0:11:19.290
It defines how we connect with our bodies,

0:11:19.290,0:11:22.383
because our bodies are ultimately food.

0:11:22.383,0:11:26.036
It defines our basic sense of connection

0:11:26.036,0:11:28.671
with our existence.

0:11:28.671,0:11:31.731
We need these foods most today

0:11:31.731,0:11:35.652
to be able to redefine our space as humans

0:11:35.652,0:11:38.754
within the natural scheme of things.

0:11:38.754,0:11:42.098
And are we needing[br]such a redefinition today?

0:11:42.098,0:11:48.738
For me, the only real answer is love,

0:11:48.738,0:11:55.834
because love is the only thing[br]that counters shame.

0:11:55.834,0:12:00.762
And how do we bring more of this love[br]into our connections with our food?

0:12:02.564,0:12:11.144
For me, love is in a big way[br]about the willingness to slow down,

0:12:11.144,0:12:14.164
to take the time to feel,

0:12:14.164,0:12:17.817
sense, listen, inquire.

0:12:17.817,0:12:23.146
It could be listening to our own bodies.

0:12:23.146,0:12:25.515
What do they need

0:12:25.515,0:12:28.967
beneath our food habits,

0:12:28.967,0:12:32.861
beliefs, and addictions?

0:12:32.861,0:12:36.798
It could be taking time out[br]to examine those beliefs.

0:12:37.516,0:12:39.808
Where did they come from?

0:12:39.808,0:12:43.044
It could be going back into our childhood.

0:12:43.044,0:12:45.562
What foods did we love then,

0:12:45.562,0:12:48.115
and what has changed?

0:12:48.115,0:12:52.260
It could be spending a quiet evening

0:12:52.260,0:12:54.277
with an elder

0:12:54.277,0:12:56.114
listening to their food memories,

0:12:56.114,0:12:59.082
maybe even helping them[br]cook something they love

0:12:59.082,0:13:01.291
and sharing a meal.

0:13:01.291,0:13:05.473
Love could be about remembering

0:13:05.473,0:13:09.332
that humanity is vast

0:13:09.332,0:13:11.257
and food choices differ.

0:13:11.257,0:13:14.510
It could be about showing[br]respect and curiosity

0:13:14.510,0:13:17.195
instead of censure

0:13:17.195,0:13:20.655
when we see somebody enjoying[br]a really unfamiliar food.

0:13:21.790,0:13:26.845
Love could be taking the time to inquire,

0:13:26.845,0:13:29.888
to dig up information,

0:13:29.888,0:13:31.622
reach out for connections.

0:13:31.622,0:13:35.509
It could even be[br]a quiet walk in the ??

0:13:35.509,0:13:40.020
to see if a certain plant[br]speaks up to you.

0:13:40.254,0:13:41.805
That happens.

0:13:41.805,0:13:44.658
They speak to me all the time.

0:13:45.242,0:13:49.162
And most of all,

0:13:49.162,0:13:50.303
love is to trust

0:13:50.303,0:13:51.654
that these little exploratory steps

0:13:51.654,0:13:56.025
have the potential to lead us[br]to something larger,

0:13:56.025,0:13:59.678
sometimes to really surprising answers.

0:13:59.678,0:14:03.355
An Indigenous medicine woman once told me

0:14:03.355,0:14:07.008
that love is to walk on Mother Earth

0:14:07.008,0:14:10.934
as her most beloved child,

0:14:10.934,0:14:15.239
to trust that she values[br]an honest intention

0:14:15.239,0:14:18.292
and knows how to guide our steps.

0:14:18.292,0:14:20.500
I hope I have inspired you

0:14:20.500,0:14:24.087
to start reconnecting[br]with the food of your ancestors.

0:14:24.087,0:14:25.739
Thank you for listening.

0:14:25.739,0:14:27.141
(Applause)