And from biodiversity to diversity of dietary options, the Institute for Social and Cultural Research is holding a 3 day workshop with a goal to engage more than 150 community volunteers in building a national inventory of food traditions in Belize. The trainees will learn about UNESCO's 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage as it relates to that which many of us enjoy the most: Belizean foods from tamales to hudut to cohune cabbage. Here is what we learned on day 1 of the workshop in Belmopan.
Rolando Cocom
"Today is the start of the Belize food heritage workshop and we are starting with a national workshop involving the various houses of culture coordinators from across the country as well as a community representative from their communities. And the reason for this workshop is really part of a larger initiative that e have which is sponsored by UNESCO which is that we are seeking to document as many of our food traditions from across the country because we know that we are very diverse but many times we are not very familiar with what another culture or another community is doing when it comes to food and we believe that it is an important bridge for us to build this understanding with each other but also because it is beneficial when we think about the challenges that lie ahead or what we encounter when it comes to droughts and fires and so on we believe that certain traditional crops or certain traditional foods might be more resistant to some of these challenges when it comes to the climate. And so that is also part of the process that we are undertaking over the next three days."
Dr Lyra Spang, Culinary Anthropologist
"We travelled around when we were doing my book launch in 2019 spo he knows my passion and my career is focused on the different cuisines of Belize and our culinary heritage and the preservation and promotion of that so when they started this wonderful project with UNESCO he reached out to me about it and then when they were getting ready to launch the workshop the invited me to come and do some opening remarks which i am really honored and excited to be here."
"I think that something that is really important for all of us in Belize to recognize is the value of our culinary heritage. We are a diverse country. We have many different cultures, different cuisines and different ecosystems that influence those cultures and cuisines, and there is a lot of value there. If we preserve and promote our culinary heritage that has implications for growing the economy in the area of tourism and in agriculture, and to create stronger linkages between agriculture, tourism, and fisheries and also promote a more diverse diet which is more healthy there are a lot of different areas that this touches on because food is fundamental."
