International Terra Madre in Meghalaya
Recently a contingent from Meghalaya comprising farmers and officials travelled to Turin, Italy at the invitation of the International Terra Madre which has been propagating the Slow Food Movement across the world.
Led by Phrang Roy, former Assistant President, IFAD, the team’s visit was also to learn how to organise a similar international event at Mawphlang in 2014.
Preparations for the ITM are on and two people from the University of Gastronomy in Rome, Analie and Rahul are touring Meghalaya to interface with farmers and villagers.
They have been mobilising communities and recording stories from farmers to learn from them about the huge biodiversity in food plants in Meghalaya and the North East.
The Government will also be training some young local chefs in preparation for this event. “The Slow Food Movement promoted by the ITM is not just about slow cooking methods as opposed to fast food,” Phrang Roy said adding, it is more about conserving our biodiversity since there is more to food that needs to be understood than just cooking and eating it.
The entire concept of food has gained momentum after indigenous peoples across the world have started understanding the wealth of biodiversity in their own backyards and in using that as a basis for promoting healthy eating habits.
In Meghalaya millets is sought to be revived as a food crop.
Honest livelihoods
There are many like this elderly lady who work to keep body and soul together despite their age. She sell oranges cut into pieces and kept in little polythene pouches.
She also sells Sohphlang (a sort of root that is also known to be an anti-helmenthic or anti-worm) during season and other seasonal fruits as well. She would not be earning more than fifty rupees a day because her only trade centre for peddling what she does is near the Mawlai petrol pump along the Shillong-Guwahati highway. But this is honesty to the core. Such people need social venture capital of a few hundred rupees so they can do something more viable. But will the banks ever consider them bankable? And where are the micro-finance institutions. Meghalaya is known for its high numbers of female-headed households where women still pursue honest work to keep the home fires burning. But there are no government statistics on these women-headed households even though they are the ones that are more in need of government help and hand-holding.