In a globalised world, what happens anywhere, happens everywhere.
Trade facilitates economic forces to carry outward like ripples in a pond. Global warming, climate change, even war, affects us no matter how far removed or insulated we like to believe we are. The war in Syria, for instance, has a culinary casualty that affects every person who is interested in, and loves, food: the beloved heirloom chilli, the Aleppo Pepper, is becoming harder to find in spice stores as wholesalers can no longer buy it; they are noticeably disappearing from restaurants and kitchen shelves.
But in the wake of so much death and destruction, isn’t the loss of a spice negligible? The Syrians, for whom tradition and cuisine are a source of pride, would argue that the Aleppo Pepper isn’t just a flavour, it is a piece of their history.
Closer home, when large tracts of land are cleared, species of orchid, fern, wild greens and berries are lost. Wild foods (as opposed to cultivated foods) are the source of concentrated nutrients (or micro-nutrients) that can be key in times when establishing food security is critical. When wild foods disappear, we also lose the knowledge of these foods that have been gathered over generations, one that connects a people with their land....