As a food scientist, I am interested in the production of our food and I have already got to know some food and food production companies "from the inside".
In Germany, there are two terms for what we eat that are often used interchangeably. "Lebensmittel" and "Nahrungsmittel".
I would like to briefly explain the differences: Lebensmittel are products of natural origin or only mechanically modified or fermented products.1) Nahrungsmittel, on the other hand, is made from food and is therefore a processed product that has been heated, preserved or prepared.2) (Note: At traditura, we mean Lebensmittel when we talk about our research into traditional food production methods.)
Today, the industrial production of our food is mostly carried out using efficient, computer-controlled machines. In addition, a safe, climatically optimal and hygienically perfect environment is created in the factories to enable effective production at many locations. The production of frozen food, for example, would otherwise only be feasible in a few regions of the world.
But this is precisely what we find exciting in our research into traditional methods of food production: the old, tried and tested knowledge must always take regional characteristics into account. Our mothers and grandfathers learnt from their ancestors how best to master the various climatic challenges of the changing seasons so as not to jeopardise the next harvest. Whether there was a lot or little rain, a pest was spreading or the first tubers were sickly underground, farmers needed a traditional, tried and tested method for each scenario so that they would not end up without food. Their lives depended on being successful. Societies that secured their food even more originally through gathering, hunting or fishing were also dependent on their success.
If you study the topic of how people have produced their food over the last 10,000 years or so, i.e. since they became sedentary, there are many answers - for example, derived from historical artefacts or written records. People gathered nuts and berries, invented this or that tool to hunt and cut up their animals, set traps, grew crops and harvested them. But how exactly did they do this? Why exactly there? How did they recognise that it was worth fishing in this particular body of water? To collect mushrooms in this forest?
This knowledge and the ability to apply it successfully, for example in climatically challenging regions, is increasingly disappearing in today's society.
However, we at traditura believe that this ancient knowledge, passed down from generation to generation, is still being practised somewhere in the world today. It is precisely these people that we would like to find and document their old, tried and tested knowledge in detail in order to preserve it. It is understandable that this wealth of experience could not be shared with too many other people so that the food source would not be exploited and the group would end up without it. The lives of their own families depended or still depend on it. People have always had to think and work sustainably in order to be able to survive in the long term. If they did not succeed, they had to move on and start all over again, namely with the search for new, productive sources of food.
We define traditional methods of food production as tried and tested knowledge for the sustainable production of food, which at best has been passed down for centuries through lived practice or orally. This knowledge has already undergone an evolutionary process, but is still original and takes regional and climatic characteristics into account.
How does the camel-herding Bedouin in the Sahara recognise that he can find water in the desert at precisely this spot? How does he obtain it to quench his thirst and that of his animals? How does he know when the spring dries up and it is better to move on from the summer to the winter grazing areas?
What traditional hunting methods do the indigenous peoples of Arctic Greenland still use today? How exactly do they go about it?
Much is already well documented. Whether in local museums, which document traditional food production and nutrition through historical finds, or in the form of numerous books, photos and films. Interesting documentation and reports are also readily available on the internet. However, what is missing is a comprehensive, documentary source that provides traditional knowledge about food production under climatically challenging conditions, with information that can still be applied in practice today.
This is exactly where we at traditura come in and use our own photos, films, podcasts and a database to compile precisely this detailed knowledge in a structured way.
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In the next blog post, you will find out why we are focussing on climate zones and therefore taking a transnational approach to this task.
1) Lebensmittel: Examples of foods of natural origin are fresh vegetables, cereals, nuts, eggs or spring water. Mechanically modified foods are produced by pressing, cutting, grinding, etc., e.g. fruit juice, raw meat, ground nuts, raw milk products such as cream. Foods are fermented using yeasts, bacteria or their own enzymes. Sauerkraut or fermented milk products (e.g. cheese, yoghurt) and wine are examples of this.
2) Nahrungsmittel: Examples of heated foods are boiled potatoes, wholemeal pastries or fried steak. Products such as UHT milk and all types of tinned food are examples of preserved foods. Factory sugar and products made from it or with it, processed flour and products made from it (such as white bread or pasta), margarine and cola are just a few examples of other prepared foods.