Where have the fancied, unpronounceable foods that we take pride in consuming gone?
By Dartlungshang khaling
Not having much choice, we end up consuming the local farm products! Where have the American pears gone? Where have the frozen sausages, chicken nuggets etc., gone?
The nationwide lockdown imposed to control the further spike in spreading the coronavirus in March 2020 had threatened people from all walks of life around the world. Among those who had suffered the most include the farmers. Covid-19 has posed a huge challenge to their effort to earn a living impacting their normal livelihood.
Every year, farmers face huge risks including delayed monsoon and scanty rainfall, price volatility and rising debts. But the risk induced by the Covid-19 pandemic is has become a greater challenge to the farmers already troubled by other economic woes.
The recent sudden impositions of lockdowns or curfews came in an unfortunate timing for the farmers as it was the season for sowing, transplanting and harvesting crops. Like the rest of India, farmers in Manipur too have been severely affected by the pandemic! The lockdown has led to much chaos in cultivation and created a shortage of equipment and labour especially in far-flung rural areas of the hills and the valley.
With the restrictions of public transport, the supply chain was hugely affected; prices of fruits and vegetables fell in some places due to abundant supply and sky-rocketed in some areas due to shortage.
Somikumar Moirangthem, a farmer from Heirok says, “All our hard labour did not pay off this time due to the pandemic. We got only about 30% return from our two-acre farmland”. There are many more farmers like Somikumar across the state.
In these challenging times, when public transport and markets have not seen normal functioning, Meira Group proprietor MS Shubra Devi says, “Me and my team utilize our existing infrastructure and network to procure farm products directly from the farmers and introduce supply chain intervention for those who could not make it to the point of sales”.
In spite of the hardship faced by the farmers, our plates always have food on them. We are indebted to our local farmers for their hard work and dedication to feed the general public.
It is time we re-think on what we eat, from where we eat, where our contributions lie? We should start buying with responsibility and understand the benefits of consuming local foods. This doesn’t, however, automatically mean that local food is necessarily more nutritious, as other factors like crop variety, how it’s grown, and ripeness at harvest, storage, processing and packaging come into play.
“Vitamin and mineral content depends on the practice of people all along the line, from the seed to the table”, says, a study conducted at Harvard Medical School. “Local food is fresher, healthier and tastes better since it spends less time in transit from farm to plate, and therefore, loses fewer nutrients and incurs less spoilage. We should focus on eating local, seasonal and traditional”, says Nutritionist Rujuka Dewekar.
Have you been eating American pears? How about savouring that freshly plucked local pear (naspati)? Local fruits and food definitely didn’t make it to the top list but it doesn’t make it any less nutritious. Had there been a nutrition book on Manipuri food, many of our local products could have made it to the top of the list. We should stick to seasonal local items rather than run around ordering something which isn’t easily accessible to us. Eating local means eating rice not quinoa or brown rice, eating seasonal means eating figs during the rainy season and mangoes during summer or eating guava in winters; eating traditional means following the wisdom of older generations in totality. Eating raw garlic rather than looking for garlic supplements is another example of eating traditionally. We need to take pride in our culture and cuisine.
Eating unpronounceable food doesn’t make you more educated but the wisdom of understanding how God provides seasonal fruits and vegetables that suit our geographical and climatic condition that will benefit all of us! The food industries successfully persuaded us to eat cornflakes with milk instead of our traditional corn and starch (chabon or chak mahi). In the olden days, people drink chabon or chak mahi instead of milk, hot water with jaggery instead of black tea. However, today’s generation is busy adapting other countries’ food culture and have already abandoned our rich traditional food cuisine.
Have you abandoned local rice for the sake of carbohydrates and weight loss? Think about it? Rice for sure is loaded with carbohydrates but it also contains minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients and amino acids which are the building block of protein. It will be apt to say that our body has adapted and adjusted well with rice. The right amount, timing, and eating what has been introduced to us since childhood is the key to healthy leaving, which means we should continue consuming local food products and not forcing something which our body can’t tolerate.
Many Researches favour the presence of polyphenols resveratrol in red wine to keep the heart healthy. We should rather look for a local product that contains the same component which we can afford and are easily available.
In a 2010 study review by Dr Neena Olsen that identified 100 foods richest in polyphenols in spices, berries, and non-berry fruits, cloves came on top in spices category with 15,188mg per 100 gm. Other fruits like plum, black current, strawberries also contain a high amount of polyphenols. These fruits are available in plenty in Manipur too.
Eating local will also encourage sustainable agriculture and it will benefit the local economy including supporting local farmers and other producers. Therefore, we can at least return the favour to our farmer to whom we are indebted by going local as we feed our stomach for living even when your table is full of options to choose during and in the post-pandemic period.
(The writer is a fitness enthusiast and a final year student of MA Mass Communication, Manipur University)