Pampas Grande's Food Revolution Could Present Challenges

Jamie Oliver, a Food Network chef and vocal advocate for fresh, nutritional food, is dedicated to educating people on how food affects health, happiness, and finances. His Food Revolution project, created in response to the obesity epidemic throughout the United States, places life-saving power on cooking good, fresh, non-processed foods. In 2010, Jamie Oliver was given the TED Prize for his ideas about the significance of cooking skills in the effort to create a healthier nation. (You can find Jamie Oliver's TED talk here.) According to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution website,

“The [obesity] problem stems from the loss of cooking skills at home and the availability of processed foods at every turn, from the school cafeteria to church function halls, factories and offices. This Food Revolution is about saving lives by inspiring everyone: moms, dads, kids, teens and cafeteria workers to get back to basics and start cooking good food from scratch.”

Pampas Grande, Peru is a community that does not have a high prevalence of obesity or processed foods, but could most likely benefit from a food revolution of their own. In Pampas Grande, and in many rural Peruvian communities, food is obtained from subsistence agriculture. The climate and soil conditions in the Andes Mountain region, however, are not suited for the sustained growth of highly nutritious fruits and vegetables. Instead, high-starch and carbohydrate crops like potatoes, which can grow through the temperature changes and low moisture conditions, make up a large portion of Pampas Grande villagers’ diets. In general, meals in Pampas Grande (and in other similar communities in Peru) often consist of a potato, a meat (chicken, beef, pork, rabbit, or cuy…if you’re lucky), and a carbohydrate (such as rice, noodles, or bread). Most of the people in the community receive only a fraction of the USDA’s recommended nutrient intake during mealtimes.

Chicken noodle soup prepared for us in Pampas Grande. They have this stuff down to a science.



Along with Pan Peru, the Richmond Global Health Alliance is looking to combat the lack of available nutritious foods in Pampas Grande through building community greenhouses. The hope is to make more fruits and vegetables available to the people in the community so that they can cook with them throughout all seasons of the year. In accordance to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, making good, nutritious food available can help people lead healthier lives. Jamie Oliver adds to this goal by empowering people to learn how to cook delicious meals with these foods—not just making healthy foods available, but teaching people how to cook them.

In Pampas Grande, implementing a cooking skills program to the greenhouse project could bring up some ethical and cultural challenges. When Jamie Oliver visits communities in the United States and teaches people how to cook, he is arguably teaching people how to put a healthy twist on the foods they already eat (even though he is technically a foreigner). For instance, instead of eating heated up, frozen, processed pizza, he might encourage someone to bake their own pizza, using natural crust, tomato sauce, and lots of veggies. Or, instead of a milkshake ordered from the fast food window, he might suggest a homemade fruit smoothie.

For us, though, teaching others how to cook with different ingredients might be a little bit more challenging. The people in Pampas Grande and similar communities have been eating these foods and dishes for generations and have strong cultural ties to them. When we visit Pampas Grande, all meals are prepared for us by women in the community. They use a tremendous amount of their resources making traditional Peruvian dishes for us, for which we are so grateful. They are proud of their food, and should be, since it tastes delicious and reflects a part of their daily lives. How could we, then, enter this community kitchen and say, “here, try cooking like this,” or “try adding this ingredient to your dish”?

It’s a difficult predicament to be in. We most definitely want people in the community to place healthy, nutritious foods into their diets for their health and wellbeing (which undoubtedly involves changes in or additions to recipes). However, we would never want to show them disrespect by conveying a message that a cultural staple in their lives (of which they are experts) isn’t good enough. It is possible to help people in Pampas Grande have more nutritious lives, but as we implement our greenhouse program, we must be aware of the cultural ties that are linked to food preparation and mealtimes and that we are but guests in the community.

Do you agree that efforts to promote nutrition could bring up some of these issues? What are your ideas for helping people have healthier diets in Pampas Grande? How is Pampas Grande similar and different to communities in which Jamie Oliver has worked with his Food Revolution, such as Huntington, WV? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to post and leave links to other sources about this topic.

Here's a picture of a dish we were served at lunch in Pampas Grande. Cuy with rice, alongside chicken noodle soup. Very tasty!



Jamie Oliver's Website: http://www.jamieoliver.com/
Jamie Oliver's TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/home
USDA's My Plate: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/