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DILI: When Filipe da Costa started learning about the health of his nation, he was confused.
By most measures, Timor-Leste was falling into the “red zone”, be it in terms of childhood stunting, malnutrition or brain cognition. And it was all related to the food people ate.
“I was thinking, in the past, this problem was probably not that severe. Something was different in our diets. The way our grandmothers prepared food is very different than it is today, ”said the Prime Minister’s Food Safety and Nutrition Advisor.
A visit to any food-starved rural village common in Timor Leste reveals a major change in diet. Food and cooking methods that have sustained the local population for generations are being lost.
“I remember in the past we had wild beans, wild papaya, tamarind, and mangoes. But now those wild foods are hard to find. Perhaps the environment has changed, ”said Abio Coreia, a subsistence farmer on the remote island of Atauro.
Three-quarters of the Timorese population are food insecure. (Photo: Jack Board)
“In the past, corn and beans were foods that we ate every day. Now we have rice. It’s easy to buy on the market, ”he said.
As the small island nation embraces a rapidly changing climate, its ability to feed itself is becoming more strained.
Long dry seasons and inconsistent rains, combined with behavioral changes that devalue traditional food knowledge, mean this young country is starving.
But a movement is growing, among small restaurants, food labs, micro-distilleries and artisan producers, to elevate Timorese cuisine and native ingredients. It has a small footprint for now, but the goal is ambitious.
A 2018 IPC report by national and government partners found that only a quarter of the country’s population is food secure.
It showed that 36% were chronically food insecure, defined by a long-term inability to meet food consumption needs. Some 175,000 people suffered from a severe level of food insecurity.
Climate change is making it difficult to grow food crops. (Photo: Jack Board)
The driving forces behind hunger in the nation vary by province. But, in general, the locals do not access or consume the right types of food. Nutrition is poor and is attributed to a growing reliance on low-quality imported foods, such as subsidized white rice and especially instant noodles.
Old knowledge is being discarded for the frills of a modernized society, where a bowl of instant noodles at the family table is more precious than the native wild foods or forages that Timorese have depended on for generations.
“We have a lot of food out there, but we have left it behind. People say they have no rice to eat or corn to boil. Food insecurity is a way of thinking and there is a lot of food left out there, ”da Costa said.
The result is worrying levels of malnutrition, anemia, and impacts on brain development among young children. The levels of hypertension, heart disease and obesity are on the rise.
READ: Comment – Reborn from the ashes of independence, Timor-Leste rebuilds 20 years later
Children can be at risk for developmental problems related to poor diets. (Photo: Jack Board)
At the same time, the natural resistance to a warming world is declining.
Climate change is putting more pressure on subsistence food producers. In Timor-Leste, rainfall in 2019 was the lowest in a decade. By the end of the century, experts in the country have predicted a 3-degree rise in temperature, which would have devastating effects on the country’s agricultural capacity and the magnitude of natural disasters, including droughts and floods.
In parched villages, habitually planted crops are struggling for conditions. At the same time, indigenous food is becoming more difficult to access and grow. It is fueling dependence on products purchased from markets.
Wild foods such as leaves, yams, and mushrooms traditionally kept Timor-Leste nourished through years of conflict and occupation.
Much of this food that can be gathered and the ways it can be cooked is endemic. For example, on the island of Atauro, locals obtain natural salt by using sea rocks to flavor soups, and other communities use generational knowledge to remove toxins from beans by boiling them for 12 days.
Food innovators want to share their knowledge with undernourished communities. (Photo: Jack Board)
“People grew up on these foods in the past. They would use these foods a lot. Now we have a lot of imported products, so it is difficult for the young generation. But we have to do something, ”said Julio da Cunha, a young food innovator from Manatuto.
KEY FOOD INNOVATION AND RESEARCH FOR THE FUTURE
At the social enterprise, Agora Food Studio, innovation-driven food experimentation seeks to empower young Timorese like da Cunha to look back, collaborate, and harness the power of what nature has provided to this land.
The team is made up of young chefs from around the country, diversity by design. “We work here, but we go to the mountains and experiment. And we understand that our food has value, “said da Cunha.
Food collected in Timor-Leste can help vulnerable communities become more resilient to the challenges of climate change. (Photo: Jack Board)
“Innovation is very important, to do something new. We can no longer just boil a sweet potato in a pot. ”
The 23-year-old is working on a project to make and package noodles, dubbed Mie Marungi, made from pumpkin, moringa and sweet potato as a viable and healthy replacement for the ubiquitous instant variety and MSG seasoning sachets.
It is an example of how Agora encourages its staff to develop creative techniques that capitalize on techniques that have helped Timorian communities survive in remote and harsh environments.
“It is that knowledge and skill that we are learning that is important for the future. Dependence on processed foods is changing diets, taste preferences and health and leading to more vulnerable populations, ”said Alva Lim, co-founder and director of food research and innovation at Agora.
“So sharing the knowledge developed over generations before it is lost is our team’s mission.”
Young food innovator Cesaltina from Araujo Tilman with a native food creation at Agora Food Studio. (Photo: Jack Board)
READ: Comment: COVID-19 affects the choice and price of food available to us
MAKE A NEW VALUE TO TRADITIONAL FOODS
The project is also trying to make Timorese food a source of pride at any table, in any town.
Da Costa, an adviser to the prime minister, has been examining Timor-Leste’s food problems for years. He said that while visiting hundreds of towns across the country, he found that many people have been ashamed of their own typical food.
“There are options that we no longer use because people believe that this type of food is for the poor. It is not pleasant to present at the table when there are guests, or it is not wise to give it to your children, or there is a stigma about the food or it takes time to prepare it in a certain way, ”he said.
Now chef Arnaldo de Araujo Gomes uses ingredients native to his house, Atauro. (Photo: Jack Board)
“Can we make that food value again? People need to go back to their original ways of life. We want the foods that people have hidden to appear on the table again, bringing innovation to make it look rich, nutritious and valuable. “
Given the country’s political instability over the past three years, the government’s progress in reaching more communities, more often, has been derailed.
Da Costa admits that financial resources, tools and facilities, and nutrition experts are currently lacking in Timor-Leste to sufficiently address the problem.
“We are going back a lot instead of moving forward. But I think the enthusiasm is still there, ”he said.
Malnutrition is common among rural communities in Timor-Leste. (Photo: Jack Board)
Meanwhile, private company in the capital Dili is slowly beginning to explore the possibilities of a forage food movement, both for its flavor benefits and as a means to increase resilience among vulnerable food-producing communities.
Restaurateur Cesar Trinito Gaio operates Dilicious, which aims to serve only locally sourced food and offers gastronomy classes with native ingredients.
He dreams of operating a traveling food truck to educate people across the country about the benefits and taste of local food, and he hopes to further explore the possibilities of farm-to-table food and farm tourism.
At Distillery Lokal, Gobie Rajalingam “explores Timor-Leste’s drinking biodiversity” through a boutique range of root-based soft drinks, wild ferments, raw mead and traditional botanicals and bark-based vermouths with ingredients sourced directly from the producers. , whenever possible.
The local food movement is helping small producers with income and encouragement to use the land. (Photo: Jack Board)
“By thinking about where we spend our money, whether as a distillery, restaurant, cafeteria or as a consumer, we make a decision about the type of food system we want to support,” he said.
“We also make a decision on whether or not we value native ingredients and whether we are happy with the loss of food traditions, culture and identity that can follow if we do not ensure the resilience of food and community systems.”
It is becoming increasingly understood that time to act is limited.
Abio Coreia says that native foods like wild leaves used to be more important in local diets. (Photo: Jack Board)
“Now we are in an intergenerational period: the people who used to gather wild food are still alive and we also have the new generation that never did. So we need to have this bridge connected, ”da Costa said.
“Climate change can only be mitigated if we arm people with knowledge, value their knowledge and appreciate their food.”
