Report of Growing Diversity- Conference in Thailand October 2001
In the end of October 2001, I went to Thailand with
Masami Sakaban, who is a farmer and seed saver in Japan. Our purpose
of going to Thailand was to attend an international conference called
"The Growing Diversity Project, Asian Region." The objectives
of the conference are to maintain and increase biodiversity and
overcome international threats to food security; people and groups
from around the world working on practical projects to address these
problems get together and share our knowledge. At this conference,
I had the opportunity to give a presentation on our "Life Seed
Campaign" to preserve traditional variety, and gave examples
of the development of millet and grain recipes.
I met many participants from Thailand, the Philippines,
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan and Australia. Angela,
a chief international coordinator of the regional meeting series,
came from Brazil.
My presentation was on the third day. Shinpei Murakami
(a Japanese teacher of organic farming in Thailand) offered to translate
my presentation. Thanks to his help, I could understand what was
talked in the meeting. The first message I said to the audiences
was:
"This presentation will be on 'biodiversity
in the kitchen.' Diversification of crops becomes more possible
when we diversify our way of eating in our kitchen. The Life Seed
Campaign is one of our activities to bring back the millets and
grains that we Japanese have been eating since ancient time to farm.
It also involves research and promoting all ways to make those traditional
crops delicious and practical for our kitchen table."
I felt my message resonate with many in the audience.
After showing slides of millets and grains, along with their recipes,
I explained that all the recipes are made with combinations of traditional
ingredients.
At the conference I also had an opportunity to meet
many interesting people and groups. One of them was Banaja . She
is a director of the Green Foundation (http://www.greenconserve.com/index.htm),
based on Bangalore, southern India, and is working with farmers
to conserve the traditional variety of millets in the Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu states. I am excited about what we can do together
in the future.
The Growing Diversity Project (GDP) conference consists
of a series of five regional conferences. The same type of event
I attended were held almost simultaneously in the South and Central
America region, North Africa, East Asia, and West and South Africa.
In May 2002 the final conference will be held in Brazil. Representative
from those five regions plan to get together in Brazil and hold
a massive conference with multiple workshops. At that conference,
I would like to not only give a presentation but also organize a
gourmet party with millets and grains, making millet and grain fans
from the world over.
