BERRIRO
BROKOLIRA
Josephine Vase Overgaard, 11. november 2020
It may seem strange to claim that we should talk more about our food. Food is the focal point of endless streaks of television programs. During friend’s dinner we talk about new recipes while eating the old ones. You can even go to fermentation at evening school.
Yet our food calls for far more attention than it gets if you look at it in the bigger picture. As a matter of fact, the way we humans provide food today simply doesn't last long. Firstly, we managed to create a food system that overproduces food without everyone getting enough to eat. But even more fundamentally, our methods to obtain food are simply unsustainable and impossible scale up in a future, with a human population ever growing. Put in other words, when the population escalates, and more people eventually can afford to ‘eat better’, we cannot continue to eat the way we do right now.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
AGRICULTURE
You may have heard this before, but todays agriculture, the cultivation of food and goods through farming, is one of the main reasons behind climate changes and the loss of biodiversity. Let’s have a look at some of the hard facts.
CO2 and FRESH WATER
Industrial agriculture is now so big, that its greenhouse gas emission is the same as all cars, trains, ships, busses and planets combined. It’s a carbon bomb ticking louder and louder. Furthermore, a quarter of the world’s population lives in countries where the pressure on freshwater resources is described as extreme, and the main reason is, again, agriculture. Today, food production accounts for more than two-thirds of all the fresh water, we use.
DEFORESTATION
Agricultural productions accounts for 80% of all deforestation across the globe – the land we all need to suck greenhouse gases out of the air. Cutting trees both adds CO2 to the air and removes the ability to absorb the existing.
Especially rainforests are disappearing in an alarming rate. Troublingly, we are losing nearly 4,500 acres of rainforest every hour, and now 17% of the Amazonian rainforest has already been destroyed.
But we’re not just talking about forest. Grasslands, wetlands and other ecosystems are also quickly being turned into massive fields and industrial farms.
THE BASQUE CULINARY CENTER
In the Basque Country a lot of initiatives and actions are taken to tackle pressing challenges concerning the food industry. The Basque Culinary Center (BBC), a “pioneering academic institution worldwide” created by eight of the top Basque chefs along with Mondragon University, are one of the leading figures. They are creating the big changes within the Basque Country and worldwide, and what they do best is research and innovation.
As Joxe Mari Aizega, Director General of the Basque Culinary Center points out,
“ We must rethink gastronomy in a sustainable way, and use it as another tool to combat climate change, improve people’s health and social awareness, and transform gastronomy processes and practices to reduce their environmental impacts. As far is the BBC is concerned, it is essential to promote sustainable eating habits that affect the entire current value chain. We understand sustainable development as an opportunity for creativity and innovation. ”
This year BCC launched a Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development in 2020, which consists of 82 actions and measures that will be implemented over the next four years. The center of Research and Innovation, called BccInnovation, plays a key role in this Strategic Plan. They contribute with research and generate knowledge applied to gastronomy and all those involved in the food value chain and the society as a whole.
We have chosen two interesting and very specific actions, you should know about right now:
#PROEJCT 1
GASTRO MICRO
How can we by-product upcycle? Especially by-products generated in the catering industry, like fruits and vegetables? This is the main focus in this project. BccInnovation tries to look at by-products in a different light. Instead of looking at it as garbage, which is the most normal, they think it's important to consider by-products as “new ingredients”. And more specific, "new ingrediens" that can be used to develop innovative and high added value products.
If you don’t know what a by-product is, it is the secondary product derived from a production process, and today byproducts and food waste have a big impact on the environmental sector. Therefore, it is important to identifying the by-products with high gastronomic potential and start using the them.
So if we and all the restaurants will make some specific sustainable actions, a way to do it is to identify, gain knowledge and develop products from by-products. At least if you ask BccInnovation - and hopefully they will soon have som exiting indsigts and news within this field.
#PROEJCT 2
GASTROVALOCAL
Is it important to rethink the value of traditional and rarely used vegetable species? If you ask BccInnovation, the answer is yes. In this project they are studying a variety of agricultural products that have an important cultural background in the Basque Country, but is rarely used for cooking nowadays.
The reason why, is because it’s important to revalue the traditional species within the country, that originally favors biodiversity and contribute to avoid genetic erosion. More biodiversity means more fresh air, fresh water and healthy soil.
So if vi will fight climate changes, one specifik way of doing this is to implement more traditional species in our food, that can help the biodiversity. At least if you ask BccInnovation - and let's see what interesting and sustainable agricultural products they will soon present for us here in the Basque Country!
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